Austria's Austrotherm will build a factory for thermal insulation panels in Aytos, a city in North-eastern Bulgaria, it was announced after company executives met with the city mayor. Austrotherm has already bought a production facility in the city industrial zone, said Todor Nedev, manager of the company's local division.

Production is likely to begin in March 2008, said the company official. The location of the new production hub will cut transportation costs and will put the company in better position to cater to the construction projects that have peppered the Bulgarian Black Sea coastline. The cost of the investment was not disclosed. In 2005, Austrotherm opened a 4 mln euro factory for expanded polystyrene foam and extruded polystyrene foam products in Kazichene, near Sofia. The output of the Kazichene plant is marketed in Greece, Macedonia and Albania.