At the start of April, insulation board manufacturer Austrotherm (Waldegg / Austria; www.austrotherm.at) commissioned a new plant for EPS insulation board in the Turkish capital, Ankara. The rented 6,200 m² production shop has an annual capacity of 400,000 m³, the company says. EUR 2m has been invested in the new site, with a workforce of 14.

"Even though we have had a difficult environment to contend with for ten years, and the highly volatile exchange rate constantly confronts us with new challenges, we are still adopting a long-term perspective," says Gerald Prinzhorn, managing director of the Austrotherm group. "There are 21m people in central Turkey alone, more than 5m of whom live in Ankara. Only 30% of the buildings are equipped with thermal insulation, despite the fact that Anatolia experiences severe winters and hot summers."

Austrotherm has had its own production facility in Turkey since 2008. The company operates additional sites in Istanbul and in the vicinity of İzmir. In total, it runs 22 production sites in 11 countries. The company’s latest financial results reported a turnover of EUR 351m.