Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Denmark: Rockwool has signed a new revolving credit facility worth Euro600m. The facility replaced its existing facilities and has a built-in pricing mechanism connecting its costs to three externally-assured sustainability goals. The goals are CO₂ emission reduction, increasing the number of countries in which it offers its recycling schemes and reducing factory waste. The purposes of the facility are to strengthen capital structure and support long-term growth.

Chief Financial Officer Kim Junge Andersen said, “While we already are a net-carbon-negative company, we have committed ourselves to ambitious sustainability targets to reduce our carbon footprint and waste from operations and to expand our recycling offerings. To measure our progress, it is important for us to have a fact-based and auditable approach to how we maximise our products’ positive impact while minimising the environmental impact of our operations.”

France: Denmark-based Rockwool plans to begin building a new stone wool insulation plant at Soissons, Aisne department in 2022. The new plant will use an 80%-reduced-CO₂ electric melting production method previously employed at Rockwool’s Moss insulation plant in Norway in 2020. The company says that, when commissioned in 2024, the new plant will generate 130 jobs.

France and Southern Europe regional managing director Rafael Rodriguez said, “We are pleased that our investment in Soissons will enable us to better support the government’s ambitious efforts as well as the social and economic development of the local communities. With our more than 40-year history in France, this new facility is a natural next step for us in a market that continues growing in importance.”

Denmark: Rockwool recorded consolidated net sales of Euro671m in the first quarter of 2021, up by 3% year-on-year from Euro649m in the first quarter of 2020. The group’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 11% to Euro139m from Euro125m, while net profit rose by 11% to Euro68.0m from Euro61.0m. Its insulation segment’s net sales were Euro498m, up by 3% from Euro483m.

The producer said that increased construction activity and strong stone wool insulation demand drove its overall sales development. It forecast strong market conditions for the full year in 2021, resulting in sales growth of 10 – 12%. It added that productivity improvements and a moderate price increase would likely offset an expected rise in input costs.

Denmark: Rockwool has detailed its sustainability achievements for 2020 in its Sustainability Reports 2020. During the year, assessment agency S&P Trucost certified all of Rockwool’s products as ‘positively impactful’ in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The company said that its insulation sold in 2020 saved 874,000GWh of heating energy. It said that the lifetime CO₂ emissions savings of its products are more than 100 times greater than their production emissions. It halved its production waste going to landfill compared to 2019, against reduction targets of 40% by 2022 and 85%. It achieved another of its interim sustainability goals early by increasing water efficiency by 10%, against a targeted 10% by 2022 and 20% by 2030.

Denmark: Rockwool’s stone wool ceiling and wall products subsidiary Rockfon has partnered with designer Akuart to develop acoustic products. The producer says that the partnership combines the strengths of both companies in design, innovation and manufacturing to deliver more value for the end customer. Rockwool has also acquired a minority stake in Akuart to further strengthen the relationship.

Rockfon Europe and Asia managing director Parik Chopra, “Akuart is a strong Danish brand with skilled people, high quality design and products that fit any interior space. With this partnership, Rockfon expands its footprint into designing and manufacturing functional and aesthetic acoustic solutions that can improve the wellbeing of people in offices, schools, hospitals, and leisure venues across Europe.”

Denmark: The Danish Society of Engineers has selected Rockwool as the European Business Award for the Environment winner in the Denmark category. The producer says that the award recognises its technology innovation and implementation of sustainable processes leading to more than 70% CO₂ emissions reduction. It said that its development of fuel-flexible melting technology has allowed a shift away from coal towards natural gas and biogas.

Group operations and technology senior vice president Bjørn Andersen said, “Winning this award testifies to the fact that sustainability is at the core of our business. The engineering and technology innovations this award recognises build on our decades-long efforts to improve the energy efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of our own operations. More than 50 engineers in Denmark have been working on the patented fuel-flexible melting technology being highlighted today. Ready-made solutions did not exist, so we invented them ourselves.”

