US: Homewares retailer Lowe's has concluded a deal to acquire Foundation Building Materials for US$8.8bn. Foundation Building Materials is a distributor of insulation and other building products. Baystreet News has reported that the deal marks Lowe's second acquisition in the residential construction segment so far in 2025.
North America: Kingspan Insulation North America has rebranded its expanded polystyrene (EPS) product line as AeroRoof, AeroWall and AeroSlab, according to application.
The AeroRoof brand encompasses flute fillers for standing seam metal roof systems, tapered EPS boards for high-traffic roofs and Holey Board lightweight EPS insulation for concrete. AeroWall features BackerBoard siding insulation and underlay, while AeroSlab features the A-One insulated concrete forming system and GeoFoam lightweight engineered fill.
Senior Director of Building Solutions Billy Conry said "This reorganisation makes it easier for contractors, designers and engineers to specify the right EPS solution for each application."
UK: The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has approved Kingspan’s acquisition of steel roofing and cladding supplier Coverworld. The Currency newspaper has reported that the regulator found ‘no concerns on any theory of harm’ to competition arising from the deal.
India: Saint-Gobain has commenced construction of its fifth Indian mineral wool insulation plant at Oragadam near Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The plant will have capacity of 50,000t/yr of mineral wool. It will also produce acoustic insulation panels, gypsum wallboard, plaster and float glass. The Times of India newspaper has reported that the plant is France-based Saint-Gobain’s largest investment in the Asia-Pacific Region to date.
Saint-Gobain Asia Pacific Regional Senior Vice-President and CEO Sreedhar Natarajan noted the upcoming plant’s reliance on automation technology to ‘Enhance our ability to deliver high-performance and differentiated solutions to our customers.’
