Gypsum industry news

Russia: Belgium-based ETEX has announced the suspension of all of its Russian activities ‘immediately and until further notice.’ The gypsum wallboard producer operates two sites for the import and sale of fibre cement façade materials near Moscow. It says that it will take care of the 50 colleagues it employs there.

The group said “We will continue to do everything we can for the safety and well-being of all our teammates and hope that peace will prevail quickly.”

UK: Belgium-based Etex has announced a new UK trading agreement with Kier, a provider of construction and infrastructure services.The arrangement will see Etex and Kier collaborate on a variety of new projects using Etex’s products, including its Siniat brand wallboard.

Gerard Cox, Head of Procurement for Kier Construction, added “We are excited to include Etex Building Performance to our carefully selected list of preferred supply chain partners and look forward to engaging with them on our projects where we believe their range of products, warrantied systems and customer focussed approach, have the potential to add real value to our business.”

Etex previously said it plans to start operations at its new wallboard plant at the Port of Bristol in 2022. It has invested around Euro165m in the project that is set to double its production capacity in the UK.

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.”

Belgium: Etex’s 2020 Sustainability Report has recorded the company’s progress towards its sustainability goals under four headings. Under the heading ‘carbon neutrality,’ it produced and purchased 72% of its electricity consumption renewably, compared to 14% in 2019. Under ‘health, safety and wellbeing,’ its lost-time accidents per million working hours fell by 36% year-on-year to 1.4 from 2.2. Under ‘waste management and circularity,’ it reduced its waste generation by 8.9% to 254Mt from 278Mt and reduced the share of its waste sent to landfill to 18% from 26%. Lastly, under ‘diversity and inclusion,’ 28% of the company’s newly hired staff were women, compared to a group total share of 19%.

CEO Paul van Oyen said “At Etex, we have a clear commitment to helping build a better, sustainable future. We seek to offer holistic value to our customers, employees, shareholders and other stakeholders, as we continue to decouple our growth from environmental and social impacts. To help achieve this, we focus on lightweight materials and prefabricated construction. These methods offer advantages such as reduced raw material use, energy consumption, waste and emissions. Even more, they contribute to enhanced long-term circularity by creating opportunities for deconstruction, reuse and recycling.”

Belgium: Etex recorded first-half consolidated sales of Euro1.45bn in 2021, up by 18% year-on-year from Euro1.23bn in the first half of 2020. Its recurring earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (REBITDA) rose by 50% to Euro308m from Euro206m. The group increased its profit for the period by 98% to Euro139m from Euro70m. Its building performance division’s sales increased by 29% on a like-for-like basis to Euro1.03bn. Its residential segment recorded particular growth due to ‘dynamic’ renovation activities. All of the division’s operating regions performed well, with all product ranges progressing year-on-year in sales, volumes and margins terms.

Chief executive officer Paul Van Oyen said, “Although the on-going Covid-19 pandemic was still heavily impacting people’s lives, as well as the global economy, in the first half of 2021, the consequences for Etex cannot be compared to what we have experienced last year. The company benefitted from a very dynamic market, especially the home repair and improvement activities, as well as from the fact that our operations were hardly halted - whereas we suffered from several weeks of plant lockdowns in different countries during the second quarter of 2020. Moreover, the ambitious cost control measures we rapidly put in place last year continued to bear fruit in 2021” He added “Overall, we maintained our focus on local decision-making, enabling our leaders on the field to take the right steps and inspiring the trust of our people. More importantly, we never lost sight of our ‘Inspiring ways of living’ purpose in the face of many challenges. All of this while keeping our relentless dedication to the safety and well-being of our people, which is and will always be our number one priority.”

Romania: Etex Building Performance has announced plans to build a Euro6m sludge drying unit at Oltenia Energy Complex’s (OEC) Rovinari coal-fired power plant in Oltenia. The subsidiary of Belgium-based Etex will derive synthetic gypsum from the unit for use at its Turceni wallboard plant, according to Economica. It already operates a similar sludge drying unit at OEC’s Turceni coal-fired power plant.

Industrial director Gheorghe Budrugeac said "We count on the fact that both the OEC and the local and central authorities will understand the importance of the investment for the local community and the positive impact on the environment, therefore we expect no delays in the approval process."

Belgium: Etex has appointed Bernard Delvaux as its chief executive officer (CEO) with effect from 1 January 2022. He will succeed Paul Van Oyen when he retires at the end of 2021. Delvaux has held senior executive roles for over 30 years in large groups such as bpost, Proximus and Sonaca. Van Oyen joined Etex in 1990 as a laboratory and project manager active in the research and development department. He became the CEO of Etex on 2015.

Ireland: Belgium-based Etex has acquired multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy Evolusion Innovation. The group says that the new subsidiary will join its New Ways division. It said that the acquisition is ‘another step’ in the execution of its ambition to become a global leader in offsite construction.

Evolusion Innovation develops and certifies construction materials and components and high-rise building systems. It employs 40 people at its Cork headquarters in County Cork.

Belgium: Etex’s full-year consolidated net sales were Euro2.62bn, down by 11% year-on-year from Euro2.94bn. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 16% to Euro468m from Euro557m. The group called its bottom-line performance ‘stunning.’ It reduced its debt by 95% to Euro15.0m from Euro331m.

The coronavirus outbreak impacted performance across all regions. At the peak of the outbreak’s impact on the group’s operations in April 2020, it had suspended operations at 48% of its facilities globally. In Europe, sales increased year-on-year in Germany and Romania. This, a dynamic plasterboard market in the Netherlands and ‘good’ group performance in Eastern Europe failed to offset the regional decline. The impact was notably severe in the Benelux countries and the UK in the second quarter of 2020. In Latin America, sales were comparable with 2019 levels on a like-for-like basis. Asian and African sales experienced a decline, partly offset by the opening of new markets in Australia prior to the acquisition of Knauf Plasterboard in February 2021.

Chief executive officer Paul Van Oyen and chair Jean-Louis de Cartier de Marchienne said, “Although our order book for the first half of 2021 is positive, we expect our revenue to be affected by Covid-19-related volatility this year and the next. Despite this forecast, the performance culture that we have invested in over the last year is firmly in place and delivering results. In addition, our strategic acceleration of sustainability and customer experience initiatives will continue to bear fruit moving forward.” They added, “The acquisitions we made in 2020 will fuel our future growth in high-potential markets. In 2021, we will continue to identify new opportunities, as we are currently in an excellent position to make significant additional investments.”

Romania: Siniat Romania increased its turnover by 6% year-on-year to Euro51.3m in 2020. It attributed this to a growing residential sector, higher demand for logistics spaces and the need for adapted office due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to See News. The subsidiary of Belgium-based Etex Group expects turnover to rise by 5 – 10% to around Euro56m in 2021.

"The construction market in Southeast Europe was one of the most resilient economic segments in 2020. The shock caused by the spring lockdown was followed by a rapid recovery and by an increase in the second half of the year," said Etex Building Performance commercial director Andrei Popa.

The company operates two gypsum wallboard plants in the country and it holds an estimated market share of over 25%. Almost half of the output of the two plants is exported to 11 countries in Southeast Europe.