US: Kingspan Insulation has started an expansion project at its Winchester plant in Virginia. The US$25m investment in the plant will be used to install a new extruded polystyrene insulation (XPS) insulation manufacturing line.

"We are pleased to announce that the installation is proceeding on time and on cost," said Kingspan Insulation North America's Managing Director Alswinn Kieboom.

Once the project is completed, it will allow Kingspan Insulation to continue to service demand for its GreenGuard line of XPS board products. The products feature moisture resistance, an R-value of 5.0 per inch of thickness and are suitable for a range of applications including cavity walls, continuous insulation, roofs, below-grade perimeter foundation and slab-on-grade.

As part of this investment programme, Kingspan Insulation has announced its intent to begin production of high performance, polyiso insulation in North America, providing an even greater choice for specifiers and contractors.

Kingspan Insulation is currently considering locations for three new production lines. Locations under consideration are at its existing plant in Virginia, at its sister company sites in California, Florida, Ohio, as well as sites in Nevada and Texas in the US, plus Ontario and British Columbia.

Taiwan: Ming Dih Group is considering cutting output at its expandable polystyrene (EPS) plants in September 2016 due to low demand in the region, according to a company source quoted by ICIS. The company previously lowered output at its plants to around 70% of production capacity in July 2016 due to poor sales. It operates a 180,000t/yr plant in Taiwan and a 50,000t/yr plant in Thailand. Products from its plants are used to make insulation panels.

US: Toray Industries has released plans to increase the production capacity of Toraypef polyolefin foam manufactured at Toray Plastics (America). The Japanese chemical manufacturer will invest US$39m towards building a 3000t/yr unit at its TPA Virginia Plant. The new facility is expected to start operations in the beginning of 2018. The expansion of the production facility will boost TPA's Toraypef production to 7500t/yr.

Toraypef is a polyolefin foam developed using Toray's proprietary manufacturing method, and it is adopted for various purposes including thermal insulation. Principally the product is being targeted at car production.

Russia: TechnoNicol has opened a Euro27.6m mineral wool insulation production plant in the Khabarovsk region. The plant will have a production capacity of 0.75Mm3, according to Prime News. The products will be sold locally and via export. The company plans to export 20% of its entire output to China in 2019. The insulation producer expects the payback period for the plant to take seven years.