Explora II during sea trials
Explora II during sea trialsMSC Group

Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri files $100m lawsuit over faulty fire insulation panels

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Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri has filed a US$100 million lawsuit against the company that had manufactured fire insulation panels that were later installed on three cruise ships and eight military vessels.

Through the suit filed in the US District Court in Ohio, Fincantieri has alleged that Owens Corning subsidiary the Paroc Group had obtained safety certificates for some of its insulation panels by, "submitting altered materials for testing."

The shipbuilder claimed that Paroc had presented its panels as being made from materials that satisfied SOLAS' class A-60 fire integrity standard, which indicates the ability to prevent heat transfer for 60 minutes or longer.

In 2023, a competitor of Paroc discovered during testing that the panels did not meet class A-60 requirements. This claim was validated by the Danish Institute of Fire and Security Technology via independent testing later that same year.

Fincantieri said that, although the impacted products were recalled in May 2023, Paroc had not advised on any "remedial actions" for the completed ships fitted with the said panels.

In the suite, Fincantieri identified 11 ships fitted with the defective panels. These include the 2022-built Discovery Princess and the sister ships Explora I and Explora II, which were delivered in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

The deliveries of the latter two ships needed to be postponed for the defective panels to be replaced.

Owens Corning had demonstrated, "a malicious, reckless, and grossly negligent disregard for the safety of the affected products and of those persons whom the applicable safety requirements are designed to protect, with knowledge of and ignoring the risk of substantial and potentially catastrophic injury to what could be thousands of persons on any one of the vessels that incorporated the defective and non-compliant products," the suit stated.

Fincantieri said the US$100 million would cover the investigation and the necessary repairs on the affected ships as well as costs that were incurred due to delivery delays.

Owens Corning, which has been given until September 19, 2025, to file a response, said that it was "aware" of the suit but did not issue any comment.

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