The Commerce Commission has received an application from Owens Corning seeking clearance to acquire the building reinforcement business of Compagnie de Saint-Gobain.

Owens Corning is an American-based building products company, with a number of manufacturing plants located throughout the world. Among other things, Owens Corning currently supplies glass fibre reinforcements into New Zealand through third party distributors.

Compagnie de Saint-Gobain is a French company that also supplies glass fibre reinforcements internationally. In New Zealand, Compagnie de Saint-Gobain distributes these products through its Australia-based subsidiary.

Currently, neither company has any manufacturing facilities in New Zealand.

In considering the application, the Commission's role is to determine whether the acquisition has the effect of substantially lessening competition in a market.

A public version of the application will shortly be available on the Clearances Register.