US: USG’s operating profit for its gypsum business has fallen by 4.5% to US$85m in the third quarter of 2017 from US$88m in the same period in 2016. The gypsum wallboard producer blamed this on falling prices, rising input costs and poor weather. It said that the average realised selling price for US wallboard decreased by approximately 2% sequentially and was impacted by freight costs and changes in wallboard product mix due to hurricanes Harvey and Irma. US wallboard manufacturing costs also increased by US$10m due, primarily to increased waste paper costs. Despite this, overall net sales for the quarter increased.
“We had positive momentum in the third quarter, with increased net sales and wallboard volume,” said Jennifer Scanlon, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of USG.
Gypsum segment net sales rose by 5.4% to US$2bn for the first nine months of 2017 from US$1.9bn in the same period in 2016. Operating profit fell by 14% to US$266m from US$310m.
