Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Ireland: Kingspan has contested the European Commission (EC)'s preliminary findings from its investigation of the company’s abandoned attempt to acquire Slovenia-based Trimo in 2021. The Commission preliminarily found that Kingspan negligently or intentionally provided incorrect, incomplete and misleading information during the merger review. The relevant information reportedly pertained to Kingspan’s internal organisation, market scope, barriers to entry and expansion and competition closeness with Trimo. The Irish Independent newspaper has reported that applicable fines may be up to 1% of Kingspan’s annual global turnover.

Kingspan disputed the preliminary findings and will now formulate a response. In a statement, the company said “Kingspan has fully co-operated with the commission throughout the period relating to the Trimo process, which commenced in September 2020, continued until Kingspan withdrew from the process in April 2022, and was followed by the EC's investigation, which opened in November 2022. This Trimo application was unusual and uniquely onerous given both the level of information sought and the fact that the process occurred during the Covid-19 outbreak. It is in no way representative of the long and productive relationship Kingspan has with the EC. Since the Trimo process began in 2020, Kingspan has secured four successful clearances, supporting investments by Kingspan in energy-efficient and low-carbon buildings that are essential to the EC's green transition."

UK: Norway-based BEWI has acquired an additional 51% stake in Jablite Group for around Euro12m making it the sole owner. It previously purchased a 49% stake in the expanded polystyrene (EPS) insulation products producer and civil engineering provider in June 2020. At the time Jablite initiated a restructuring programme due the negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic and resulting lockdowns. As part of the programme it also closed two of its facilities.

The current management of Jablite, including managing director Richard Lee and finance director John Cooper, will continue in their roles going forward. Rik Dobbelaere, a previous chief executive officer (CEO) of Synbra Holding and BEWi Synbra Group, and director of the board of BEWI ASA, has been director of the board of Jablite since BEWI’s acquisition of the 49% stake in 2020.

“We are very pleased to now be able to include Jablite fully to our team. The company has shown an impressive development the last two years, and we look forward to further strengthen our market position in the UK together going forward,” said Christian Bekken, CEO of BEWI. He added that Jablite’s operations would complement the UK-based operations of Jackon well and that synergies were expected by combining the two companies once the acquisition Jackon transaction is completed. BEWI started to buy the Norway-based supplier of insulation and construction systems in late 2021.

BEWI is an international provider of packaging, components and insulation products.

US: Knauf Insulation is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the beginning of operations at its Shasta Lake glass wool insulation plant in California. Local press has reported that the company increased its capacity by 70% over the past two decades. Today, the Shasta Lake plant employs 156 people. It has implemented sustainable practices in its production, including the use of ECOSE Technology plant-based binders in the place of petrochemical alternatives. It also recycles 600,000 glass bottles daily, constituting 50% of its glass consumption. This presented the plant with difficulties when Covid-19 lockdowns reduced local waste glass generation.

Denmark: Rockwool says that high construction and renovation activity in the residential sector mainly drove its insulation sales in 2021. Insulation business sales grew by 20% year-on-year to Euro2.29bn in 2021 from Euro1.91bn. Its earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) rose by 17% to Euro275m from Euro236m. Strong growth was reported in Europe, solid sales in North America but some parts of China and elsewhere in Asia were negatively affected by coronavirus-related closures of some markets. The producer commented that its insulation sales increased ‘significantly’ in 2021 even compared to 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic started. However, it warned that “sales prices and productivity gains did not fully offset the accelerating inflation on production materials, energy and logistic costs.”

“The surprising speed of the 2021 economic rebound also brought challenges, including inventory and material shortages in some markets as well as logistics challenges that required creative solutions. Special thanks go to our customers for their patience and especially our people working in the factories and across the commercial, technical, procurement, and support teams, who worked together to reduce customer delays,” said chair Thomas Kähler and chief executive officer Jens Birgersson in a statement. Overall, group net sales grew by 19% to Euro3.09bn from Euro2.60bn. EBITDA increased by 15% to Euro602m from Euro522m.

Slovakia: Knauf Insulation’s plant at Nová Bana produced 104,000t of mineral wool in 2021. Plant director Marián Tkáč told the News Agency of the Slovak Republic (TASR) that the unit reached this record volume despite Covid-19 restrictions, rising input costs and maintenance on the production lines. The plant also installed a flue-gas desulfurisation unit as part of an environmental upgrade in 2021. Despite the high production volume in 2021, Tkáč said that demand for insulation remained high and delivery times were growing.

New Zealand: The New Zealand government has announced the lifting of Level 4 lockdown outside of Auckland. Radio New Zealand News has reported that this will enable construction to resume. Inside Auckland, insulation is among four ‘critical products’ that the government has allowed to resume production.

The Building Industry Federation (BIF) said that the government had listened to suppliers' concerns.

New Zealand: Fletcher Building has suspended the production of its Pink Batts glass wool insulation at its plant in Canterbury region due to Covid-19 lockdown measures. RNZ News has reported that New Zealand entered Covid-19 lockdown level 4 in September 2021. As a result of the closure, Pink Batts insulation is in ‘extremely limited’ supply, including in the Auckland market.

Belgium: Etex is investing Euro1.2m on an upgrade to its Sint-Niklaas high performance insulation plant. The project is intended to increase the plant’s capacity by 30% in order to benefit cold supply chain markets currently supporting vaccine transport. The company estimates that it will generate over Euro6m in sales from its ‘high-performance, ultra-thin’ insulation products used in both building applications and passively cooled containers for vaccine transport.

Head of Industry Steven Heytens said “Our products contribute to global energy efficiency and create sustainable value for our customers. Driven by the European Union Green Deal, we expect the demand for thin insulation solutions for building and cool logistics applications to increase strongly in the coming years. This investment fits with our growth strategy and confirms our commitment to strengthening our European position in high performance microporous insulation.”

Luxembourg: Armacell recorded consolidated net sales of Euro591m in 2020, down by 8% year-on-year from Euro644m in 2019. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 10% to Euro120m from Euro134m. During the year, the company completed a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) foaming line expansion in Suzhou, China, built an elastometric foams plant in Cheonan, South Korea and consolidated its Italian insulation activities at a new facility in Turin. It also made strategic investments in diversified areas.

President and chief executive officer Patrick Mathieu said, “In a complex and challenging environment our business model again proved resilient. With our global reach and multi-segment activity, we ended the year in relatively good shape. We took the appropriate measures to navigate changing circumstances and ensure we come out of the pandemic stronger than before. Our utmost priority was always to safeguard the health of our employees, maintain operations and continuously support our customers.” He added, “After the successful closure of our capital market refinancing in February 2020, our shareholders PAI Partners and KIRKBI expressed their commitment to our on-going growth strategy. In 2021, we look forward to partnering with our customers in adding value to their businesses.”

UK: The Construction Products Association and the Builders Merchants Federation have raised the issue of low short-term availability of polyurethane (PUR) and polyisocyanurate (PIR) insulation. The associations attributed the shortages to the effects of ‘historically’ high raw materials costs on production. These it said resulted from high international demand for raw materials and finished products and challenges as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The associations expect PUR and PIR availability to improve in the third quarter of 2021. They said that long-term demand growth was set to continue, in part due to the government’s 2050 net zero carbon target.