Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Canada/US: Roxul, a subsidiary of Rockwool International, has adopted a new 'strategic direction' for the North American Industrial, Marine and Offshore business. Effective from 1 January 2015, the Roxul Industrial & Marine team has been integrated into a global platform with Rockwool Technical Insulation (RTI) to create Roxul Technical Insulation.

"With our existing expertise and combined resources, Roxul Technical Insulation can provide improved support to its North American customers by leveraging our global influence, ultimately bringing greater value to our local response," said Mike Kozokowsky, vice president Industrial, Sales. The North American team will continue to be headquartered out of Roxul's Milton offices in Ontario, Canada.

US: Honeywell has launched full-scale commercial production of a low-global-warming-potential (GWP) material for use as an aerosol propellant, insulating agent and refrigerant at its Flourine Products Baton Rouge production facility in Louisiana. The material is known by the industry designation HFO-1234ze and is marketed by Honeywell under its Solstice line of low-global-warming materials.

"Honeywell's Baton Rouge plant is ready to serve customers around the world with this innovative material, which has an ultra-low GWP of less than 1," said Ken Gayer, vice president and general manager of Honeywell's Fluorine Products business. "We are seeing increasing demand for our entire Solstice line of low GWP materials and this new product has already been adopted by a range of customers globally."

In September 2014, Honeywell announced that it would increase production of its low GWP refrigerants, insulation materials, aerosols and solvents and, prior to 2020, will drive a 50%/yr reduction in its production of high GWP hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) on a CO₂ equivalent basis. Honeywell officials project the use of its low GWP Solstice materials to replace HFCs will eliminate more than 350Mt in CO₂ equivalents by 2025, equivalent to removing 70m cars from the road for one year.

HFO-1234ze is a next-generation material that is non-ozone-depleting, non-flammable per ASTM E681 and ISO 10156:2010 testing and has a low-global-warming-potential of <1. It is also not a volatile organic compound (VOC), as determined by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resource Board (CARB).

According to officials, HFO-1234ze is considered a preferred replacement for both HFC-134a (which has GWP of 1,300) and HFC-152a (which is flammable and has a GWP of 138) in aerosol applications and thermal insulating foams, including extruded polystyrene board and polyurethane foams. It is also being considered to replace HFC-134a for large stationary and commercial refrigeration applications and, compared to other low GWP refrigerant options, Honeywell's HFO-1234ze provides energy efficiency benefits.

Russia: Grigory Protosenya, the general director of Penoplex, has forecast that the demand for the company's products will decline until late 2015 or the middle of 2016 due to the inertia of the construction market. The demand reduction will affect all manufacturers, but mostly small companies.

Penoplex plans to raise its prices by about 30% in the spring of 2015 due to increasing costs of equipment and raw materials. It has no plans to cut production. Moreover, it will launch a new 2000kg/hr capacity line at its plant in Novomoskovsk, Tula region, in 2015.

So far, Penoplex has not shelved its plant construction project in the Volga region. Protosenya believes that the company will meet the current crisis in a 'steady state.' Weakening of the Russian Ruble will also allow it to start exporting products, primarily to Finland and Norway. However, shipments will be small at 20,000 - 30,000m³ and exports of around 2.50Mm³/yr.

Saudi Arabia: During a field inspection in Riyadh, the supervisory teams of the Commerce Ministry shut down three thermal insulation factories that were manufacturing flawed products. Samples taken by the teams proved that the insulation products did not comply with the required energy-efficiency specifications and standards of insulation materials. The Ministry has halted six production lines at the plants and confiscated 1500 product units. Plant managers were summoned by the Ministry for further inquiries. If found guilty of negligence, they could face severe fines or in some cases imprisonment.

Russia: TechnoNicol continues the construction of a polyisocyanurate (PIR) foam insulation board plant in Ryazan, despite the possible decline in demand in the construction market. The plant will have a production capacity of 2Mm³/yr. The launch is scheduled for autumn 2015, following investments of Euro21.2m.

TechnoNicol believes that the new material will be prospective, as PIR is not currently produced in Russia. The share of PIR in the European market of insulation materials for commercial facilities amounts to 40% and grows by around 3%/yr. About 76% of flat roofing in the USA is built using PIR boards. TechnoNICOL expects PIR to capture 2% of the insulation market in Russia by 2018, which currently stands at 47.5Mm³/yr.