Owens Corning's net earnings for the first quarter ended 31 March 2010 were $48 million, compared with a net loss of $28 million in the first quarter of 2009.

EBIT for the quarter ended was $83 million, compared with an EBIT loss of $18 million during the same period in 2009.

"Owens Corning is off to a strong start in 2010," says Mike Thaman, Chairman and CEO. "We demonstrated leverage in our Composites business, driving a return to healthy profit levels. We continued our strong momentum in Roofing, generating first-quarter margins of 24%. Based on these results, we have raised our 2010 adjusted EBIT outlook to as much as $450 million, which is $100 million higher than our previous estimate."

In the Composites business, the company believes that overall demand will continue to grow as global industrial activity improves, but the rate of recovery remains uncertain. Owens Corning expects to increase production to meet improved market demand, and to see benefits from various cost-reduction actions and prior price increases.

Substantially all of the increase in Composites net sales was a result of higher sales volumes. The impact of translating sales denominated in foreign currencies into the US dollar also increased net sales, accounting for approximately 10% of the increase. Partially offsetting these increases were lower selling prices in the first quarter of 2010 as compared to the first quarter of 2009. While selling prices across most markets rose in the first quarter of 2010, they were generally still below those seen in the first quarter of 2009.

Owens Corning (NYSE: OC) is a global producer of residential and commercial building materials, glass fibre reinforcements and engineered materials for composite systems.