Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

US: Rockwool’s Comfortboard stone wool insulation product has been certified by the California State Fire Marshall’s Building Materials Listing (BML) Program. The product is resistant to fire up to 1175˚C and has a 0/0 Smoke Development and Flame Spread rating. The BML Program certifies products based upon an evaluation of test results that include an analysis of required product performance and reliability features. The testing was completed with a State Fire Marshall (SFM) accredited laboratory.

“This listing supports our continued commitment in the promotion of fire safe building practices and helps us deliver on products that will help architects and builders meet the California Title 24 thermal and Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) requirements,” said Mark Bromiley, Vice President of Marketing & Business Development, Rockwool (North America).

US: Mohawk Industries says that its insulation business is performing ‘well’ as its polyurethane product takes share from other product types. The flooring manufacturer’s net sales grew slightly to US$4.99bn in the first half of 2019.

US: Owens Corning’s insulation business earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) fell by 30% year-on-year to US$57m in the first half of 2019 from US$81m in the same period in 2018. Its net sales dropped by 2% to US$1.25bn from US$1.28bn. Overall sales and EBIT, across all business lines, grew slightly driving by the roofing business.

North America: A survey by the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association (NAIMA) shows that its members used around 1.17Mt of recycled glass to produce residential, commercial and industrial thermal and acoustical insulation in 2018. The survey included data from both US and Canadian production plants. Producers also used over 0.45Mt of recycled blast furnace slag in the production of thermal and acoustic insulation.

US: IQ Fibers plans to build a cellulose insulation plant at West Easton in Pennsylvania. The project will have an investment from US$5.4m and it will create 43 jobs. The company has received funding from the Department of Community and Economic Development to develop the unit.

“We are extremely proud of our facility and the highly engineered cellulose fibre products we manufacture. With the market demand for more environmentally-friendly solutions, we believe this is the right time and place to launch our company. We greatly appreciate the assistance of the Governor’s Action Team and Governor Wolf’s commitment for business growth,” said George Day, chief executive officer (CEO) of IQ Fibers.

IQ Fibers is a start-up cellulose fibre manufacturer. Its line of products includes high-quality cellulose insulation and absorbents that are sold to distributors, contract installers and end users, as well as government agencies, utility companies, and related programs.

US: Owens Corning has appointed Todd Fister as the president of its insulation division from 15 July 2019. He succeeds Julian Francis, who will become president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Beacon Roofing Supply. Fister will report directly to Brian Chambers, the president and CEO of Owens Corning.

Fister currently serves as Vice President, Global Insulation and Strategy. Prior to this role, he served as Vice President and Managing Director for European Insulation and Global Foamglas. Before joining Owens Corning in 2014, he worked in various marketing, strategy and finance positions at MeadWestvaco and Kimberly-Clark. Fister began his career at Procter & Gamble, where he served in multiple finance roles. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Miami University and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

US: Johns Manville (JM) plans to build a new fibreglass insulation production line at its McPherson plant in Kansas. The new line will produce its Climate Pro blowing wool product. JM will begin construction on the expansion project later in 2019 pending various governmental approvals. It anticipates the completion in early 2021. When complete, JM will employ more than 330 people in McPherson.

US: Celotex has been named in a lawsuit filed in Philadelphia on behalf of victims and families of the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London, UK that killed 72 people. Attorneys for the plaintiffs said they represent the estates of 69 of the 72 people who perished in the residential high-rise fire, and 177 survivors who suffered life-altering injuries, according to Reuters. The lawsuit demands a jury trial but has not specified the amount of compensation it is seeking. Whirlpool and Arconic have also been named in the document.

US: Owens Corning plans to expand its RainBarrier continuous insulation product range. The new products in the portfolio will offer better compressive strength. They will be available in the second half of 2019. The building materials producer made the announcement at the AIA Conference on Architecture.

US: The chief executive officers (CEO) of 13 US companies, including BASF and DuPont, are lobbying the President and Congress to enact business-led climate change legislation. This initiative, known as the CEO Climate Dialogue, urges the government to put in place a long-term federal policy as soon as possible, in accordance with a set of six guiding principles. The group aims to build bipartisan support for climate policies that it says will, “… increase regulatory and business certainty, reduce climate risk, and spur investment and innovation needed to meet science-based emissions reduction targets.”

Companies involved in the CEO Dialogue include BASF, BP, Citi, Dominion Energy, Dow, DTE Energy, DuPont, Exelon, Ford Motor Company, LafargeHolcim, PG&E, Shell, and Unilever. Four environmental groups have also supplied input to the initiative. These are the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, Environmental Defense Fund, the Nature Conservancy and World Resources Institute.

The six principles include: ‘significantly’ reducing US greenhouse gas emissions; allowing an effective timeline for reductions that will enable capital intensive industries to adjust in an ‘economically rational manner’; instituting a market-based price on carbon; making the policies durable and responsible; doing no harm to the competitiveness of the US economy with particular attention to carbon leakage; and promoting equity. Specifically the initiative says that US policy should ensure the country is on a path to achieve economy-wide emissions reductions of 80% or more by 2050 with ‘aggressive’ short and medium term emissions reductions.

“DuPont is pleased to be part of the CEO Climate Dialogue and support its guiding principles to accelerate the development of federal policy on climate change. At DuPont, our science and innovation is inextricably linked with sustainability practices that deliver specialised materials that contribute to a safer, healthier, more sustainable world. We believe strong, consistent policy measures and a cohesive regulatory environment are needed to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy and foster innovation, investment and economic growth,” said Marc Doyle, CEO-Elect of DuPont.