Owens Corning is expanding again in Arkansas, with plans for a 150,000-square-foot plant to manufacture extruded polystyrene rigid foam insulation.
The new plant will make OC's Foamular NGX for commercial and residential construction. State officials said the facility in Russellville, Ark., should begin production in 2025.
Russellville is 84 miles east of Fort Smith, Ark., where OC has operated a plant since the mid-1980s. It began replacing that building in 2021, investing $107 million in a 550,000-square-foot facility to make fiberglass composite materials. Last year, OC announced it would invest another $24.5 million in equipment and further construction at the Fort Smith site in an expansion to be completed this year. OC currently employs about 90 at the 74-acre site near the Oklahoma border.
OC has agreed to create 50 jobs at the Russellville plant over two years. The company will receive tax breaks and other financial incentives for the project, according to a Feb. 27 news release from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.
OC touts the sustainable aspects of Foamular NGX, which it said is made using a proprietary blowing agent with a greatly reduced global warming potential. Expanding NGX production "will advance our ability to create sustainable solutions in the building materials industry," Rodney Wideman, OC's vice president and general manager of foam insulation, said in the release.
In addition to insulation and composites, Toledo, Ohio-based OC makes roofing shingles and components. The company recently released full-year results for 2022, reporting profit of $1.24 billion, a nearly 25 percent increase over 2021. The company generated sales of $9.76 billion, an increase of 15 percent over the previous year.
Founded in 1938, OC employs about 20,000 in more than 30 countries.