Gypsum industry news

Brazil: Trevo Drywall has appointed Paulo César Pereira Alencar as its new CEO. Alencar has 35 years of business experience as a tax lawyer, and holds a law degree from the Regional University of Cariri.

The company additionally appointed Gabriel Rodrigues Granja de Alencar as its chief financial officer. Granja de Alencar previously worked as a director at plaster producer Gesso Trevo, as well as in the area of compliance at consultancy firm Ernst & Young. He holds a postgraduate degree in business management.

Brazil: Trevo Drywall plans to invest US$25m in an expansion to its Juazeiro do Norte gypsum wallboard plant, scheduled for commissioning in 2025. This will initially raise the plant's capacity to 20Mm²/yr, and subsequently to 30Mm² by 2026. The expanded plant will be equipped with a new enterprise resource planning system to assist with the increased automation of its operations. Trevo Drywall also plans to build a second plant, the location of which is subject to on-going evaluations.

Chief financial officer Gabriel Rodrigues Granja de Alencar said "We will also strengthen compliance tools and soon announce the creation of a people development programme."

Brazil: The Brazilian Geological Service (SGB) has announced its upcoming auctioning of gypsum mining sites in Pará. Business News Americas has reported that lots include the Calcário Aveiro site and the Gipsita Rio Cupari site. Altogether, prospective buyers can bid on 2890 hectares of gypsum reserves.

France: Saint-Gobain says that its like-for-like sales were stable year-on-year during the first nine months of 2023. In real terms its sales were Euro36.5bn during the first nine months of 2023, down by 4.9% year-on-year from the corresponding period in 2022. The group partly attributed this to comparison effects from its previous divestment of assets, including its distribution division, and negative currency exchange effects. Across its businesses, Saint-Gobain’s volumes dropped by 5.9%. Geographically, a ‘resilient’ renovation market offset a slowdown in new construction projects to raise sales in Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa by 1% year-on-year, but failed to do so in Northern Europe, where sales dropped by 5%. Sales fell by 5.5% in Latin America, as Brazil experienced the impacts of macroeconomic difficulties, but rose by 5% in North America. Across the Asia-Pacific region, organic sales growth was 5.1%.

Saint-Gobain said “In a difficult macroeconomic environment, the group continued to outperform its markets thanks to the pertinence of its strategic positioning at the heart of energy and decarbonisation challenges and to the strength of its local organisation by country, which enables it to offer comprehensive solutions to its customers.” It added “The group continues to focus on developing sustainable and innovative solutions with a positive impact, supported by strong innovation and investments for growth.”

Brazil: The Administrative Court of the Brazilian Administrative Council of Economic Defence (CADE) has submitted for review the proposed acquisition by Knauf Brazil of a gypsum wallboard plant operated by Trevo Industrial de Acartonados. The Office of the Superintendent General (SG) noted after an investigation that the transaction would increase market concentration, exceeding the limits set out in the guides of CADE and the competition law. The gypsum wallboard market in Brazil has four suppliers, including Knauf and Trevo.

The review pointed out that imports are “unusual and cannot be considered a source of competition if Knauf raises the prices after merging with Trevo.” The SG also warned that other factors could lead to potential market collusion such the lack of history of competitive rivalry in terms of price, quality, or any other difference amongst the products.

Following its challenge to the proposed acquisition, the SG has submitted the case to a tribunal. At this stage a commissioner will review it and include it in the agenda for further adjudication.

Brazil/Egypt: France-based Saint-Gobain has acquired Matchem in Brazil and started exclusive negotiations to acquire IDP Chemicals in Egypt via its Chryso subsidiary. Both transactions are intended to strengthen the company’s presence in the construction chemicals market with a focus on concrete admixtures. Matchem and IDP Chemicals will be consolidated within the Construction Chemicals segment in Saint-Gobain’s High Performance Solutions division.

Matchem, established in 2011, employs around 50 people across two plants in Brazil and reported revenue of around Euro20m in 2022. Saint-Gobain also operates mortar company Quartzolit, sealant and adhesive company TekBond and GCP Applied Technologies in Brazil.

IDP Chemicals has been licensed by Chryso since 2018 and employs 25 people at one plant. This acquisition is expected to be finalised in the first quarter of 2023.

Brazil: Saint Gobain has predicted a 40% year-on-year turnover increase from its Brazilian operations to US$2.63bn in 2021. It said that it expects demand for its products from civil construction to have accounted for 67% of its income for the year.

In 2021, Saint-Gobain invested a total of US$52.6m in its Brazilian operations, consisting of 56 sites. It aims to increase its total income by 15% in 2022 compared to 2021 levels. During the year, it plans to commission a new gypsum wallboard plant at Mogi das Cruzes in São Paulo.

Brazil: Trevo Drywall has begun raising funds for the construction of a new gypsum wallboard plant in Southeast Brazil. The company’s existing gypsum wallboard plant at Juazeiro do Norte, Ceará, is currently undergoing expansion to 16Mm²/yr from 14Mm²/yr. The plant will transition to natural gas power in January 2022. Trevo Drywall plans to further increase its capacity to 20Mm²/yr before 2024. Prior to this, it will use resources from its cash generation and proprietary and third-party capital to build the new unit in the Southeast. The company says that its location will be ‘closer to the main drywall consumer centres in Brazil.’ Currently, more than 80% of its sales are outside of the Northeast. The producer holds an 11% share of the Brazilian gypsum wallboard market.

CEO Sávio Maia said “We have been expanding our production potential at a rate of 26% per year since 2014 and, despite all the macroeconomic difficulties that Brazil went through during this period, we have always used 100% of our installed capacity.” He added “We generate more than 220 direct jobs, which has a great effect on the lives of many families in Juazeiro do Norte and the surrounding region, either by the income generated directly and indirectly, or by the company's prominent role among the largest local taxpayers.”

Brazil: Saint-Gobain plans to expand the capacity of its Mogi das Cruzes gypsum wallboard plant with the installation of a third production line. The plant will produce wallboard with its expanded capacity from early 2023. The Mogi das Cruzes plant currently has a gypsum wallboard production capacity of 22Mm²/yr.

France: Saint-Gobain’s says its sales for June 2020 rose by 3.7% on a like-for-like basis as markets recovered from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Its sales fell by 12.3% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis to Euro17.8bn in the first half of 2020 from Euro21.7bn in the same period in 2019. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) decreased by 32.4% to Euro1.64bn from Euro2.42bn.

“In a macroeconomic and health environment which remains affected by uncertainties, our earnings growth in June and outlook for the third quarter suggest that our operating income for second-half 2020 will improve significantly on first-half 2020,” said Pierre-André de Chalendar, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Saint-Gobain. He added that the group’s portfolio of products, including those in energy-efficiency and renovation markets, positioned it to benefit from national and European stimulus plans supporting energy saving initiatives.

The group noted a 19.2% year-on-year sales decrease in the second quarter of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, with very different situations between countries and markets. Most of its business segments reported growth in June 2020 with the exception of Asia-Pacific, where the Indian market held the division back. Gypsum sales helped deliver ‘robust growth’ in the US and Canada in June 2020. Strong growth in gypsum was reported in Brazil for the first half of 2020. Chinese sales in gypsum benefitted in the second quarter of 2020 from a new plaster plant, which originally opened in 2019, reaching full production capacity. The group’s High Performance Solutions division reported positive trends from its external thermal insulation solutions (ETICS) products in the second quarter of 2020.