Gypsum industry news

France: Saint-Gobain says that a cyber attack that hit its operations in late June 2017 is unlikely to negatively affect its first-half financial results by more than 1%. It is still investigating the impact of the incident and will report more fully in its results on 27 July 2017.

The building materials producer added that it had restored its remaining operations still 'experiencing difficulties' back to normal. It said that since early July 2017 the 'vast majority' of its businesses had been operating normally and that no personal data was disclosed to any third party. It does not expect the event to have any future commercial impact.

France: Saint-Gobain has been hit by a cyberattack. The building materials producer said that it subsequently isolated its systems in order to protect its data. It added that its production lines were continuing to operate and that it was still serving its clients. It is not known whether the company has been infected with the Petya ransonware virus. However, the company operates a gypsum wallboard plant in Ukraine, where that attack was first reported on 27 June 2017.

France: Saint-Gobain has adjusted the representation of Wendel on its board of directors after a sale of the investment company's shares in the construction materials producer. Following the sale of 5.3% of Saint-Gobain's shares Wendell retains one sole director, Frédéric Lemoine, and a 6.4% stake. However, Saint-Gobain has decided to retain Wendel's other representative, Gilles Schnepp, as an independent director due to his experience of the group.

France: Julie Bonamy has been appointed as the Vice-President, Corporate Strategy and Planning at Saint-Gobain with effect from 1 June 2017. She will replace Delphine Geny-Stephann, who has been appointed as the Vice President and General Manager Silicon Carbide & Quartz within the Innovative Materials sector. Bonamy will report to Guillaume Texier and she is a member of the Senior Management Committee.

Bonamy is a graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Studies (IEP de Paris) and the National School of Public Administration (Ecole Nationale d'Administration). She started her career as a civil servant (inspectrice des finances) for the French government in 2011, before joining the Office of the French Minister for the Economy, Industry and the Digital Sector in October 2014. She was appointed advisor for the budget and digital sector in July 2015.

France: Saint-Gobain has reported sales growth in all main territories in the first quarter of 2017, led by Asia and its emerging markets. Net sales for its Interior Solutions division rose by 6.2% year-on-year to Euro1.71bn in the first quarter of 2017 from Euro1.61bn in the same period of 2016. This was supported by rising prices in a 'strong cost inflation environment.' Overall the group's net sales rose by 7.6% to Euro9.14bn. Notable geographical trends included a recovery in France and a continued poor market in Brazil.

"The first quarter saw robust trading. The good momentum in sales volumes observed in 2016 continued at the start of the year in all business sectors and regions. France benefited from the recovery in new-build activity, while other Western European countries delivered further growth. North America and emerging markets had a good start to the year. The group continued to pursue its priorities, focusing particularly on sales prices amid a more inflationary backdrop," said Pierre-André de Chalendar, chairman and chief executive officer of Saint-Gobain.

France/Switzerland: Saint-Gobain has extended its agreements with the Burkard family relating to the sale of the shares of Schenker-Winkler Holding (SWH), which holds the majority of Sika voting rights, to 31 December 2017. Saint-Gobain will then have the right to extend the agreement up until 31 December 2018. The building products manufacturer said that that the further extension reflected its determination to eventually buy Sika.

Saint-Gobain has attempted to buy Sika since at least 2014. An attempt to transfer shares of Sika from the Burkard family was blocked by a Swiss court in late 2016.

France: Saint-Gobain's Interior Solutions division's sales rose by 1.5% year-on-year to Euro6.58bn in 2016 from Euro6.49bn in 2015. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 9.6% to Euro982m from Euro896m. It attributed the rise in sales to good growth in the first half of the year with growth in most regions. It also noted that productivity gains and a fall in costs, particularly energy, drove a 'sharp' improvement in its operating margin.

"Saint-Gobain showed strong progress in its 2016 results. We saw the benefits of our optimisation efforts and of our development in emerging markets, in a more supportive economic environment than 2015. As expected, France stabilised over the year as new-build activities recovered. All other regions enjoyed good momentum. The group also benefited from its focus on pricing against a backdrop of lower energy and raw material costs," said Pierre-André de Chalendar, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Saint-Gobain.

France: Saint-Gobain has appointed Jean-Dominique Senard as Lead Independent Director. The newly created role will oversee the running of the company's governance bodies. Senard has been an independent director since 2012. The board of directors has also decided to appoint Senard as chairman of the Strategy and Corporate Social Responsibility Committee following the retirement of Jean-Martin Folz in June 2017. Philippe Varin will become the chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee and Anne-Marie Idrac will become the chairman of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee. All the personnel changes will take effect from 8 June 2017 at the company's annual general meeting.

France: Saint-Gobain's sales from its Interior Solutions division, comprising gypsum wallboard and insulation products, has risen by 2.1% year-on-year to Euro4.94bn in the first nine months of 2016 from Euro4.83bn in the same period in 2015. On a like-for-like basis the group said that its sales grew by 4.3%. It said that sales grew in all regions in the third quarter of 2016 and that despite a 'deflationary' environment prices remained under pressure in developed economies.

"The third quarter confirmed the upturn in volumes in Western Europe. France benefited from the steady improvement in new-builds; the UK showed no sign of weakness. Volumes continued to grow in US construction despite the lack of positive weather impacts for roofing in the quarter. Our businesses in Asia and emerging countries remained strong, delivering further robust growth. The price effect moved back into positive territory over the quarter, reflecting Saint-Gobain's strong positioning on its markets," said Pierre-André de Chalendar, chairman and chief executive officer of Saint-Gobain.

Overall, the group reported that its sales fell by 1.7% to Euro29.3bn from Euro29.8bn across all business lines although it said that on a like-for-like basis sales rose by 2.6%.

France: Environmental concerns have been raised about Placoplatre's plans to develop a open-cast gypsum quarry at Fort de Vaujours near Paris. The site is believed to contain enough high-end gypsum for the Saint-Gobain subsidiary's nearby wallboard plant and for other plants in the group, according to Deutsche Welle. However, environmentalists have raised the risks of excavating a site near to the capital of France that was used for nuclear testing between the 1950s and 1990s.

"It's important to maintain our plant. We employ 400 people at the factory which generates 3000 indirect jobs and an additional average 1000 workers will be operating at the industrial site," said Gilles Bouchet, Placoplatre's head of mining development. He added that the wallboard producer has conducted impact and radiation studies that have been submitted to the French nuclear safety body ASN.

Christophe Nedelec, president of environmental non-government organisation Gagny-Les Abbesses-Chelles has queried the efficacy of Placoplatre's tests and has called for an independent body to conduct them.