Gypsum industry news

Worldwide: The NuGyp Corporation has reported that patent coverage of its NuGyp Process continues to expand. The granting of the 14th patent now gives protection in 20 countries and a further 18 applications are pending worldwide covering all existing and potential markets for low water demand plaster, including wallboard, blocks, floor screed and special plasters.

The process reduces the water demand of plaster to yield major cost savings in energy and water use during product manufacture. The new patents mean that the process is now covered in Australia, China, Columbia, Eurasia (Turkmenistan, Republic of Belarus, Republic of Tajikistan, Russia, Azerbaijan Republic, Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the Republic of Armenia), Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Ukraine and the United States.

Discussions are in progress with a number of companies interested in acquiring the intellectual property fully to exploit its market potential.

Brazil: Etex has started the construction of a new wallboard plant in Santa Cruz, Rio de Janeiro with an investment of Euro60m. The plant will open in mid-2015.

"The investment enables Etex to expand its footprint in Latin America, an emerging market of strategic importance. Brazil plays a leading role in the economic development of the region. The country's wallboard market is growing rapidly, at twice the rate of the construction industry,'' said Fons Peeters, Etex's CEO.

Construction work for the new plant started on 31 March 2014. An estimated 150 employees will manufacture three types of high-performance wallboard: standard, humidity-resistant and fire-resistant. The plant will serve markets in the south and southeast regions of Brazil. The new plant will be Etex's third wallboard production facility in the country joining its existing plants in Pernambuco state.

Worldwide: Holcim and Lafarge have announced their intention to merge the two companies. The new company, LafargeHolcim, will have a major presence in the global building materials sector with combined production sites in 90 countries across cement, concrete and aggregates sectors. Combined sales of the two companies would amount to around Euro32bn and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) would be Euro6.5bn.

Lafarge and Holcim confirmed that they would sell businesses worth 10 - 15% of the group's EBITDA to satisfy antitrust concerns, worth about Euro5bn in total. Two-thirds of the asset sales would be in Europe. The companies also have overlapping business operations in Canada, Brazil, India and China.

Lafarge sold the majority of its worldwide gypsum wallboard businesses in 2011 followed by the sale of its North American gypsum wallboard assets in 2013. However it retains plants in Mexico, South Africa and Turkey.

USA: Continental Building Products, which acquired Lafarge North America's gypsum wallboard assets on 30 August 2013, has announced results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ending 31 December 2013.

In the fourth quarter of 2013, CBP saw its net sales increase by 30% to US$114m compared to Lafarge's like-for-like performance in the fourth quarter of 2012. Its operating income rose from US$2.8m for the 2012 quarter to US$15.9m and its adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) more than doubled to US$29.8m. Net income for the fourth quarter of 2013 was up by 125% year-on-year to US$6.7m. CBP sold 58.7Mm3 of gypsum wallboard during the fourth quarter, a rise of 18% year-on-year.

Over the whole of 2013, which necessarily includes results from Lafarge North America's former gypsum wallboard operations, CBP saw its net sales rise by 29% to US$402m and operating income improve to a profit of U$29.8m compared to a loss of US$45.4m in 2012. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 152% to US$103m for the year, while net income was positive at US$4.9m, compared to a net loss of US$68.7m in 2012.

"The positive momentum in our business continued into the year end, resulting in a net sales increase of 30% during the fourth quarter," said Ike Preston, CEO of CPB. "As we progressed though the year, rising housing starts provided favourable residential construction activity, our repair and remodel end markets improved and commercial orders started to show early signs of a recovery. The improvement in our performance reflects the improved demand environment but is even more reflective of our market-leading positions that we have forged in attractive regions throughout the eastern United States."

"The significant investments that we have made to modernise our capacity allowed us to more than double our adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter of 2013," continued Preston. "We believe we are well positioned to continue growing our business as we leverage our existing capacity and low cost production capabilities to support additional profit expansion and cash generation over time."

Vietnam: David Victor Thomas, general director of Knauf Vietnam, has announced that Thuan Hung Building Materials Co, based in Tien Giang Province, will be the first distributor of Knauf's gypsum wallboard in the region.

Knauf has imported its products to Vietnam since late 2013. The company was licensed to build a wallboard factory in the city of Haiphong in 2013 and its products will be launched in 2015.

Canada: Cory Schurman has accepted the role of national sales manager with Gypsoil, a division of Beneficial Reuse Management. He will oversee the Gypsoil sales team, coordinate marketing programs and work with customers, sales representatives and agricultural consultants.

"We are very excited to add Cory Schurman to the Gypsoil team," said Robert Spoerri, CEO of Beneficial Reuse Management. "He possesses a highly advanced understanding of soil improvement and agronomics and he is a leader in analysing agricultural business processes, identifying sales opportunities and executing integrated marketing programs. Schurman is a widely-recognised resource for helping crop growers incorporate efficient and effective agronomic solutions through careful management decision-making."

"I'm looking forward to building the Gypsoil sales team to help growers achieve maximum soil productivity and agronomic results through the use of Gypsoil brand gypsum," said Schurman.

