At a cost of some EUR 20m, Isopan (Trevenzuolo / Italy, www.isopan.com) has built a new plant for PU sandwich panels in Volzskij near Volgograd in southern Russia. The production facility, which covers an area of 11,000 m², was officially put on stream at the end of September. Isopan was backed in the project by Simest (Rome / Italy; www.simest.it), the Italian state-run agency that provides technical and financial support to Italian companies investing abroad. It holds a 24.9% stake in Isopan Rus.

The two new production lines installed in Volzskij have an annual capacity of 3m m², raising the total to more than 14m m². Isopan is part of the steelworking group, Gruppo Manni HP (Verona / Italy; www.gruppomanni.it). Fairly recently, the Italian company was awarded a prestigious order for cladding panels for the arena of the Russian basketball premier league team, BC Krasny Oktyabr (Red October) Volgograd.

Isopan produces steel-PU sandwich panels (brands: "Isodomus", "Isoray", "Isofrigo") for insulating purposes in wall and roof applications, primarily in industrial buildings. Apart from Volzskij, the company operates seven other plants in Patrica and Trevenzuolo (both Italy), Tarragona (Spain), Bucharest (Romania), Prague (Czech Republic), Merignac (France) and, since 2013, Isopan Deutschland in Wettin near Halle.

Apart from that, according to International Market and Brand Developer Alessandro Cuomo, the plan is to also open a production plant in Mexico before the end of this year to enable the company to enter the NAFTA region in grand style. The capacity will then rise to some 20m m² and will make Isopan, according to in-house calculations, the world's second-largest manufacturer of sandwich panels.