The company reports net earnings of $22 million, for the first quarter (Q1) of 2013, compared to a net loss of $46 million in 2012.
"The first quarter was a positive start to the year and supports our full-year outlook for at least $100 million of growth in adjusted EBIT," says Owens Corning Chairman and CEO Mike Thaman.
"We continue to believe that the pace of the US housing recovery and its impact on the margin performance of the Building Materials businesses will largely determine the upside to our guidance."
For Owens Corning's Composites business, net sales of $459 million in Q1 2013 were down from $476 million in the first quarter of 2012 due to product mix and currency, and first quarter EBIT of $9 million was down from $23 million last year on lower production and inflation.
Discussing the outlook for the Composites business for the full year, Thaman said: "In composites, our asset repositioning and first quarter asset ramp-up have positioned our plants to increase operating leverage and to begin realising the full benefits of lower manufacturing costs that will yield improved margins over last year. We anticipate accelerating growth in industrial production as the year progresses and will continue to look for opportunities to support our margins in this business with improved pricing. ... We were required to respond to a couple of specific competitive pricing situations that impacted the quarter by $3 million and would impact the full year by about $10 [million]. Despite these challenges, the overall market pricing was broadly stable, with positive price trends in some developing economies that suffered particularly weak pricing last year. Of particular note, Jushi and Taishan both announced price increases in China late in the quarter. We have announced a price increase in China. We are hopeful that a positive price trend in China can create momentum for price improvements in Europe and the US in the second half of this year. Given current trends, we believe that flat nominal pricing may still be achievable for 2013."
Owens Corning (NYSE: OC), headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, USA, is a global producer of residential and commercial building materials, glass fibre reinforcements and engineered materials for composite systems.