Gypsum industry news

Spain: Germany-based Knauf has expanded its 15-year-long partnership with mental health charity Sol del Solsonès in Solsonès, Catalonia. Knauf will donate finances and essential building materials, including gypsum wallboard. The resources will support the Un Raig de Sol therapy initiative, enabling it to treat 22 people in need of care.

Knauf’s director of people and compliance Daniel Orta said "We use the best therapy in the world: love and affection."

Australia: Saint-Gobain subsidiary CSR plans to expand its Welshpool gypsum wallboard plant in Western Australia. The producer plans to upgrade the plant’s production line and expand warehouses that serve it and the neighbouring Bradford building materials plant. CSR said that the upgrade to the Welshpool wallboard plant will reduce its consumption of natural gas and electricity and facilitate its transition to alternative fuels or electricity.

CEO Paul Dalton said "This significant investment will make Welshpool safer and more sustainable, increase capacity and improve productivity and cost efficiency, all while removing risk from our supply chain.”

Canada: Saint-Gobain Canada has partnered with Women Building Futures (WBF) as part of its Build Change corporate social responsibility programme. The partnership involves a donation and support for WBF’s training programmes and coaching. Together, the partners hope to increase the economic security of women in the construction sector.

CEO Julie Bonamy said "Women Building Futures’ work to remove barriers for women in industries where they are traditionally under-represented, like construction, is vital to creating the workforce of tomorrow, while ensuring everyone has an opportunity to succeed. At Saint-Gobain, we are proud to support this incredible organisation and are excited to get started to build change in our community and our industry."

Germany: A working group of gypsum producers in the Harz region has supported the Mission: Urban Forest Rescue 2024 reforestation initiative in Osterode, Lower Saxony. The group, including CASEA, Saint-Gobain, Rump & Salzmann and VG Orth, donated €12,500 to the initiative.

The Mayor of Osterode, Jens Augat, said "We are pleased about the companies' commitment to conservation, which goes far beyond the required level.”

Australia: Shareholders in CSR have voted in favour of the company’s proposed acquisition by France-based Saint-Gobain for US$2.87bn.

CSR chair John Gillam said “The attractive value creation for shareholders arising from the planned acquisition by Saint-Gobain is a clear validation of the strategy and its successful execution by the CSR team under Julie Coates’ leadership. Organisations like Saint-Gobain don’t just casually start trading in a new country if they haven’t got a productive capacity to back up what they’re selling, so they’re looking to participate in this economy by acquiring at a very strong price.”

Australia: France-based Saint-Gobain has submitted a non-binding indicative offer of US$5.44bn for building materials producer and land banking entity CSR. CSR’s businesses include insulation producer Bradford, fibre cement systems producer Cemintel, wallboard producer Gyprock, autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) block producer Hebel and roofing producer Monier. Together, CSR’s building materials units accounted for 72% of its sales in 2023.

Belgium: Etex has donated five sustainable modular housing units to families dispossessed by flooding in the summer of 2021. The company built the houses at Rochefort and Pepinster in two weeks and their assembly took 48 hours. Etex said that it plans to develop the construction method in future in order to meet needs and new trends in the housing sector.

Bernard Delvaux, chief executive officer of Etex said “It was important for us to donate our expertise through these five houses built in a circular way with a very low carbon footprint. Our modular construction technologies meet multiple housing needs around the world with the fast construction of affordable, well-insulated, high-quality and attractive living spaces.”

Australia: Senex Energy has agreed a deal with CSR Gyprock to supply natural gas to its gypsum wallboard plant at Coopers Plains in Queensland. The agreement also covers gas supplies to CSR’s brick and insulation plants in the state. Under the initial three-year agreement, Senex will supply CSR Building Products, a subsidiary of CSR, with 0.65PJ/yr of gas, starting on 1 January 2020. CSR can extend the agreement by up to a further two years, taking the total contract quantity to 3.25PJ. Gas will be supplied at the Wallumbilla Gas Hub in Queensland at a fixed price in line with current market levels, indexed annually.

Australia: Boral will repurchase up to US$182m of its shares after a string of divestments bolstered the company's balance sheet. It intends to buy back up to 5%, or about 39 million shares, of its issued capital on-market over the next 12 months.

Boral chief executive Mike Kane said that the completion of a number of transactions, including the US$127m sale of its Western Landfill business in Melbourne to Transpacific Industries, had allowed for the share repurchase.

"This buyback reflects Boral's commitment to efficient capital management and delivering improved returns to shareholders," said Kane. "At the same time, we are maintaining flexibility to respond to changes in market conditions and to take advantage of appropriate growth opportunities that may present in the future." Kane had already flagged acquisitions in Asia and North America and said that Boral was too unbalanced towards Australia.

Boral received US$500m as part of an agreement with USG Corporation to sell half of its Australasian wallboard assets into a joint venture. It is on target to receive further performance-based payments of up to US$57.7m over the next three years.

Boral was reportedly considering a sell-off of its building products division, but indicated it would instead look for savings through cost-reduction programs and joint ventures. A brickmaking joint venture with CSR will proceed after receiving approval from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, with the expectation of savings of between US$5.39 – 7.69m between Boral and CSR.