Gypsum industry news
Philippines: Knauf Gypsum Philippines has opened its first gypsum board training centre in the country in Quezon City. The ‘Knauf Academy’ is intended to help train local construction workers, according to the Business Mirror newspaper. Mark Sergio, the managing director of Knauf Gypsum Philippines and Alexander Schmidt, Acting Deputy Head of Mission at the German Embassy, attended the opening event.
Sergio said “The intent of the training centre is two-fold: we want to make sure that we can improve the capability, the workmanship quality and skills of Filipino installers. We also want to make sure that because of this, we’re able to deliver the best customer experience for our architects, developers and contractor-partners.”
Japan: Chiyoda Ute has issued a share sales request as part of ongoing plans to form a joint-venture with Germany-based Knauf. Knauf is expected to acquire the outstanding shares. Shares in Chiyoda Ute will then be delisted in late July 2022. The move follows a tender offer from Knauf that was issued in April 2022. The eventual plan is form a joint-venture between the companies with Knauf holding a 75% share.
Knauf reports cyber attack
08 July 2022Germany: A cyber attack compromised Knauf's computer systems on 29 June 2022, leading the producer to opt for a complete services shutdown. The group said that its information technology (IT) unit successfully isolated the breach and has launched an investigation.
Knauf thanked customers for their understanding and trust. It said "We are currently working heavily to mitigate the impact to our customers and partners – as well as to plan a safe recovery. However, we apologise for any inconvenience or delays in our delivery processes that may occur."
Etex issues Euro800m sustainability linked loan
09 June 2022Belgium: Etex has raised Euro800m through a sustainability-linked medium - long-term unsecured loan. The producer says that the private placement, called a Schuldschein in German finance law, comprises three Euro-denominated tranches with maturities of three, five and seven years, at fixed and floating rates.
CEO Bernard Delvaux said “We are very pleased with this new Schuldschein issuance which we successfully completed in a challenging context. It testifies to a significant appreciation of Etex’s credit quality, of its performance of the last years and it demonstrates the investors’ confidence in the company’s strategy. Moreover, this operation broadens our investors’ base at attractive market conditions, increases the number of maturities and considerably extends the duration of our debt profile.”
Germany: Fuchs Lubritech has merged into Fuchs Schmierstoffe. Following the merger, the latter also rebranded as Fuchs Lubricants Germany on 3 June 2022. Fuchs Lubricants Germany will assume all contractual responsibilities of Fuchs Lubritech.
Saint-Gobain prepares for energy shocks in Europe
29 April 2022France: Saint-Gobain says that it is confident it can offset inflation in raw material and energy costs in 2022 through price rises and hedging its energy costs. In an update on its first quarter results the group said that it expects its energy and raw material costs to increase by around Euro2.5bn in 2022 as a whole compared to 2021. Much of this inflation is related to the European market where the company says it has hedged around 80% of its natural gas and electricity purchases for 2022. It noted that it increased its prices and sales volumes by 14.5% and 1.9% year-on-year respectively in the first quarter of 2022.
The company added it had prepared contingency plans in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic should there be any disruptions to natural gas supplies from Russia. These include the classification of priority industries, using alternative energy sources already prepared at certain sites, and increasing the flexibility of its production capacities.
Saint-Gobain’s sales rose by 16% year-on-year to Euro10.4bn in the first quarter of 2022 from Euro12bn in the same period in 2021. The group said growth was driven by building renovation in Europe and by construction in the Americas and in Asia.
CASEA orders robotic palletiser from Beumer
29 April 2022Germany: Gypsum products manufacturer CASEA has ordered a Robotpac type robotic palletiser from Beumer due to increased demand for its products. The new palletiser will be equipped with a fork gripper and a pallet gripping device will be used for handling special product mixtures. Delivery of the order is planned for the third quarter of 2022. CASEA already uses a Beumer palletiser at its Dorste plant in Osterode am Harz, which was installed in 2017.
Germany: Wacker’s Silicones division’s sales grew by 16% year-on-year to Euro2.60bn in 2021 from Euro2.24bn in 2020. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 43% to Euro553m from Euro388m. This was attributed to higher selling prices and volumes. Overall the group’s sales increased by 32% to Euro6.21bn and its EBITDA more than doubled to Euro154bn.
Following ‘robust’ demand across all business divisions in the first two months of 2022, chief executive officer Christian Hartel said, “We expect our chemical business to perform well during the rest of the year, and anticipate higher prices, volume growth and positive product-mix effects in this segment.” He added that the direct impact upon sales volumes from the war in Ukraine upon the business would be limited as Commonwealth of Independent States sales represented less than 2% of the group’s sales. However the rise in gas and electricity prices was recognised as a concern. The group added that it had benefited at the start of 2022 from the raw materials and energy it had procured in 2021 under more favourable conditions.
Knauf has no plans to leave Russian market
04 March 2022Russia/Ukraine: Jörg Schanow, a member of the management board of Knauf, says that the company has no plans to leave the Russian market. In an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper he said that Russian production sites were still running as normal.
The company has set up crisis management team since the start of the war in Ukraine in late February 2022. It has been meeting daily and discussing the situation with local management in Russia. Schanow said that the biggest business problem so far was the effect of US and European economic sanctions upon Russian banks and the consequences upon moving money between banks, suppliers and customers. The Germany-based company employees 3900 staff at 14 sites in Russia. It originally purchased a gypsum plant at Krasnogorsk near Moscow in 1993.
Knauf also has operations in Ukraine. It closed its gypsum wallboard plant in Donbass in response to the current war on 24 February 2022 ‘as a precaution,’ according to the TZ newspaper. The staff were sent home and the plant will remain closed into further notice. The plant had 589 employees at the end of 2021, none of whom where German nationals.
Boral completes sale of stake in USG Boral to Knauf
08 April 2021Australia: Boral has sold its 50% stake in USG Boral to Germany-based Knauf for US$1.02bn. The profit on sale after tax will go towards reducing the group’s net debt by 21% to US$1.15bn from US$1.45bn. This will leave a US$763,000 surplus for reinvestment or return to investors.
Following on from the sale, Boral has launched a share buy-back, ending in April 2022. It intends to purchase 10% of shares on issue. The group says that the USG Boral sale proceeds will fund the investment.
Chief executive officer and managing director Zlatko Todorcevski said “The sale of our 50% interest in USG Boral to Knauf for an attractive premium creates substantial value for Boral’s shareholders. The sale enables Boral to reduce net debt to our current target and create surplus capital available for return to shareholders, which is consistent with Boral’s financial framework.” He added “We believe that an on-market buy-back is the most effective method of returning this surplus capital to our shareholders.”