Arconic shares hit by report it produced Grenfell cladding material
Arconic shares dropped 6% in early trade after the New York Times reported the company produced the material used for the cladding of the Grenfell Tower.
Shares were off sharply in the wake of the report that the company was the manufacturer of the sandwich of aluminium sheets and polyethylene for Grenfell tower, which caused the deaths of at least 79 people.
"The facade, installed last year at Grenfell Tower, in panels known as cladding and sold as Reynobond PE, consisted of two sheets of aluminum that sandwich a combustible core of polyethylene. It was produced by the American manufacturing giant Alcoa, which was renamed Arconic after a reorganization last year", the New York Times reported.
The NY Times also reported that Arconic marketed the material differently in the UK than in the rest of Europe, where sales materials explicitly instructed that the flammable material could not be used on certain structures.
"Arconic has marketed the flammable facades in Britain for years, even as it has adjusted its pitch elsewhere.
"In other European countries, Arconic’s sales materials explicitly instructed that as soon as the building is higher than the firefighters’ ladders, it has to be conceived with an incombustible material.”
An Arconic website for British customers mentioned that such use “depends on local building codes".
For years, members of parliament wrote letters protesting new restrictions on cladding, particularly as the same flammable facades were blamed for fires in Britain, France, the United Arab Emirates, Australia and elsewhere but nothing was done in response.
Fire safety experts said the fire at Grenfell Tower was a tragedy that could have been avoided, if warnings had been heeded.
Arconic shares were down by 6.62% to $23.85 by 16:40 BST