Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Australia: Businesses that suffered when the Home Insulation Program was closed are suing the federal government for more than US$72m in compensation. ACA Lawyers and McLaughlin & Riordan have launched a lawsuit on behalf of more than 100 people in the Victorian Supreme Court that alleges the government's mismanagement of the scheme resulted in business loss or forced them into bankruptcy, according to the Australian Associated Press agency.

The lawyers say that a Royal Commission set up following the closure of the Home Insulation Program failed to compensate businesses sufficiently. They allege that it only compensated companies operating before the insulation program was implemented not ones created afterwards to take advantage of it. 104 claims are believed to have been settled at a cost of US$9.7m despite thousands of businesses being affected.

The Home Insulation Program was shutdown in 2010 following the deaths of four workers.

Lithuania: Paroc has announced that it does not expect its revenue from its operations in Lithuania to grow in 2016. The mineral wool manufacturer saw its profit in the country fall by 28.3% year-on-year to Euro4.24m in 2015 from Euro5.92m in 2014. Its revenue fell by 7.1% to Euro42.9m, according to BNS News.

"The income from sales within the country increased year-on-year, while exports to Russia, Belarus and Latvia shrank considerably. The decline was in part compensated by the sharp growth of supplies to Poland," Paroc said in its annual report. According to the statement, the company's 2016 income and profit are not expected to rise.

Canada: CanWel Building Materials has entered into a multi-year agreement with Knauf Insulation for distribution of its mineral wool insulation products to the Lumber and Building Materials (LBM) channel across Canada.

"We are excited to extend our product offering for the LBM channel to include this high quality product line and to partner with one of the world's largest manufacturer of glasswool insulation," said Marc Seguin, President of CanWel.

Saudi Arabia: Honeywell and Bayer Pearl are targeting the Saudi Arabian market with a spray foam system that uses a proprietary Honeywell liquid blowing agent.

“We are delighted that Bayer Pearl has formulated their new spray foam system with Solstice Liquid Blowing Agent and are encouraged that Saudi Arabian leaders are considering implementing these new technologies to further enhance their economy and society,” said Amir Naqvi, regional marketing leader at Honeywell Fluorine Products.

The announcement follows a workshop in Riyadh entitled ‘Sustainable Solutions for polyurethane Foam’ that has looked at organic insulation. In the wake of the Saudi 2030 Vision development plan it is anticipated that 1.5m new homes will be required in the country and energy demands will also grow. Demand for thermal insulation is expected to rise in line with this.

Denmark: Rockwool’s profit has risen by 56% year-on-year to Euro28m for the first quarter of 2016 from Euro18m for the same period in 2015. Its net sales fell slightly to Euro494m from Euro499m. it reported sales of Euro368m in its insulation business, a slight fall from Euro375m in the first quarter of 2015. The company stated that sales growth had continued from 2015 into early 2016 in most markets with the exception of Russia where exchange rate variations contributed to a slight decline in net sales in the quarter.

“We continue to improve the overall health of the business. I am especially pleased to see that our business transformation programme is contributing so significantly to the strong Q1 result. The growth in North America continues and in Europe we see good developments in both Northern and Southern Europe, a trend we would like to see spreading to the core markets of Germany and France. Russia is the main challenge at the moment, but even with this important market at a low level we made solid progress in group profitability,” said company chief executive officer Jens Birgersson.