Gypsum industry news

US: Gypsum wallboard distributor Foundation Building Materials reports that sales of wallboard fell slightly to US$202m in the first quarter of 2020. This was attributed to disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak. Overall its sales across all business lines rose, in part due to an additional business day in the reporting quarter compared to the same period in 2019. It noted lower sales growth in states with stronger lockdown measures, including Washington, California, Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Overall sales in April 2020 were reported as being 20% down year-on-year.

US: Waste-to-energy projects developer Recycled Energy Development (RED) and building products maker National Gypsum Co (NGC) have jointly announced the development of a combined heat and power (CHP) project at NGC's Burlington 32MM²/yr facility in the state of New Jersey.

The project has received a USD1.36m grant from the state through its Clean Energy Solutions ARRA CHP grant programme. The CHP plant will reportedly have an electricity generation capacity of 3.4MW, representing around 210,000MMBtu of thermal energy, which will result in an overall efficiency of greater than 90%.

"The NGC project will increase industrial productivity, generate clean power and reduce CO₂ emissions," said Sean Casten, RED's president and CEO. "We appreciate the State's support and look forward to investing in New Jersey."

"CHP offers a win-win for manufacturers," said John Corsi, VP of Manufacturing Operations and Engineering of NGC. "This facility allows NGC to further strengthen our competitiveness as well as improve our environmental stewardship."