Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Canada: Rockwool North America has released its Safe’n’Sound stone wool insulation product in a new thickness of 15.24cm (6”). The new thickness offering is planned to help reduce installation time. The product is designed for fire insulation and sound dampening between floors.

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.

Denmark/Canada: Rockwool has announced the retirement of long-standing North America regional president Trent Ogilvie and thanked him ‘for the successes he helped create in the North American business’ over his 25 years in the post. The company employed 60 people at a single facility in the region in Toronto, Canada, when Ogilvie took over as president in 1995. Its four facilities in Canada and the US now employ 1000 people and make sales of hundreds and millions of US Dollars.

Rockwool’s fifth stone wool production line, located in West Virginia, is due to open in early 2021.

Denmark: Rockwool’s post-tax profit for 2019 was Euro285m, up by 7.5% from Euro265m in 2018. Sales rose by 3.2% to Euro2.8bn from Euro2.7bn. The company’s insulation section saw ‘mixed market conditions’ but ‘showed modest growth’ over the period, thanks in particular to state-supported energy efficiency improvement in construction practices generating increased demand in the South-West Europe region.

Rockwool said that it invested in long-term growth, having opened a plant in Romania in late-2019, with a capacity expansion to a German plant due to come online in mid-2020 and a further plant in the US to follow in early 2021. Rockwool Group chairman Henrik Brandt and CEO Jens Birgersson said, “For the fifth year in a row, our customer satisfaction scores increased.” Satisfaction rose by 14% year-on-year.

Denmark: Rockwool’s sales for the nine months to 30 September 2019 were Euro2.0bn, up by 3.2% from Euro1.9bn in the corresponding period of 2018. Its earnings before interest and taxes over the period were up by 7.8% year-on-year at Euro278m in the first nine months of 2019 from Euro258m. The company forecast annual sales growth of 2% - 5% and no change in EBIT margin from 12.8% in 2018. Rockwool vice president Michael Zarin noted positively Rockwool’s stonewool insulation’s versality in tackling many of today’s biggest sustainability and development challenges.

Denmark: Rockwool has recorded second-quarter net profits of Euro79m in 2019, up by 14.5% year-on-year from Euro69m for the same period in 2018. The group’s first-half sales were Euro1.34bn, improving 4.4% year-on-year from Euro1.28bn in 2018, with a corresponding growth in Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) of 11.0% to Euro178m from Euro160m. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jens Birgersson has expressed praise at the growth of both the insulation and systems segments.

US: Rockwool’s Comfortboard stone wool insulation product has been certified by the California State Fire Marshall’s Building Materials Listing (BML) Program. The product is resistant to fire up to 1175˚C and has a 0/0 Smoke Development and Flame Spread rating. The BML Program certifies products based upon an evaluation of test results that include an analysis of required product performance and reliability features. The testing was completed with a State Fire Marshall (SFM) accredited laboratory.

“This listing supports our continued commitment in the promotion of fire safe building practices and helps us deliver on products that will help architects and builders meet the California Title 24 thermal and Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) requirements,” said Mark Bromiley, Vice President of Marketing & Business Development, Rockwool (North America).

US: Rockwool has started legal action against the Jefferson County Board of Education (BOE) describing its attempts to stop construction of new mineral wool insulation plant as ‘unlawful.’ Court documents filed by the Danish insulation company allege that the BOE is trying to buy land from Rockwool for a low rate to build a student support centre otherwise it has threatened to appropriate it under US condemnation rules. Rockwool contends that the BOE originally supported the new plant with tax breaks but has since change its mind as local activists have opposed the project.

Rockwool started construction work on its US$150m mineral wool plant at Ranson, West Virginia in mid-2018. Production at the site is scheduled to start in early 2020.

Denmark: Rockwool’s external net sales for its insulation business rose by 16% year-on-year to Euro2.07bn in 2018 from Euro1.78bn in 2017. Its earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) grew by 45% to Euro266m from Euro184m. It attributed the sale increase to the insulation market in Europe and North America. Overall the group’s sales, including its systems business, grew by 12.5% to Euro2.67bn from Euro2.337bn.

“We achieved a great deal in 2018. Our company is financially solid, expanding operations to meet customer demand, and benefiting from strong brand awareness and reputation. Sales growth and profitability were strong, with the EBIT margin the second highest in the group’s recent history, notwithstanding being affected by increasing input costs. For 2019, we expect good profitability, though with a lower top-line growth than 2018,” said Group chief executive officer (CEO) Jens Birgersson.