Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Belgium: Recticel has recorded sales of Euro298m in the first quarter of 2020, down by 6.2% year-on-year from Euro318m in the corresponding period of 2019. Recticel said that sales in the first two months of 2020, “remained in line with the previous year despite the impact of the coronavirus crisis on sales and operations in China.” Sales in March 2020 fell by 17% month-on-month, “due to the outbreak and the resulting governmental lockdown measures in most countries.” Insulation sales fell by 2.9% to Euro60.7m Euro62.5m. Recticel said, “Lockdown measures led to a reduction of construction activities as of mid-March 2020. Our insulation plants continued (reduced) operations in all countries except in France where construction activity was halted since mid-March 2020.”

US: In 2019 Owens Corning sourced 1.58GWh of energy renewably (49% of total consumption), down by 14% year-on-year from 1.84GWh (52% of consumption) in 2018. Direct CO₂ emissions were 2.78Mt, down by 2.0% from 2.83Mt in 2018 due a reduction in carbon intensity of insulation production, such as the use of electric rather than coke-fired furnaces.

Spain: Saint-Gobain Isover has donated Climaver Star mineral wool insulation for use in the construction of the coronavirus field hospital at La Zarzuela University Hospital in Madrid.

On 23 April 2020 Spain’s confirmed coronavirus case count was 213,024, with 22,157 deaths.

US: Huntsman has repurposed its McIntosh, Alabama high performance and speciality epoxy resins plant for the production of hand sanitizer, which it will supply to health care facilities fighting the coronavirus outbreak across the US. The recipient of its first 5.0t batch was its own Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah. Huntsman president and CEO Peter Huntsman said, “We thank the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for moving swiftly to issue the guidelines that have enabled us to fast-track our production and distribution of much-needed hand sanitizer in the US.”

UK: Celotex has temporarily suspends operations in the UK due to coronavirus. It said that it continued to support the country’s National Health Service (NHS) and other essential infrastructure and building projects. The subsidiary of Saint-Gobain plans to provisionally reopen in late April 2020, although this will be reviewed.