Gypsum industry news

Philippines: Knauf Philippines has asked the Tariff Commission to recommend a new import duty on gypsum wallboard from Thailand, the Manila Times newspaper has reported. Thai wallboard was subject to a provisional anti-dumping duty from November 2024 – March 2025, following a 30% drop in local production from 2022 levels. Meanwhile in Thailand, producers’ capacity utilisation ended 2024 at 57%. As a result, it the industry is attempting to increase its efficiency, maximise its production and possibly target export markets like the Philippines, according to Knauf Philippines.

Director Mark Dewey Sergio said "We have reason to believe that the threat will continue."

Philippines: The Tariff Commission (TC) will be running public hearings from late March 2025 that will consider implementing a permanent anti-dumping duty on gypsum wallboard imported from Thailand. The import tax is being considered following a petition by Knauf Gypsum Philippines in late 2023, according to the Business Mirror newspaper. In November 2024 the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) imposed a provisional anti-dumping duty in the form of a cash bond for four months until March 2025.

In a government investigation into the situation, the subsidiary of Germany-based Knauf alleged that wallboard was imported from Thailand at ‘dumped’ prices in 2022. Other companies claimed that these imports started to negatively affect the market in 2019, leading to lower revenue and decreased profits.

Philippines: Thailand-based Shera aims to increase its market share in the Philippines building materials sector to over 40% by the end of 2025, BusinessWorld News has reported. Shera Philippines head Thunnop Jumpasri said that this will involve an expansion of its operations in Mindanao and Visayas.

This coincides with Shera’s launch of two gypsum wallboard products, the Gypsum Standard Board and Gypsum Moisture Resistant Board, on 21 November 2025.

Philippines: The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has placed imports of gypsum wallboard from Thailand under a provisional anti-dumping duty. The Philippines Daily Enquirer newspaper has reported that the duty takes the form of a cash bond and will remain in force until March 2025.

The DTI said there is ‘reasonable cause’ to believe that imported gypsum wallboard from Thailand is being dumped, meaning that it caused ‘material injury’ to domestic producers.

The local gypsum wallboard industry’s share of the domestic market reportedly dropped from 66% in 2022 to 58% in 2023.

Philippines/Thailand: The Philippines Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has launched an investigation into imports of Thai gypsum wallboard. The investigation forms the first stage in the process of potentially implementing a tariff on gypsum wallboard entering the Philippines from Thailand. The investigation will seek to establish whether dumping of the product occurred between January and May 2023, and whether the wallboard industry of the Philippines experienced any injury due to imports from Thailand between 2019 and 2022. The Philippine Star newspaper has reported that the DTI accepted an application for an investigation from Knauf Gypsum Philippines on 24 November 2023.

The DTI preliminarily stated that “There was a substantial margin of dumping of gypsum board from Thailand for the period January to December 2022 based on the domestic wholesale and export prices as gathered by the gypsum board industry.” It added “Based on the aforementioned, there is a prima facie evidence that the domestic industry suffered material injury before the acquisition efforts as evidenced by the low market share of the domestic industry ranging from 23% to 40%, operating losses and price suppression from 2019 to 2021 and price undercutting in 2021.”

Philippines: The government has cut the import duty on natural gypsum and anhydrite to zero from 3% previously in a bid to help the local wallboard and cement sectors. It is also expected to support housing and infrastructure projects in the country, according to the Philippines News Agency. Executive Order (EO) No. 46 was signed in early November 2023, approving the change in duty that was due to come into effect a month later in early December 2023.

The EO stated "At present, there are no operating mines of natural gypsum and anhydrite in the country, and there are also no local substitute for said products that are available for domestic producers of plasterboards and cement." The tariff rate is intended to last for five years but it will be reviewed annually at the end of 2024.

Philippines: Knauf Gypsum Philippines has petitioned the Philippines Tariff Commission to reduce the import duty on imports of Omani gypsum to 0% of value. Currently, Oman’s gypsum enjoys a most favoured nation (MFN) reduced tariff rate of 3%. The Oman Daily Observer newspaper has reported that high gypsum wallboard demand has created short supply of gypsum in the Philippines, according to Knauf Gypsum Philippines. Beside the company’s wallboard operations, the raw material is also critical to cement production in the country.

The Philippines receives a minor share of Oman’s 8.74Mt/yr of natural gypsum exports. The Southeast Asian country has a housing backlog of 6m units.

Philippines: Knauf Gypsum Philippines has signed an agreement with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to provide construction skills training in Calabarzon. The partnership links to the country’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), a poverty reduction scheme that started in 2019, according to the Manila Bulletin newspaper. Knauf Gypsum Philippines opened its first gypsum board training centre in the country in Quezon City in mid-2022. It has trained nearly 800 workers on gypsum board installation and jointing skills since the centre opened.

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.”

Australia: USG-Boral’s earnings have fallen due to a poor construction market in South Korea. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 6% year-on-year to US$170m in the financial year to 30 June 2019 from US$181m in the previous year. Its revenue grew by 2% to US$1.08bn from US$1.06bn. The joint venture said that, excluding South Korea, earnings were ‘steady’ as lower earnings from Indonesia, China and the Philippines were offset by increased contributions from Thailand, Vietnam and India, as well as a continued strong contribution from Australia.

The company also announced that Boral has entered into an agreement with Germany’s Knauf to form an expanded 50:50 plasterboard joint venture in Asia and for Boral to return to 100% ownership of USG Boral Australia & New Zealand. Completion of the deal is subject to regulatory approval. It follows the acquisition of USG by Germany’s Knauf in early 2019.