He added, “Because we operate in many countries around the world, we also know that we cannot put all our technology eggs in one basket. That is why Rockwool has also developed a large-scale electric melting technology that is well-suited in countries where the electricity grid is already low carbon. At Rockwool’s factory in Moss, Norway, for example, we have recently inaugurated the industry’s largest electric melter, reducing emissions by approximately 80% compared to the previous technology used there.”

Denmark: Rockwool recorded net sales of Euro2.60bn, down by 4% year-on-year in local currency terms. Profit for the year fell by 12% to Euro251m. Sales were supported in regions where construction was able to remain active throughout the coronavirus lockdowns. The company noted a strong recovery in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Chief executive officer Jens Birgersson said, “Looking back on a turbulent year, we are proud of how well our colleagues handled the many challenges. Our teams ensured employees were safe while quickly adjusting operations, sales and service to match the changing needs of our customers.”

The company plans to make Euro370m of investments, excluding acquisitions in 2021. Planned investments include a new plant in the US and a plant relocation in China, in addition to capacity expansions for its Rockfon and Grodan stone wool businesses.

The group said, “The underlying medium to long-term structural growth drivers for stone wool products are even stronger today than at the start of 2020. On top of fundamental trends like urbanisation and increasingly tighter building regulations, we expect that several other trends will continue driving growth in our business. For example, the growing focus on energy efficiency, fire safety and circularity continues to influence the decisions of consumers, the building industry and policymakers, with the pandemic accelerating these trends in multiple ways.”

Denmark: Rockwool has received approval from the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTI) for its new decarbonisation goals. The goals consist of a planned 38% reduction in plant greenhouse gas emissions and 20% reduction in absolute lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions between 2019 and 2034.

Chief executive officer (CEO) Jens Birgersson said, “We’re proud to be among the few energy-intensive manufacturing companies whose science-based emission reduction targets SBTI has verified and approved. These new targets build on the strong foundation that we are already a net carbon negative company. Though not many companies can make that claim, we also know it’s not enough, which is why we have committed to this ambitious decarbonisation pathway.” He added, “Achieving these emission reduction targets will be an important step in realising the global ambition to reduce society’s greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. By demonstrating that an energy-intensive manufacturing company can achieve these targets, we hope to inspire others to take actions to help create a greener, more sustainable future.”

Denmark: Rockwool’s insulation sales declined by 0.6% year-on-year to Euro483m in the first quarter of 2020 from Euro486m due to slowdowns in Asia, in technical insulation sales and in its sandwich panel business. Despite this its earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) rose slightly to Euro56m. Overall the group’s net sales and EBIT rose slightly to Euro649m and Euro80m respectively.

“Despite turbulence from the COVID-19 pandemic whose impact we began to feel late in the quarter, we achieved solid first quarter results. Climate change isn’t going away, however. Energy renovation is a high-impact economic recovery measure that creates local jobs, a more resilient and healthy society while at the same time contributing to reaching long-term global climate ambitions,” said chief executive (CEO) officer Jens Birgersson.

The group reported that, due to coronavirus, its sales were affected in Asia and started to decrease during the last weeks of March 2020 in southern Europe. In China, production lines were temporarily closed early in the quarter and re-opened four weeks later. Factories in Malaysia, India, France and Spain were closed at different times in March 2020. It said that all these factories had now partly resumed production. The company is planning to adjust operations based on reduced demand and a decline in construction spending in future quarters. It also intends to seek, “market opportunities resulting from political and fiscal responses to drive economic recovery.”

Denmark: Rockwool International has appointed Jessica Jonasson as Senior Vice President for Group Human Resources and a member of group management. She succeeds Camilla Grönholm, who after eight years with Rockwool, has decided to return to Finland, spend more time with family and to pursue non-executive work.

Jonasson, a Swedish national, currently holding the position of Vice President for Human Resources at ASSA ABLOY Entrance Systems, based in Sweden. She is expected to start her new position at Rockwool in August 2020 after a transitional period following Grönholm’s departure at the end of May 2020.