The ratings on Toledo, Ohio-based Owens Corning reflect the company's strong leading market positions, well-known brand names, good product and customer diversity, and moderate financial policies. The ratings also reflect cyclical, competitive, and mature markets, modest geographic diversity, and raw-material cost pressures. Owens Corning manufactures building products and composite materials, focused mainly in North America. Its primary businesses are insulation, roofing and asphalt, glass fiber reinforcement products, and manufactured stone veneer. Owens Corning is shifting its portfolio by selling its siding solutions business and acquiring Compagnie de Saint-Gobain's reinforcement and composites business. Standard&Poor's Ratings Services believes these transactions support Owen Corning's satisfactory business risk profile. The North American vinyl siding industry is mature, cyclical, and subject to volatile
