Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Slovenia: Germany's Knauf Insulation, which is switching from coke to natural gas as part of an upgrade at one of its three stone wool production lines, will be the main user of what is to be Messer's first oxygen production plant in Slovenia and one of around 30 in Europe.

"This will be the most technologically-developed line in Europe and will mean a great competitive edge for the company," said Knauf Insulation boss Tomaž Lanišek.

Using natural gas requires oxygen and Lanišek described the investments of Knauf and Messer Slovenija as complementary. He pointed out that CO₂ and sulphur and nitrogen oxides emissions would be halved. "Messer is becoming a partner company in our future plans at our location," said Lanišek.

Messer said that this was its biggest investment in the country to date and was expected to generate 15 to 20 new jobs. The company's CEO Danilo Lukač explained that the plant would produce oxygen, nitrogen and argon.

US: Bayer MaterialScience has appointed Bill Brengel as the general manager for the spray polyurethane foam (SPF) insulation and roofing materials business. In this role, Brengel will lead the sales, customer service, product and application development, and manufacturing groups with a focus on excellence and profitable growth.

Brengel has over 25 years of operations and business leadership experience in industries such as chemicals, plastics and building materials. He also has experience in business strategy and organisational growth and has led various business improvement initiatives. He holds a mechanical engineering degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and a business degree from Coe College. He has served on a variety of boards and industry associations

"Bill has an excellent combination of strategy and process," commented Jerry MacCleary, President of Bayer MaterialScience NAFTA region. "His hands-on work ranges from production, to sales and marketing and overall health of the business. He is extremely goal oriented with a constant focus on quality. With his experience, Bill will be a champion for both our customers and our internal team."

US: Installed Building Products (IBP) has acquired Florida's CQ Insulation. CQ Insulation is primarily an installer of fibreglass and cellulose insulation, with a 12 year operating history serving the Florida market through its two branch locations in Tampa and Orlando. It primarily focuses on new multi-family residential and commercial end markets. CQ Insulation's sales for 2014 were approximately US$6.9m.

"We are excited to announce the addition of CQ Insulation to our company as we continue to expand our national footprint," said Jeff Edwards, chairman and CEO of IBP. "The addition of these two established branch locations deepens our presence in the southeast and provides us with an attractive platform to pursue additional multi-family projects in our markets. As we move forward in 2015, we continue to see excellent acquisition opportunities in our target markets and we are well situated to further execute on our growth strategy."

South Korea: LG Hausys plans to increase sales of its phenolic foam (PF) insulation six-fold by 2018, which it produces from its plant in North Chungcheong Province.

"We will see a change in the construction market in Korea," said Kim Myoung-deuk, head of decorative material department. "Many people prefer remodelling their houses and eco-friendly materials will become more popular." LG Hausys's PF insulation has a thermal conductivity of 0.018W/mK, which is about twice as efficient as polystyrene insulator at 0.034W/mK.

LG Hausys began producing PF insulation in October 2013. It aims to post US$12.6m in sales in 2015, up fromUS$7.21m in 2014. Sales are expected to top US$45m by 2018. It is a challenging goal, considering the stagnating construction industry in the country.

"Until now, around 80% of the insulation market has mostly been polystyrene or polyurethane, but a move to materials with higher insulation performance and better fireproofing has been forecast," said the vice president of LG Hausys. "We will be able to achieve this challenging goal." Researchers have estimated that the market share of the high-performance insulator in the global insulation market will increase from 10% in 2015 to >30% by 2018.

LG Hausys plans to focus its business capacity on developing insulation products for fire doors and sandwich panels and expanding to China. The Chinese government is preparing to enforce an energy-saving policy that tightens the insulation level in buildings, especially in the north. Because of this, it is estimated that the Chinese high-performance insulation market will grow more than 50%/yr. "We expect the high-performance insulator market to grow continuously, on policies for fire safety and energy saving and because of growing consumer interest in reducing the cost of heating and cooling," said Myoung-deuk.

Russia: Paroc intends to expand its production in Russia by 1.5 times to 45,000t in 2015. So far in 2015, its capacity utilisation rate is 100%. In 2014, Paroc's Tver plant sold 29,000t of mineral wool.

Paroc is investing US$121m in a new thermal insulation production plant in Tver. The project will be implemented in three stages; 2011 - 2013, 2014 - 2016 and 2017 - 2020. The new plant will produce up to 50,000t/yr of mineral wool.