A recent report from the Single-Ply Roofing Industry (SPRI) identified a 12.2 percent increase in roof membrane shipments in 2021, suggesting supply chain woes may begin to clear up.
This comes as a sharp improvement from 2020, which saw a year-over-year shipment decline of 4.1 percent.
SPRI, the trade organization representing North American manufacturers in commercial roofing manufacturing, education, and innovation, compiled this data based on sales reports from the 64 companies in its total membership. These member companies report shipments for several classifications of flexible roof membranes: thermoset, thermoplastic, atactic polypropylene (APP) modified bitumen, and styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) modified bitumen.
In particular, the thermoset segment saw 7.5 percent growth over the prior year, thermoplastic saw 14 percent growth, and modified bitumen saw 9.7 percent growth. Regionally, year-to-year shipments increased 20 percent in the northeast U.S. The southern region saw 13.5 percent growth, followed by the north central region at 10.7 percent, and the western region at six percent.
SPRI members in the U.S. report shipments at both the national and state level.
