Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Ireland: Kingspan recorded a decline in its consolidated sales of 2% year-on-year, to Euro4.1bn. Its insulation sales volumes also declined during the half. In an earnings call, CEO Gene Murtagh said that the company’s net profit was ‘broadly in line’ with the first half of 2022, at Euro436m. Murtagh praised the producer’s progress towards achieving its CO2 emissions reduction goals, with a 51% reduction from its historical baseline.

Kingspan’s chief financial officer Geoff Doherty noted the exposure of insulation sales to global economic effects. Doherty forecast an ‘improving order intake’ for both insulation boards and insulated panels during the second half of 2022. Nonetheless, he said that he expects sales volumes of insulation boards to ‘remain quite negative’ during the half, and therefore to be ‘softer’ than those of insulated panels.

Canada: The Competition Bureau of Canada has cleared France-based Saint-Gobain to acquire Building Products of Canada. Building Products of Canada produces wood fibre insulation panels, among other materials for construction. Saint-Gobain says that the company complements its subsidiary CertainTeed Canada’s existing operations. It expects to complete the acquisition on 1 September 2023.

Indonesia: The Indonesian Safeguards Committee started an investigation into slag wool, rock wool and similar mineral wools (including intermixtures) in bulk, sheets or rolls from late July 2023. It scheduled a hearing in mid-August 2023 for interested parties - such as importers and exporters - to present their views and evidence on the matter.

A safeguard investigation seeks to determine whether increased imports of a product are causing, or threatening to cause, serious injury to a domestic industry. A World Trade Organisation member may take a safeguard action, including the temporary restriction of imports, only if the increased imports of the product are found to be causing, or threatening to cause, serious injury.

Denmark: Qubiqa has acquired robotics company CH System. The purchase will see it to gain access to several new business areas such as food handling, pharmaceutical handling and so-called ‘Power-to-X’ energy conversion applications. The move will increase Qubiqa’s staff by 70 persons.

Axel Manøe Jepsen, chair of Qubiqa, said "Today, close to 90% of our activities are within our core business for the insulation industry. Strategically, CH System fits ideally with our ambition to expand our business areas and ensure that we are more broadly based in several markets. We believe that the acquisition strengthens the future of both companies."

Prior to the acquisition, Qubiqa had 240 employees divided between sales, administration, engineering and production in Esbjerg as well as production in Poland. The company develops and produces automated packaging solutions for the insulation manufacturers around the world.

CH System was established in 1968. It produces handling and packaging systems for a variety of industries including the food packaging, mineral wool handling and biomass handling sectors.

UK: SIG recorded US$1.81bn in sales in the first half of 2023, up by 5% year-on-year from US$1.73bn in the first half of 2022. The group noted a decline in its sales volumes, partly offset by positive tailwinds from cost inflation in the comparison period. Its profit after tax declined by 70% to US$5.98m from US$20.2m.

CEO Gavin Slark said “Our performance in the first half of 2023 reflects the challenging market conditions we are currently facing, with the group’s like-for-like revenue growth flat year-on-year. Despite these conditions, I’m very pleased with the progress we are making on many fronts to improve the business notably with the initiatives across our operating companies to improve our ability to drive higher levels of profitable growth when market conditions recover." Slark continued “Looking ahead, while we expect market conditions in the second half of 2023 to remain difficult, we remain confident the business will grasp the opportunities it has to continue to improve its underlying operational performance. This will, in turn, deliver higher levels of profitability as we drive towards our medium-term margin target of 5%. The group is financially and commercially well placed to drive meaningful shareholder value in the medium and long term.”