A new development in the affair of the fire of the Grenfell tower in London causes Saint-Gobain to fall by 8% on the Paris Stock Exchange


A member of the UK Government is warning companies selling flammable coatings and insulation that unless they pay for the upgrades they will no longer be able to do business in the UK.

Grenfell Tower after the fire that caused  the death of more than 70 people in June 2017

Grenfell Tower after the fire that killed more than 70 people in June 2017 | Photo credits: DHF/Wenn.com/Sipa

Saint-Gobain falls 8% on the Cac 40, signing one of the biggest falls on the Paris Stock Exchange, while, in the same building materials business, the Irish Kingspan plunges more than 10% in Dublin . The reason ? In reaction to the gigantic fire at London’s Grenfell Tower, which killed 72 people in June 2017, the British Secretary of State for Equal Opportunities, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove, brandished the threat to ban the access in the UK to all companies that market combustible coatings and insulation, including Kingspan and Saint-Gobain.

Unless they pay the security rebates out of pocket, they will no longer be able to trade with England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

In a letter addressed to the Construction Products Association, the trade organization which represents the interests of construction companies active in the British market – and to which Saint-Gobain belongs – the member of the government described as“extremely alarming” the elements revealed by the public inquiry into the Grenfell tower, on the way in which the industrialists had manufactured, tested and marketed their combustible materials.

Michael Gove is particularly angered by the profits of more than £700million made over the past four years by the three companies most closely associated with the Grenfell disaster (Arconic, Celotex, one of the Saint-Gobain subsidiaries, and Kingspan), who manufactured the combustible cladding panels and foam insulation for the tower in North Kensington.

Michael Gove has given the companies until March to agree a deal.


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