Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

France: Saint-Gobain says it has been preparing continuity plans for its gas-consuming insulation plants in Europe to ensure the flexibility of production to operate using less energy or that from alternative sources. Over half of its 25 insulation plants in Europe have an electricity-powered furnace and additional investments are being undertaken to use alternative power sources. The group noted that raw materials, freight and energy costs were growing, especially in Europe. It said that it had hedged around 80% of its natural gas and electricity purchasing needs for 2022 and around 60% for 2023.

The group’s sales grow by 14.5% on a like-for-like basis to Euro38.4bn in the first nine months of 2022 compared to Euro32.9bn in the same period in 2021. Strong sales growth was reported in all business lines although sales were driven in particular by the group’s High Performance Solutions business and its Asia-Pacific and North America regions.

By business segment the group said that businesses serving global construction customers in its High Performance Solutions division reported record sales. It added that they continued to benefit from strong trends in textile solutions for external thermal insulation systems (ETICS) due to demand for sustainable construction.

Romania: Knauf Insulation will invest Euro135m in expanding its Târnăveni glass wool insulation plant and building a new adjacent plant at the site. Knauf Insulation says that the major expansion will advance the Romanian government's 'energy savings offensive' by supporting a renovation drive for the country’s housing stock. The government aims to increase the national area of modern renovated properties by a factor of six, with a Euro30bn allocation from its Recovery and Resilience Fund.

Germany-based Knauf's managing partner Alexander Knauf said “The commitment demonstrates our trust and confidence in the country and our employees. We look forward to becoming part of the local community. Together, we are setting new standards for building and living in Romania.”

Operations at the original Târnăveni glass wool insulation plant recently recommenced following a Euro4m upgrade by Knauf Insulation, which completed its acquisition of the plant in May 2022. Previous owner Gecsat produced insulation at the site from 2008.

China/US: France-based Arkema has announced progress at two locations towards increasing the production capacity of its blowing agent product Forane 1233ZD. In China the group says its partner Aofan has started operation at a production plant. In the US at Calvert City, Kentucky the group has broken ground on the construction of an upgrade to a production line at its existing plant. The US$60m project is expected to be completed by early 2024. Both units are intended to increase the global availability of the Forane 1233ZD product.

The chemicals company is promoting the use of fluorinated liquid blowing agent due to its sustainability advantages. The product is used primarily in closed celled polyurethane foam for building insulation and cold chain applications. It also has applications for the thermal management of batteries in electric vehicles.

Romania: Knauf Insulation has begun mineral wool production at its recently acquired Tarnaveni plant in central Romania after investing Euro4m in upgrades. The investment covered the initial stages of modernisation at the Gecsat plant production line in Mures County, according to a Knauf press release.

A second stage of refurbishment began in September 2022. Once the entire investment plan is implemented, the Knauf Insulation factory in Tarnaveni will have an annual production capacity of about 60,000t/yr of mineral wool, with the aim of serving both domestic needs, as well as markets in Central and Eastern Europe.

Founded in 1918 in Tarnaveni as Ardeleana Glass Factory, former owner Gecsat started producing glass mineral wool at the site in 2007. Knauf announced that it was acquiring the glass mineral wool plant in January 2022 and became its owner in March 2022.

Germany: Heraklith has announced that its wood wool production plant in Simbach will be comprehensively modernised in 2023, alongside a significant increase in capacity. The focus of the planned investment is the moulding of the press line. Here, dimensionally accurate, single-layer lightweight panels and top layers for wood-wool multi-layer panels are created from wood-wool fibres and a mineral binding agent. The conversion work is currently planned for the second half of 2023. However, the exact schedule depends on the delivery situation of some key components.

“The modernisation of the system will ensure the high quality of our Heraklith products in the long term and also further increase occupational safety for our colleagues,” explained Rico Neumann, Director for Sales, Building Construction and Marketing in Germany. “The investment is a positive signal for the long-term prospects of the Simbach site and the future of our most important wood wool plant.”

Markus Uhl, Sales Manager Germany Heraklith Contract Business and Timber Construction, added “Our customers will benefit both from the additional production capacities and from the reliability of the new systems. We assume that our investment will have a significant impact on the rapid availability of our extremely popular wood wool products for underground car park ceilings and timber construction.”

Kazakhstan: KazFeltec and Italy-based Cormatex plan to build a Euro10m natural wool insulation plant in Aktobe Region. Kazakhstan General Newsline has reported that the plant will use local coarse sheep’s wool, a waste product of which 3500t/yr is generated currently in Aktobe. The plant is scheduled for commissioning in mid-late 2023.

US: Knauf Insulation has appointed Valentin Salazar as the manager of its forthcoming glass wool insulation plant at McGregor in Texas. Other hires include Alex Garcia as Health, Safety & Environmental Manager and JT Tristan as Human Resources Manager. Crossland Construction was previously announced as the general contractors for the project in July 2022. The company expects to open its new unit in early 2024.

New Zealand: Fletcher Building Materials recorded consolidated sales of US$5.37bn during its 2022 financial year, up by 4.7% year-on-year from US$5.13bn in the previous year. Its net earnings also rose by 42%, to US$273m from US$193m.

The group's building materials division contributed US$1.02bn-worth (17%) of group sales. The division made capital expenditure investments of US$129m. During the financial year, its insulation subsidiaries Forman Building Systems and Tasman Insulation merged under its new Comfortech business. Comfortech will commission a new glasswool plant in mid-2023. Fletcher Building Materials says that, when operational, the new unit will help to serve increased ceiling insulation demand arising from changes to the New Zealand Building Code.

Fletcher Building Materials chief executive officer Ross Taylor said "The 2022 financial year has not been without its challenges. Global and national supply chain disruptions have continued into the third year of the Covid-19 pandemic." He added "The New Zealand Commerce Commission recently published its interim market study report into residential building supplies. The final report and recommendations will be published in December 2022 and in the meantime we will continue to work collaboratively with both the commission and the government."

South Korea: KCC Corporation is upgrading its Gimcheon and Munmak glass wool plants. A second production line is being built at the Gimcheon plant in Gyeongbuk and the production capacity of the existing production line is being increased at the Munmak plant in Gangwon-do. The upgrade projects will be completed in October and March 2023 respectively. Once finished the combined projects will increase the company’s total production of glass wool by 80,000t/yr.

KCC says that it is making the investment in inorganic insulation production capacity in response to revisions to local building regulations. It added that the law was changed in 2021 due to several fire-related incidents. The upgrades are also expected to reduce production costs per unit.

US: Huntsman Corporation has started commercial operation of a new US$180m methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) splitter at its Geismar plant in Louisiana. The new splitter will allow the chemical manufacturer to produce more grades of MDI than previously. Company president and chief executive officer Peter Huntsman attended an inaugural event as well as the Jeff Landry, the Attorney General of Louisiana.

“The new splitter reinforces our strategy of delivering value over volume by creating a more differentiated product portfolio,” said Tony Hankins, president of Huntsman’s Polyurethanes division. “It enables us to provide our customers in automotive, furniture, construction, adhesives and coatings markets with more options for innovative, sustainable polyurethanes products.”

Huntsman produces a range of chemicals including polyisocyanurate (PIR) and polyurethane (PUR) building insulation products.