Gypsum industry news
Panel Rey inaugurates wallboard plant in Ciudad Juárez 17 April 2018
Mexico: Panel Rey has inaugurated its gypsum wallboard plant in Ciudad Juárez. The company spent over US$55m on the plant that it says it the largest in Latin America. It is its fifth wallboard plant in the country following plants at El Carmen NL, San Luis Potosi, Mexico City and Mexicali. Construction at the site started in 2010 and first production started in early April 2018. Nicolás Alverde Villareal, the general director of Panel Rey, and Javier Corral Jurado, the governor of the state of Chihuahua, attended the event. The new plant is expected to created 170 direct jobs.
US: Knauf has complained about USG’s decision to block its request for the company’s current stocklist materials that would allow it to communciate with other USG shareholders. The German competitor to USG and minority shareholder said in a letter to the board of USG said, “Questioning Knauf’s ownership of USG stock and whether we have ‘proper purpose’ for requesting these materials are the tactics of an entrenched management trying to thwart our right to communicate with fellow stockholders in connection with the annual meeting.” Knauf also threatned legal action in Delware if USG failed to provide with the information it desired.
USG rejected a US$5.9bn bid by Knauf to take it over in late March 2018. Knauf subsequently sent a letter to USG’s shareholders asking them to vote against director nominations in protest against the rejection.