Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

UK: Jonathan Roper, a former assistant product manager at Celotex, has described the company as ‘dishonest’ by ‘overengineering’ a cladding fire safety test to achieve a pass for its RS5000 insulation product. After a first test failure in January 2014, a second system passed in May 2014, which the firm used to erroneously market the combustible rigid foam boards as being safe for use on high-rise buildings, the inquiry has heard, according to the Press Association. Covert changes were allegedly made to the set-up of the second test to make the outcome more favourable. Roper added that the motivation for getting the RS5000 product to market was to compete with rival firm Kingspan and its K15 insulation.

Celotex, part of the French multinational Saint-Gobain group, has maintained it promoted RS5000's use on buildings taller than 18m only on a "rainscreen cladding system with the specific components", used when it passed the fire safety test. The inquiry has previously heard Celotex saw Grenfell as a "flagship" for its product and exploited the "smoke of confusion" which surrounded building regulations at the time.

The current stage in the inquiry is examining the production, testing and sale of the materials used in the tower's refurbishment which resulted in the June 2017 fire, killing 72 people. The proceedings continue.

Spain: Saint-Gobain Isover has launched APTA Arena 48, a 48mm thick variant of its sand mineral wool product. It is intended for use with internal partition walls with the 48mm grid system. The product offers thermal resistance of 1.40m2K/W with λ = 34mW/mK.

Ireland: Kingspan has reported a sales fall of 5% year-on-year in its 2020 nine-month trading update, to Euro3.27bn from Euro3.44bn in the first nine months of 2019. Its sales of insulation boards fell by 14% and by 5% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2020.

The group said that insulation board sales “performed well” in Ireland, the UK and parts of Continental Europe in the third quarter of 2020, while volumes “improved, with raw material-related price deflation in the earlier part of the period partially offsetting this” in total sales. The Asia Pacific region “consolidated the progress seen in the first half,” while activity in the US was “positive through the third quarter.” Only the Middle East proved “a more challenging environment.”

The company said, “Overall, our end markets are in reasonable shape bearing in mind the uncertain and evolving backdrop. In this environment it is difficult to see too far ahead and trading patterns can evolve quickly. Our raw material costs are on the rise at present and, with the customary lag anticipated, a challenging recovery effort is underway. Trading in the fourth quarter to date has been strong, helped to an extent by accelerated demand in the expectation of inflation-led price increases in the coming months. Whilst conscious that much of the seasonally variable fourth quarter is still at play, in what is an untypical year, we expect to deliver a full year trading profit marginally ahead of 2019.”

Ireland: Kingspan has written to the Building Research Establishment (BRE) to withdraw fire test reports on its rigid thermoset phenolic insulation Kooltherm K15. The Irish Times newspaper has reported that, speaking at the inquiry into the Grenfell tower fire in London, a representative of the company admitted that the fire test reports on Kooltherm K15 may not reflect the actual product. This was due to possible compositional changes arising from “process shortcomings” that “fell short of the high standards which Kingspan sets itself." In 2007 it failed a fire test in which it was reportedly tested with a cladding system that also failed subsequent testing with another company’s insulation.

The Grenfell inquiry has asked Kingspan why it had not previously withdrawn the Kooltherm K15 fire test reports with the BRE. A distributor supplied the insulation to contractors for use in the refurbishment of Grenfell in 2012 – 2016.

The majority of the insulation purchased for use in a refurbishment of Grenfell Tower prior to the fire in June 2017 was Celotex’s RS5000 polyisocyanurate foam (PIR) insulation board. However, Kingspan confirmed in July 2017 that a small amount of its Kooltherm K15 product had also been used without its knowledge and that it had no involvement in the design or specification of the refurbishment.

US: Huntsman’s net income in the first nine months of 2020 was US$691m, more than doubled from US$259m in the corresponding period of 2019. This was in spite of a fall in sales of 15% to US$4.35bn from US$5.14bn. Its polyurethanes (PU) segment recorded sales of US$2.55bn, down by 13% from US$2.93bn, and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of US$271m, down by 36% from US$426m. The company attributed the sector’s sales fall in the third quarter of 2020 to “lower methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) average selling prices,” which “decreased across most major markets in relation to the global economic slowdown resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.” It added, “Overall polyurethanes sales volumes were roughly flat when including sales volumes in connection with the Icynene-Lapolla Acquisition. The increase in segment adjusted EBITDA was primarily due to lower raw material costs and lower fixed costs, as well as additional sales volumes in connection with the Icynene-Lapolla Acquisition, partially offset by lower MDI pricing.”

President, chair and chief executive officer (CEO) Peter Huntsman said, “The third quarter proved to be better than we had anticipated with improving conditions in almost all of our businesses. Although the global community continues to face significant challenges around Covid-19, we see positive momentum entering the fourth quarter. We remain fully on track in integrating our two downstream acquisitions completed earlier this year and in delivering in excess of US$100m of annualised synergies and savings from our previously announced cost optimization initiative by the end of 2021.”