Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

US: Roxul, the North American division of Rockwool Group, will fully rebrand as Rockwool on 1 January 2018. The rebranding exercise will apply to all segments of Roxul’s North America insulation business including residential, commercial, roofing, original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and technical (industrial, marine & offshore) sectors, as well as all product lines.

“Roxul is soon to be Rockwool in North America,” said Trent Ogilvie, president of Roxul. “The rebrand creates a unified identity for our company, its solutions and benefits on a global scale. It reinforces Rockwool’s position as a world leader in a diverse range of stone wool solutions, while unlocking significant potential for our business.”

The rebrand follows an April 2017 announcement from the Rockwool Group that all its global subsidiaries have assumed a new, cohesive brand identity. This marked the introduction of the Rockwool symbol, a graphic representation of a volcano, as well as a new purpose statement. The rebranding only applies to the group’s North American insulation business. Its Rockfon and Grodan subsidiaries will continue to operate under their respective brand names.

Denmark: Rockwool’s sales have grown in the first half of 2017 due to sales of flat roof insulation in Eastern Europe and general building insulation in North America. Its net sales rose by 6.6% year-on-year to Euro1.12bn from Euro1.05bn.

"As expected, the sales price increases we're implementing are beginning to show,” said chief executive officer Jens Birgersson. “Pricing will continue to be a major focus going forward, and we see positive market developments in the second half of the year, including an increasing interest for fire safe stone wool products. With better visibility for the remainder of the year, we are also increasing our guidance for sales growth."

US: Rockwool is planning to build a US$150m mineral wool plant at Ranson in West Virginia. Construction is scheduled to start in October 2017 with production expected to commence in the first quarter of 2020. The new unit will have an area of 43,000m² and employ 150 workers.

“This new production site places us close to major population centres in the north-eastern, mid-Atlantic, and mid-western US. We’re growing along with the market, and we look forward to serving our customers’ needs from this new facility,” said Trent Ogilvie, president of Roxul, Rockwool Group’s subsidiary in North America.

Denmark: Rockwool’s net sales rose by 8% year-on-year to Euro543m in the first quarter of 2017 from Euro494m in the same period in 2016 due to growing insulation sales in Europe. The group also attributed extra working days in the period and favourable exchange rate swings. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 3.6% to Euro86m from Euro83m. The company’s insulation segment sales grew due to the market in both Western and Eastern Europe. Its earnings held up in North America due to sales growth, increased prices and better utilisation at a plant in the US.

UK: The British Board of Agrément (BBA) has given its approval to Rockwool’s Rainscreen Duo Slab façade insulation product. It is the first stone wool product to gain this for use in ventilated rainscreen systems. As part of the certification process the product was tested for factors such as thermal performance, condensation risk, behaviour in relation to fire, and durability in order to meet national regulations. Rainscreen Duo Slab has achieved certification status for use as a Hybrid frame system and Rainscreen system.

“It is incredibly important to us to put our products through the BBA process, as the certification provides architects with peace of mind when specifying our products” comments Paul Barrett, Product Manager at Rockwool.

Rainscreen Duo Slab is a dual density insulation board that offers weather resistance on its outer surface whilst being installed and an inner surface that is designed to accommodate the substrate to which it is being applied. It is fire resilient and complies with Approved Document B, achieving the Euroclass classification: A1. It also complies with BR135: Fire Performance of External Insulation for Walls of Multi-Storey Buildings.

Russia: Rockwool has completed an upgrade of its stone wool insulation plant at Troitsk, in Chelyabinsk region. The unit will use Power+ technology with enhanced micro-distribution of the binder and optimised fibre-spinning technology on the production line. These improvements are intended to improve the final product’s homogeneity and performance properties.

Denmark: Rockwool Group has launched a new brand identity including a new corporate symbol, a graphic representation of a volcano. It says that the symbol stands for the, ‘commitment to enrich modern living through processes and products that exist harmoniously.’ It will be used across all of the group’s brands. It is also intended to demonstrate to customers and stakeholders how the company uses volcanic stone to ‘enrich and transform modern living.’ The group has also adopted a new motto – ‘Release the natural power of stone to enrich modern living’ – to compound the theme.

“I am proud of the Rockwool Group’s long heritage in harnessing the power of one of the world’s most abundant natural resources in sustainable and innovative solutions that help solve the challenges of modern living. The updated brand identity marks an important evolution in the way we talk about our company, conveying a consistent vision and shared heritage across our diverse product portfolio’s full range,” said Mirella Vitale, Rockwool’s Senior Vice President for Group Marketing, Communications & Public Affairs.

Denmark: Bjørn Høi Jensen, the chairman of Rockwool, has announced that he will not be standing for re-election at the company’s annual general meeting in April 2017. He said that as he had met his goals to review the management group, start a new growth plan and introduce an ‘extensive’ improvement in results that he was standing down earlier than planned. He originally became chairman in 2014.

Rockwool’s external net sales for its insulation division dropped by 2% to Euro1.63bn in 2016 from Euro1.66bn in 2015. In local currencies the company calculated a slight rise of 0.7% for its net sales. However, its overall profit nearly doubled to Euro166m from Euro90m and its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 21% to Euro389m from Euro322m. It blamed the poor sales on the industrial and technical insulation industries and the slow development of construction in Russia in both new build and renovation. In a statement Jensen described 2016 as a year ‘marked by tough conditions.’

The insulation and building materials producer also announced that it was planning to build three new production plants including a stone wool factory in Mississippi, US. Land acquisitions for the projects are expected to be completed in 2017.

Denmark: Sales from Rockwool’s insulation business have fallen slightly by 2% year-on-year to Euro1.22bn in the first nine months of 2016 from Euro1.24bn in the same period in 2015. However, the group reported this as a 1.2% rise in local currencies. Earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) rose by 61% to Euro114m from Euro71m. By region it said that sales performed well in North America, showed signs of improvement in Western Europe but continued to decline in Russia.

Russia: Rockwool division manager Henrik Frank Nielsen expects the Russian market to grow eventually despite a poor market for insulation materials at present, a troubled local economy and looming international political risks. He told Danish newspaper Børsen that Russia is still both a healthy and profitable market but that it is difficult to make long-term plans in the country. The Russian market for insulation materials for the construction sector decreased by 15% in 2015 and Nielsen expects an equally high decrease for 2016.