Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

US: Knauf Insulation has appointed Valentin Salazar as the manager of its forthcoming glass wool insulation plant at McGregor in Texas. Other hires include Alex Garcia as Health, Safety & Environmental Manager and JT Tristan as Human Resources Manager. Crossland Construction was previously announced as the general contractors for the project in July 2022. The company expects to open its new unit in early 2024.

Belgium: Recticel’s sales revenue grew by 19% year-on-year to Euro274m in the first half of 2022 from Euro230m in the same period in 2021. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 11% to Euro24.5m from Euro22.1m.

Olivier Chapelle, the company’s chief executive officer, said “We are satisfied with the sales and profitability development of our Insulation activities, in a highly challenging environment characterised by supply chain disruptions, by historical inflation on raw materials, labour, transportation and energy costs, and by economic uncertainties. Volumes have been slightly higher than in 2021, and our business teams have been able to compensate all inflationary pressures during the period. In parallel, our operations teams have displayed high flexibility to accommodate the supply chain challenges.”

US: Installed Building Products’ net revenue grew by 37% year-on-year to US$1.26bn in the first half of 2022 from US$925m in the same period in 2021. Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 54% to US$204m from US$133m. The insulation installation company said that its sales increased in the second quarter of 2022 due to “strong growth” across its residential new construction, repair and remodel and commercial markets.

New Zealand: Fletcher Building Materials recorded consolidated sales of US$5.37bn during its 2022 financial year, up by 4.7% year-on-year from US$5.13bn in the previous year. Its net earnings also rose by 42%, to US$273m from US$193m.

The group's building materials division contributed US$1.02bn-worth (17%) of group sales. The division made capital expenditure investments of US$129m. During the financial year, its insulation subsidiaries Forman Building Systems and Tasman Insulation merged under its new Comfortech business. Comfortech will commission a new glasswool plant in mid-2023. Fletcher Building Materials says that, when operational, the new unit will help to serve increased ceiling insulation demand arising from changes to the New Zealand Building Code.

Fletcher Building Materials chief executive officer Ross Taylor said "The 2022 financial year has not been without its challenges. Global and national supply chain disruptions have continued into the third year of the Covid-19 pandemic." He added "The New Zealand Commerce Commission recently published its interim market study report into residential building supplies. The final report and recommendations will be published in December 2022 and in the meantime we will continue to work collaboratively with both the commission and the government."

US: Owens Corning has agreed to sell the site of its Santa Clara, California, insulation plant to property company Panattoni Development. Local Press has reported that the plant’s closure ‘on or around’ 31 October 2022 will result in the loss of 225 jobs.