Ban on using polystyrene plates for external wall insulation to be lifted

The court ordered that the Ministry of Construction and Territorial Development cancel the normative document that has banned the use of polystyrene plates for the external insulation of buildings since October 2007. The decision was made by the Chisinau Court of Appeals at the request of three producing companies and the Employers Federation of Builders, Road Workers and Building Material Producers “Condrumat”, Info-Prim Neo reports. The ban imposed by the Ministry was not based on the results of an accredited laboratory of analyses and tests in the construction sector. Therefore, the right to free trade and entrepreneurial activity was violated, the court decision says. The polystyrene producers say the external walls can be also thermally insulated with plates of mineral wadding, which are not made in Moldova and are more expensive than the polystyrene plates. According to “Condrumat” director Grigorie Popa, the price of the plates of mineral wadding is threefold larger. “About 48 million lei will go out of the country every year if the polystyrene is replaced with imported plates of mineral wedding. The companies working in the area would sustain losses of 6 million lei,” Grigorie Popa said. There are over 100 producers of expanded polystyrene in Moldova at present. The national producers fully meet the demand on the home market.