Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

US: Stepan has appointed Scott Behrens to the roles of president and chief operating officer (COO) with effect from January 2021.

Behrens began working for Stepan in 1995 as a senior product development chemist. He has held managerial roles since 1998 and gained a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Northwestern University in 2003. He also holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree from Illinois State University.

Belgium: Knauf Insulation has launched its 2020 Annual Review. Europe, Middle East and Asia management committee member Jean-Claude Carlin said, “The global pandemic has put our people and our values of challenge.create.care. firmly in the spotlight this year.”

The company said that it navigated continuous challenges by ensuring staff and customers were ’As Safe As Home.’ It implemented plans to achieve its new ‘For a Better World’ sustainability strategy under the headings ‘Putting People First,’ ’Achieving Zero Carbon,’ ’Delivering a Circular Economy’ and ’Creating Better Buildings.’ The last includes the company’s plans for a new Eco-Design tool and efforts to drive the European Commission’s ‘Renovation Wave.’ The producer also reduced carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions per cubic metre of product by 23% between 2010 and 2019.

Carlin said, “These milestones will keep our sustainability journey on track and ensure that we are all responsible for delivering success not leaving problems for the next generation. These milestones are an exciting challenge that I am confident will bring out the best in everyone. I look forward to reporting positive progress next year.”

UK: Jonathan Roper, a former assistant product manager at Celotex, has described the company as ‘dishonest’ by ‘overengineering’ a cladding fire safety test to achieve a pass for its RS5000 insulation product. After a first test failure in January 2014, a second system passed in May 2014, which the firm used to erroneously market the combustible rigid foam boards as being safe for use on high-rise buildings, the inquiry has heard, according to the Press Association. Covert changes were allegedly made to the set-up of the second test to make the outcome more favourable. Roper added that the motivation for getting the RS5000 product to market was to compete with rival firm Kingspan and its K15 insulation.

Celotex, part of the French multinational Saint-Gobain group, has maintained it promoted RS5000's use on buildings taller than 18m only on a "rainscreen cladding system with the specific components", used when it passed the fire safety test. The inquiry has previously heard Celotex saw Grenfell as a "flagship" for its product and exploited the "smoke of confusion" which surrounded building regulations at the time.

The current stage in the inquiry is examining the production, testing and sale of the materials used in the tower's refurbishment which resulted in the June 2017 fire, killing 72 people. The proceedings continue.

Spain: Saint-Gobain Isover has launched APTA Arena 48, a 48mm thick variant of its sand mineral wool product. It is intended for use with internal partition walls with the 48mm grid system. The product offers thermal resistance of 1.40m2K/W with λ = 34mW/mK.

Ireland: Kingspan has reported a sales fall of 5% year-on-year in its 2020 nine-month trading update, to Euro3.27bn from Euro3.44bn in the first nine months of 2019. Its sales of insulation boards fell by 14% and by 5% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2020.

The group said that insulation board sales “performed well” in Ireland, the UK and parts of Continental Europe in the third quarter of 2020, while volumes “improved, with raw material-related price deflation in the earlier part of the period partially offsetting this” in total sales. The Asia Pacific region “consolidated the progress seen in the first half,” while activity in the US was “positive through the third quarter.” Only the Middle East proved “a more challenging environment.”

The company said, “Overall, our end markets are in reasonable shape bearing in mind the uncertain and evolving backdrop. In this environment it is difficult to see too far ahead and trading patterns can evolve quickly. Our raw material costs are on the rise at present and, with the customary lag anticipated, a challenging recovery effort is underway. Trading in the fourth quarter to date has been strong, helped to an extent by accelerated demand in the expectation of inflation-led price increases in the coming months. Whilst conscious that much of the seasonally variable fourth quarter is still at play, in what is an untypical year, we expect to deliver a full year trading profit marginally ahead of 2019.”