US: Owens Corning has agreed to acquire all outstanding shares of door systems producer Masonite International Corporation for US$3.9bn. This acquisition marks a diversification into the residential building sector for Owens Corning, providing it with a new growth platform on which to leverage its capabilities.

Owens Corning chair and CEO Brian Chambers said "We are excited by this opportunity to add a scalable new growth platform for our company. Masonite is a market leader that complements our existing residential interior and exterior product offering and has consistently demonstrated top-line growth and margin expansion. The combination of our commercial, operational and innovation capabilities allows us to accelerate our long-term enterprise growth strategy with a clear line of sight to meaningful synergies and increased cash flow generation. We look forward to welcoming the talented Masonite team to Owens Corning and working with them to deliver enhanced value to customers and shareholders.”

France: Soprema plans to begin building a new polyurethane (PU) insulation plant at Sausheim, near Mulhouse, in mid-late 2024. The producer says that it will invest Euro50m and enter production at the upcoming plant in 2026. When operational, the Sausheim insulation plant will complement Soprema’s existing Saint-Julien-du-Sault and Nîmes plants, and serve Grand Est, Austrian, Germany and Switzerland. The plant will generate 80 direct jobs and a similar number again of indirect jobs.

Italy: Saint-Gobain has entered into a 10-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Switzerland-based utilities provider Axpo Holding. Under the agreement, Axpo Holding will supply 22GWh/yr of renewable electricity from a newly built wind farm in Puglia. The deal will fulfil 11% of Saint-Gobain's Italian energy needs across 10 sites.

The latest PPA with Axpo Italia is Saint-Gobain's fifth in Italy. Collectively, these will bring the group’s reliance on renewables in its Italian operations to 20%.

France: Saint-Gobain subsidiary Isonat is investing Euro10m in a capacity expansion to its Mably insulation wood fibre insulating panels plant. French Collection News has reported that the expansion will double the plant’s capacity to 42,000t/yr. The company says that it aims to double its sales in two years. It noted growing demand for bio-sourced materials and the availability of favourable home renovations subsidies.