Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

World: US-based Huntsman has announced a natural gas surcharge of Euro125/t on its sales of methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) in Europe, India and the Middle East and Africa (MEAF), in response to an ‘unprecedented’ rise in natural gas prices in the region. The measure entered effect on 1 October 2021. The company says that this has adversely affected the energy inputs, intermediates and multiple feedstock costs incurred in its MDI production.
The new surcharge will operate in conjunction with any previously announced MDI price increases.

Huntsman's Polyurethanes president Tony Hankins said "Huntsman is already working with its customers to manage the impact of the surcharge, which was necessary to respond to the unexpected and unprecedented increase in our production costs."

Latvia: Valmieras Stikla Škiedra has completed the installation of a new E-glass melting furnace at its Valmiera glass fibre plant in Valmiera municipality. The company says that the furnace will reach full-capacity production in October 2021, ahead of schedule. Installing the furnace was one of the company’s 2021 strategic development goals, with the aim of strengthening its position among regional glass fibre products suppliers.

It said “The switch to investment and growth is now the logical step. We have already started further investment projects in order to meet the market requirements in 2022.”

UAE: Pearl Polyurethane has newly appointed Oliver Bruns, Michael Friede and Wilhelm Lamberts to its board. Chemical Industry Digest News has reported that the new board members’ experience collectively spans various sectors and industries, bringing broad and deep expertise to the polyurethane (PUR) producer’s strategic guidance and oversight as it expands internationally and into new verticals.

Bruns has over 10 years’ PUR industry experience with Germany-based Bayer AG and Covestro, formerly known as Bayer MaterialScience. This included a role as managing director of Bayer’s Czech Republic-based PUR system house for Eastern Europe. Bruns currently also holds a full-time CEO position at Neveon, a leading global integrated foam group that supplies PUR flexible and composite foams for a wide range of applications.

Friede started his career at Bayer AG in 2001 and held various senior executive roles at Bayer MaterialScience and then Covestro, including global head of coatings, adhesives and specialities. He then moved to Netherlands-based AkzoNobel, where he worked as chief commercial officer (CCO) of performance coatings.

Lamberts’ career also spans multiple executive roles at Bayer AG and Covestro, most recently as the former’s strategy project manager and senior vice president, head of elastometers and the latter’s innovation project manager.

US: Knauf Insulation has announced plans for a new 183,000m2 glass wool insulation plant in McGregor, Texas. The producer says that it is in the process of finalising permits with the Texas government and will begin work on the McGregor insulation plant in late 2021.

Senior Vice President strategic projects Kevin McHugh said “Watching this incredible facility rise from the Texas soil and become one of our industry’s leading production facilities worldwide will be an incomparable experience. Hiring, training, and empowering people from Central Texas to carry out Knauf’s vision and the mission of this facility will positively impact Central Texas for decades to come."

UK: SIG’s first-half sales totalled Euro1.29bn in 2021, up by 32% year-on-year from Euro978m. It reduced its loss after tax by 85% to Euro9.45m from Euro62.7m. The company said that continued balance sheet strength enabled investment in its growth strategy. During the half, its net debt increased by 22% to Euro338m from Euro278m, in line with seasonal working capital increase expectations. It added that it has confidence in its ability to manage near-term supply challenges.

CEO Steve Francis said “The strong revenue growth across our broad product offering, together with disciplined margin management, has been key to delivering an earlier and stronger profit than previously anticipated. The achievements to date have only been possible because of our teams’ energy, resilience and commitment in the face of the continually challenging circumstances, both with the effects of Covid-19 and the more recent industry-wide supply challenges.” He added “Trading in July and August has continued to be solid and we expect continued profit improvement through the second half of 2021, despite the on-going impact of material shortages and cost price inflation. As a result, providing the disruption from these headwinds does not worsen, we now anticipate full year underlying operating profit will be ahead of our prior expectations. The momentum behind our Return to Growth strategy is positioning the Group well, and we have growing confidence in our ability to take advantage of both strong near-term demand and healthy long-term fundamentals, including market tailwinds from sustainability initiatives.”