Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

France: Saint-Gobain reported sales of €23.5bn in the first half of 2024, down by 6% year-on-year from €25.0bn in the same period in 2023. The group reduced its capital expenditure by 5% to €583m. €255m (47%) of this was invested in new capacity, down by 7%. Group earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped by 2% to €3.65bn from €3.74bn. During the reporting period, Saint-Gobain accelerated efforts to reinforce its profitable growth profile with acquisitions in the light and sustainable building materials segments in Australia, Canada, India and the Middle East. Saint-Gobain said that it exceeded 67% of operating income being generated in “high-growth geographies,” namely North America, Asia and emerging countries. It now expects “double-digit” operating margins in 2024, for the fourth consecutive full year.

Chair and CEO Benoit Bazin said "Our first-half results once again demonstrate the success of Saint-Gobain's new profile, reflecting the group's ability to adapt to different macroeconomic environments and to continue to outperform. The roll-out of our comprehensive range of sustainable and innovative solutions and the resulting enhancement in our mix, together with our decentralised organisation by country with accountability on commercial performance and on proactive cost management, have enabled us to deliver a new record operating margin and strong free cash flow generation. I am very grateful for our teams' dedication and their contribution to the group's consistent improvement in its performance."

France: Saint-Gobain’s sales dropped by 6.4% year-on-year to €51bn in 2023. Meanwhile, the group’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped by 1.7% year-on-year to €7.12bn. Despite this, it achieved average organic growth of 6.4% across its markets, buoyed by sustainable solutions, which accounted for 75% of its sales. Throughout the year, Saint-Gobain invested €223m in capital expenditure and research and development, in line with rising internal carbon prices. This contributed to a 34% reduction in its Scope 1 and 2 CO₂ emissions compared to 2017 levels. The company used 57% renewable electricity in 2023, compared to 52% in 2022, and concluded eight new renewable energy supply deals. It aims to reach 66% renewables by 2025.

France: Soprema plans to begin building a new polyurethane (PU) insulation plant at Sausheim, near Mulhouse, in mid-late 2024. The producer says that it will invest Euro50m and enter production at the upcoming plant in 2026. When operational, the Sausheim insulation plant will complement Soprema’s existing Saint-Julien-du-Sault and Nîmes plants, and serve Grand Est, Austrian, Germany and Switzerland. The plant will generate 80 direct jobs and a similar number again of indirect jobs.

France: Saint-Gobain subsidiary Isonat is investing Euro10m in a capacity expansion to its Mably insulation wood fibre insulating panels plant. French Collection News has reported that the expansion will double the plant’s capacity to 42,000t/yr. The company says that it aims to double its sales in two years. It noted growing demand for bio-sourced materials and the availability of favourable home renovations subsidies.

Canada: Saint-Gobain completed its acquisition of Building Products of Canada at the start of September 2023 for an undisclosed sum. The privately-owned company manufactures residential roofing shingles and wood fibre insulation panels. It has 460 employees and three manufacturing plants, at Montreal in Quebec, Edmonton in Alberta and Pont-Rouge in Quebec. Saint-Gobain says that the purchase is intended to establish its position worldwide in light and sustainable construction. The acquisition was first announced in June 2023.

Canada: Saint-Gobain has entered into a definitive agreement to buy Building Products of Canada for around Euro925m in cash. The privately owned company manufactures residential roofing shingles and wood fibre insulation panels. The acquisition is intended to reinforce Saint-Gobain’s position in light and sustainable construction in the Canadian market. Closure of the transaction is subject to customary conditions and expected by the end of 2023.

Benoit Bazin, chief executive officer of Saint-Gobain, said “This is an important and logical step for Saint-Gobain, allowing us to establish a leading position in roofing in Canada, completing our offering for the building envelope which we have reinforced with the recent Kaycan and GCP acquisitions. It completes our offering of solutions for light and sustainable construction in Canada as we have done successfully in the US.”

Denmark: Rockwool’s net sales grew by 27% year-on-year to Euro3.91bn in 2022 from Euro3.09bn in 2021. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 6% to Euro638m from Euro602m. The group reported a strong start to 2022 with high demand for its stone wool insulation products. In the second half of the year it noted a decline in construction activity in key markets. However, it increased its prices leading to increased sales. By region the group said that sales grew in Europe and Asian markets, were flat in the US and declined in China.

