Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

US: Huntsman’s first quarter net income was US$708m in 2020, up by 440% year-on-year from US$131m in 2019. It made sales worth US$1.59bn over the period, down by 4.6% year-on-year from US$1.67bn in the corresponding period of 2019. Polyurethane (PU) insulation sales decreased slightly due to ‘decreased demand across most major markets, partially offset by modest growth in polyisocyanurate (PIR) insulation sales volumes.

Huntsman chair, president and CEO Peter Huntsman said, “We have been well-prepared for this global economic crisis. Our balance sheet is stronger than ever before, with significant cash and robust liquidity. Having learned from prior crises, we pre-emptively reduced unnecessary inventories and are reducing capital spending this year by 30%, or approximately $90m, by delaying discretionary spending.”

US: Huntsman has reorganised its spray polyurethanes foam (SPF) insulation business, combining subsidiaries Demilec and Icyene-Lapolla under a new leadership team. The company has named as divisional presidents Simon Baker, who will oversee operations in Canada and fast-growing global markets, and Doug Kramer, who will be responsible for the United States. Huntsman polyurethanes president Tony Hankins said, “To bring the two businesses together as one enables Huntsman to provide an unmatched offering of open- and closed-cell insulation products and accelerates the globalisation of our SPF platform.”

US: Huntsman has acquired the spray polyurethane foam (SPF) insulation producer Icynene-Lapolla from an affiliate of FFL Partners for US$350m. Icynene-Lapolla operates production facilities in Houston, US, and Mississuaga, Canada and made sales in excess of US$200m in 2019. Huntsman chairman, president and CEO Peter Huntsman said, “This combination of companies will provide Huntsman with the largest global array of spray foam technology, integration of raw materials and associates, improving energy efficiency.”

China/Japan: Researchers from Kyoto University, the University of Tokyo in Japan and Jiangsu Normal University in China have developed a new material that can selectively capture carbon dioxide (CO₂) molecules and convert them into ‘useful’ organic materials, including a precursor for polyurethane. The research project has been described in the journal Nature Communications.

The material is a porous coordination polymer (PCP, also known as a metal-organic framework), a framework consisting of zinc metal ions. The researchers tested their material using X-ray structural analysis and found that it can selectively capture only CO₂ molecules with ten times more efficiency than other PCPs. The material has an organic component with a propeller-like molecular structure, and as CO₂ molecules approach the structure, they rotate and rearrange to permit CO₂ trapping, resulting in slight changes to the molecular channels within the PCP. This allows it to act as molecular sieve that can recognise molecules by size and shape. The PCP is also recyclable; the efficiency of the catalyst did not decrease even after 10 reaction cycles.

After capturing the carbon, the converted material can be used to make polyurethane, a material with a wide variety of applications including insulation materials.

North America: Sales of thermoplatic polyurethane (TPU) has increased year-on-on year in the six months to 30 June 2019 by 4.0%. The proportion of domestically produced TPU exported fell by 38.3%.

Data from the American Chemistry Council and Vault Consulting indicate American demand responding well to TPU’s tensile strength and grease resitance, even as polyurethanes lose out to substitutes in the Asian and European insulation sectors.

China/Germany: German companies Evonik and ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions have granted a licence to Zibo Qixiang Tengda Chemical for the use of its hydrogen peroxide to propylene oxide (HPPO) technology in China. Qixiang Tengda Chemical will build a propylene oxide plant in Shandong province and Evonik has licensed the production of hydrogen peroxide for the exclusive supply of the plant. Evonik and ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions have also entered into a long-term agreement for the supply of the respective HPPO catalyst. Propylene oxide is used mainly for the production of polyurethane foams, including those used in insulation for buildings.

“We’re proud of having gained Qixiang as a new strategic partner. With environmental awareness on the rise in China, HPPO is the technology of choice for sustainable production of propylene oxide because it produces no major by-products apart from water,” said Claus Rettig, the chairman of the board of Evonik’s Resource Efficiency division.

Planning work for the new Qixiang Tengda plant is scheduled to start in mid-August 2019 with commissioning expected for the first half of 2022. Qixiang Tengda, a chemical manufacturer, is part of Cedar Holdings Group.

US: Mohawk Industries says that its insulation business is performing ‘well’ as its polyurethane product takes share from other product types. The flooring manufacturer’s net sales grew slightly to US$4.99bn in the first half of 2019.

Ukraine: The Interagency Commission on Foreign Trade will introduce tariffs to all imports of flexible porous polyurethane foam. The duty on these goods will be 11.22% when the decision takes force, 10.66% after 12 months, and 10.13% after 24 months, according to Interfax. The latest tariffs follow imports on other building materials that are mainly targeted at Russia.

Germany: Covestro has signed an agreement with HIG Capital, a private equity company, for the sale of its European Systems Houses business. HIG Capital aims to position the business towards mid-sized customers. Covestro will retain its polyurethane markets in Asia where it will continue to serve its customers. The sale is part of Covestro’s ongoing portfolio optimization process that includes the sale of Covestro’s North American spray polyurethane foam systems home business in 2017.

The systems houses businesses are part of the Covestro’s Polyurethanes segment and sell tailor-made polyurethanes systems. The European Systems Houses business comprises facilities in the Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, Germany and further businesses in Italy. Operations will continue at the current facilities while Covestro will continue to have strong ties with the systems houses business as a key polyurethanes supplier.

The closing of the transaction is expected for the second half of 2019 after the required antitrust clearance. No value for the sale has been disclosed.

China: A study by researchers from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and Britain's University of Bristol says that the provinces of Shandong and Hebei are the source of a rise in trichlorofluoromethane (CFC-11) emissions. It attributed about 40% to 60%of in the rise in CFC-11 since 2013 to this region, according to Reuters. After studying atmospheric data from South Korea and Japan they estimated that CFC-11 emissions from eastern China during the 2014 - 2017 period were around 7000t/hr higher than 2008 - 2012.

Previously in mid-2018 an investigation by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) speculated that the widespread use of CFC-11 by Chinese rigid polyurethane (PU) foam producers might be the source of the reported rise of emissions.

China launched an inspection campaign into 3000 foam manufacturers in 2018 and promised to punish any violations of the Montreal Protocol treaty. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment said in March 2019 that it had shut down two manufacturing areas that produced CFC-11. It added that its investigation into PU foam makers had not found any large-scale usage so far but that producers may be getting better at hiding their operations. It also noted that there was ‘uncertainty’ in published research and called for better detection mechanisms.