Schurman replaces Steve Musser who was named director of new product development for Gypsoil. In his new role Musser will focus on advancing several initiatives to broaden the company's offerings and service to agricultural producers.

UK: The new Quality Protocol (QP) for recycled gypsum will put an end to its use in agriculture as well as impacting negatively on the plasterboard recycling industry, according to the Gypsum Re-processors' Association UK and Ireland (GRAUKI).

GRAUKI also believes that there will be a short-term increase in the illegal disposal of waste plasterboard due to the removal of agricultural soil treatment as an approved end-use for recycled gypsum in the QP.

The QP for the production and use of recycled gypsum from waste plasterboard was published by the Environment Agency and the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) in consultation with UK governments and other regulatory stakeholders. It was published in March 2014 and is applicable throughout the UK. The QP designates just two permitted end uses for the of recycled gypsum, which are wallboard manufacture and cement production. As a result, recycled gypsum can now only be spread to land as a waste, for which gypsum re-processors will need to apply for a permit.

According to GRAUKI, "In practice the cost and legislative constraints are such that GRAUKI members feel that this will put an end to the beneficial use of recycled gypsum in agriculture." The Association added, "This change will have a negative impact on the overall capacity of the plasterboard recycling industry in the UK, which is already struggling to cope with the amount of gypsum waste generated."

GRAUKI previously raised concerns in 2013 that the EA could 'strangle' the plasterboard recycling industry unless it permitted more end uses for recycled gypsum.

UK: Saint-Gobain has opened a technical academy in the town of Flitwick, Bedfordshire, UK, to help bridge the skills gap in technical training.

The Saint-Gobain Technical Academy will run a range of training and specialist up-skilling courses. The multi-purpose centre has been developed to feature innovation and product demonstration areas, practical workshops, lecture rooms and meeting facilities.

The courses from Saint-Gobain's companies, including Weber, British Gypsum, Isover, PAM and Pasquill, are designed for 10 to 15 candidates and cover topics such as external wall insulation (EWI), internal wall insulation (IWI), renders and tiling to concrete repair, construction mortars, roofing, pipework and flooring.

Pádraig Barry, managing director for Weber, said, "The facility offers training on a wide range of products and systems from a number of Saint-Gobain brands. The decision to invest in the Flitwick site creates a more accessible location for installers and trade professionals operating in central and southern regions." He continued, "The construction market is believed to need approximately 180,000 more workers to deliver the planned housing and infrastructure projects by 2018. Part of the Saint-Gobain Technical Academy's role is to facilitate this need, but crucially it will also ensure that new and current trade professionals are of the highest calibre, trained on innovative and sustainable systems and have the opportunity to up-skill."

Australia: Len Buckeridge, Australia's 19th richest person, died of a heart attack at the age of 77 on 11 March 2014. The billionaire owner of Buckeridge Group of Companies (BGC), was a well-known and long-standing character in the Australian construction industry. The group has interests in gypsum wallboard, bricks and cement as well as residential construction.

Buckeridge built up BGC, which turns over US$2.25bn/yr, from humble beginnings in the 1960s following his training as an architect at Perth Technical College. Hard-but-fair in business, his determined approach saw him amass a personal fortune of over US$1.5bn via the group. Despite his success he retained a down-to-earth approach to the company's day-to-day operations, latterly running the business from the dining room table in his house at Mosman Park, near Perth.

His hard-nosed stance, which helped him in some aspects of his business life, also made him a controversial figure. Buckeridge was involved in a number of deeply-entrenched confrontations with construction unions in Australia. He also attempted to sue the Government in the Supreme Court over a stalled private port project. Upon his death, Buckeridge was described by former construction union boss Kevin Reynolds as 'a formidable opponent.' "People will remember Len as a person who was prepared to take on anyone and everyone whether it would be the unions, government, other employer groups or other builders," said Reynolds. "If Len believed in something he would take them on."

Buckeridge, who had been contemplating succession plans for BGC without coming to a conclusion prior to his death, owned 100% of the group. The Australian business world and the global cement and gypsum industries is awaiting news on how the future ownership of the company will look. Buckeridge is survived by his wife, six children and eight grandchildren.

Oman: Zawawi Gypsum has loaded its first export consignment of gypsum from the port of Salalah. The vessel loaded 66,000Mt of gypsum destined for India. A press release said that the company expects exports to increase to 2Mt/yr within the next three years.

''This shipment is the beginning of a long-term relationship between the port and our company. This relationship will grow stronger when our facility in the free zone commences exports through the port. Salalah, with its proximity to the main trade lanes and direct main line connectivity to our export destination was the ideal location for our facility in Oman,'' said Ramachandran, CEO of Zawawi Minerals.

Zawawi Minerals has created two joint ventures with USG Corporation, Zawawi Gypsum and Zawawi Drywall. Zawawi Drywall is building a 8MM2/yr gypsum wallboard plant. The US$37m plant is expected to be opened in early 2015. It will target growing markets in the Middle East, India and East Africa.