Chief executive officer Jens Birgersson said, “Looking forward, we expect construction activity to continue slowing down in the coming period. We anticipate the energy efficiency agenda in both Europe and North America will accelerate renovation rates in the mid-term and create higher demand for our circular and non-combustible stone wool. We will continue to invest in more capacity to support our long-term growth”.

Together with the group’s chair Thomas Kähler, he also defended the company’s decision to continue the ownership of a subsidiary in Russia. “If we were to depart Russia, our factories and the intellectual property rights to our unique technology would most likely be nationalised or otherwise transferred to local players. Since the factories operate independently of our head office, they would continue to operate - just under different ownership. It therefore remains our view that retaining the business in Russia is the least bad option available to us. And of course, we will continue to comply with all international sanctions.”

Rockwool said that it had added production capacity for its Grodan agricultural stone wool range at its plant in Toronto, Canada and capacity for its Rockfon stone wool ceiling panel range at its Cigacice plant in Poland. In China it had opened a new plant at Qinyuan in December 2022 to replace its mineral wool unit at Guangzhou, which closed in September 2022. It also reported that plans to build a new stone wool plant at Soissons in France had been delayed due to a local legal challenge. Notable upgrades in 2022 included the start of a conversion project to electric melting technology from fossil fuels at the Flumroc plant in Switzerland, with a commissioning date scheduled for 2024. This project follows a similar one at the Moss plant in Norway that was completed in 2020.

UK: Insulation and cladding companies have blamed each other in a public inquiry investigating the Grenfell Tower Fire that took place in 2017 that led to 72 deaths. During closing statements to the inquiry the Press Association reports that the legal representation for Ireland-based Kingspan said, "In its phase one report the inquiry concluded that the cladding system on Grenfell Tower did not comply with the building regulations and that the PE ACM [polyethylene cladding] manufactured by Arconic was the principal reason for the rapid fire spread." The lawyer went on to summarise that Kingspan’s Kooltherm K15 phenolic insulation product was safe when used appropriately and not relevant to the nature and speed of the spread of the fire in this instance.

In a written statement though Arconic blamed the cause of the fire upon the failure by those involved in the refurbishment of the tower in assessing the fire performance of the building materials used and their configuration. It added, "A failure which was in significant part the result of the efforts made by the manufacturers of the insulation, Celotex and Kingspan, to hide or downplay the combustible and hence (under the prevailing regulatory regime) non-compliant nature of their product, an awareness of which would otherwise and in any event have led inexorably to the choice and configuration of the components being re-visited and amended."

The majority of the insulation purchased for use in a refurbishment of Grenfell Tower prior to the fire in June 2017 was Celotex’s RS5000 polyisocyanurate foam (PIR) insulation board. However, Kingspan confirmed in July 2017 that a small amount of its Kooltherm K15 product had also been used without its knowledge and that it had no involvement in the design or specification of the refurbishment.

France: Saint-Gobain says it has been preparing continuity plans for its gas-consuming insulation plants in Europe to ensure the flexibility of production to operate using less energy or that from alternative sources. Over half of its 25 insulation plants in Europe have an electricity-powered furnace and additional investments are being undertaken to use alternative power sources. The group noted that raw materials, freight and energy costs were growing, especially in Europe. It said that it had hedged around 80% of its natural gas and electricity purchasing needs for 2022 and around 60% for 2023.

The group’s sales grow by 14.5% on a like-for-like basis to Euro38.4bn in the first nine months of 2022 compared to Euro32.9bn in the same period in 2021. Strong sales growth was reported in all business lines although sales were driven in particular by the group’s High Performance Solutions business and its Asia-Pacific and North America regions.

By business segment the group said that businesses serving global construction customers in its High Performance Solutions division reported record sales. It added that they continued to benefit from strong trends in textile solutions for external thermal insulation systems (ETICS) due to demand for sustainable construction.

France: Saint-Gobain subsidiary Isover has begun construction of a prototype glass wool recycling plant in Chemillé-en-Anjou. Contractor Eiffage Génie Civil is executing the project, which is scheduled for commissioning in 2023.

Isover France and Switzerland technical director Jérôme Saulnier saud "The realisation of this revolutionary industrial prototype with fusion by immersed burners will make it possible to recycle glass wool in industrial quantities, transforming it into cullet. This cullet will be used in the manufacturing process of our insulating products and will also reduce our energy consumption, our carbon emissions and improve the life cycle of our products."