Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

US: Owens Corning has appointed Kenneth Parks as Senior Vice President and chief financial officer (CFO) with effect from 8 September 2020.

Parks will join Owens Corning from Mylan, a global generic and specialty pharmaceuticals company, where he served for four years as CFO. Before joining Mylan in June 2016, he was CFO and led all aspects of the finance function at WESCO International, a provider of electrical, industrial and communications products. Prior to WESCO, Parks spent the majority of his career at United Technologies Corporation in a variety of US and international finance roles. During that time, he led Investor Relations, was CFO of its Fire and Security division, and held multiple financial leadership roles at its Carrier Corporation division, including working four years in Europe.

US: Installed Building Products (IBP) recorded a net income of US$41.3m in the first half of 2020, up by 49% year-on-year from US$27.8m in the first half of 2019. Sales were US$791m, up by 11% from US$714m. Chair and chief executive officer (CEO) Jeff Edwards said, “These record results demonstrate the success of our on-going geographic, end-market, and end-product diversification strategies, the benefits of our pricing strategies, and the hard work and dedication of our employees.”

The installer of insulation and complementary building products has also recently acquired Charleston Insulation and Foam and Savannah Insulation and Foam from Energy One America. Both companies provide foam, glass fibre and air barrier insulation installation services. Edwards said, “With total annual revenue of approximately US$22m, these branches expand our presence in two attractive markets. In addition, each branch provides multiple installation services, and end market diversification that fits extremely well within our overall growth strategy.”

US: Owens Corning has announced a new line of extruded polystyrene (XPS) foam insulation products called Foamular NGX. It is set to go on sale in the US and Canada in January 2021. It says that the proprietary blowing agent in the products deliver a 90% reduction in global warming potential (GWP) without sacrificing product performance. It is Underwriters Laboratory (UL) listed, Factory Mutual (FM) approved and compliant with regulations set to take effect in Canada and some US states in January 2021. The environmental benefits of the products will be reflected in a new Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). The new product line will retain the signature Owens Corning pink colour.

Serbia: Austria-based Austrotherm has started operation on a new extruded polystyrene (XPS) production line at its Nis plant. The upgrade cost Euro3.5m and has created 15 new jobs at the site. It originally purchased the expanded polystyrene (EPS) and XPS plant in 2005 and it exports products to Albania, Kosovo, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia and Bulgaria.

“We are particularly proud that we were able to complete the capacity expansion in Serbia as planned, despite all the Corona adversities,” said Klaus Haberfellner, managing director of Austrotherm.

US: Net sales from Owens Corning’s insulation division fell by 4% year-on-year to US$1.2bn in the first half of 2020 from US$1.25bn in the same period in 2019. Earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) rose by 6% to US$71m from US$57m. Overall, across all business lines, sales fell at the company. The company said that the key economic factors that continue to impact its performance were, “global industrial production, US housing starts, and global commercial and industrial construction activity.”