Gypsum industry news

China: France-based Saint-Gobain plans to establish ten gypsum wallboard plants under the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s 14^th five-year plan. China Daily News has reported that the move aims to ramp up production capacity in order to meet growing gypsum wallboard demand. In 2021 building materials company intends to open two more units to produce calcined gypsum in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province and Huzhou, Zhejiang Province respectively.

Asia-Pacific regional senior vice-president and chief executive officer (CEO) Javier Gimeno said, “China has recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic in an exceptional manner. We have seen the quick recovery of the Chinese economy and the many industries that we serve. In our segment, the Asia-Pacific region has remained largely positive in the third quarter, driven by the continued strong demand in China." He added, “Our business growth in China is linked with the development of the Chinese society and the growth of China's middle-income earners, who are more demanding in terms of quality and performance of products.”

Argentina/Peru: France-based Saint-Gobain and Chile-based Compania Industrial El Volcan have signed an agreement to cooperate in the Argentine and Peruvian gypsum wallboard markets. The companies will finalise the agreement in January 2021.

In Peru, Saint-Gobain will purchase El Volcan Soluciones Constructivas , a company specialised in the production and sale of wallboard. After this new entity has been merged with SG Productos para la Construccion, which specialises in the production and sale of mortars and has been wholly owned by the Saint-Gobain Group since December 2019, Saint-Gobain will retain a 55% stake in the new consolidated group and will sell the remaining 45% to the El Volcan group.

In Argentina, El Volcan will purchase from Saint-Gobain a 45% stake in the group including Tuyango, the historical plaster business, and Aswell, the plasterboard business acquired in the first quarter of 2019, with Saint-Gobain owning a 55% stake in this Argentine gypsum group.

Spain: Saint-Gobain subsidiary Saint-Gobain Placo has participated in the renovation of Madrid’s Julián Antonio Sánchez Municipal Auditorium in San Martín de la Vega with the supply of sound-absorbing gypsum wallboard solutions. The company says that it used its 12.5mm Rigitone 8/15/20 Super laminated boards on the walls of the building. It said it selected the product for its high acoustic performance, and improvement of indoor air quality. It added, “This improvement in acoustic absorption will allow the sound to be better distributed within the auditorium and, that reverberation does not occur in it, which will improve the comfort of the users.”

The company said, “The use of Rigitone 8/15/20 Super in the renovation work of the Julián Antonio Sánchez Municipal Auditorium has managed to improve the acoustics of the auditorium, create a healthy environment for the people who come to it, in addition to offering an aesthetic and design finish functional as well as modern, essential in this type of enclosure.”

Australia: Belgium-based Etex has hired financial services provider JP Morgan to help it buy Knauf’s Australian gypsum wallboard portfolio, valued at around US$293m. The Australian newspaper reports that Saint-Gobain and China National Building Material (CNBM) are also interested in the sale.

Knauf is divesting the assets to satisfy the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s fair play rules following its purchase of Boral’s stake in the USG-Boral gypsum wallboard joint venture for US$1.05bn. The companies have until September 2020 to finalise the transaction.

France: Saint-Gobain’s like-for-like sales fell by 7.2% year-on-year to Euro27.9bn in the first nine months of 2020 from Euro32.4bn in the same period in 2019. Particular declines were noted in its High Performance Solutions and Asia Pacific divisions. However, overall sales improved by 3.2% year-on-year to Euro10.1bn in the third quarter of 2020.

The group noted that in North America growth in the third quarter was, “driven by volumes in exterior solutions and gypsum in a much better environment for prices, which were up overall.” It also noted a ‘sharp’ increase in its gypsum sales, continuing a trend from the second quarter and capturing additional market share.

Australia: France-based Saint-Gobain is reportedly considering the purchase of Germany-based Knauf’s US$284m Australian gypsum wallboard business. The Australian newspaper has also named Saint-Gobain as a potential buyer of USG Boral’s US$2.48bn US business. Separately, China National Building Material (CNBM) has been linked to the Knauf sale. Any such deals would be subject to anti-competitiveness checks.

France: Saint-Gobain is among 157 businesses which signed a letter to European Union (EU) members’ governments urging the enactment of higher 2030 greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. The letter calls on all EU leaders to target a reduction of 55% by 2030 in line with the European Green deal.

Chair and chief executive officer (CEO) Pierre-André de Chalendar said, “The right decisions now can help create and protect healthy, thriving and fair communities and secure a roadmap for a prosperous economy. From a business and investor perspective, clarity on the net zero transition pathway and timetables for each sector - as well as policy that enables substantial investments in carbon neutral solutions - is essential. This in turn would provide us with the confidence needed to invest decisively at the necessary pace and scale to reduce emissions, create decent green jobs, drive innovation, and accelerate the rebuilding of a resilient zero carbon economy."

India: France-based Saint-Gobain has opened a 600-bed coronavirus hospital in a converted office building in Surat, Gujarat. The total building time for the project was just 17 days, which the company said was ‘due to the choice of materials, namely gypsum wallboard over bricks and mortar.’ The Hindu BusinessLine newspaper has reported that the company used 4830m² of gypsum wallboard to build partition walls throughout the eight-storey building, in accordance with World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines.

France: Saint-Gobain’s says its sales for June 2020 rose by 3.7% on a like-for-like basis as markets recovered from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Its sales fell by 12.3% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis to Euro17.8bn in the first half of 2020 from Euro21.7bn in the same period in 2019. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) decreased by 32.4% to Euro1.64bn from Euro2.42bn.

“In a macroeconomic and health environment which remains affected by uncertainties, our earnings growth in June and outlook for the third quarter suggest that our operating income for second-half 2020 will improve significantly on first-half 2020,” said Pierre-André de Chalendar, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Saint-Gobain. He added that the group’s portfolio of products, including those in energy-efficiency and renovation markets, positioned it to benefit from national and European stimulus plans supporting energy saving initiatives.

The group noted a 19.2% year-on-year sales decrease in the second quarter of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, with very different situations between countries and markets. Most of its business segments reported growth in June 2020 with the exception of Asia-Pacific, where the Indian market held the division back. Gypsum sales helped deliver ‘robust growth’ in the US and Canada in June 2020. Strong growth in gypsum was reported in Brazil for the first half of 2020. Chinese sales in gypsum benefitted in the second quarter of 2020 from a new plaster plant, which originally opened in 2019, reaching full production capacity. The group’s High Performance Solutions division reported positive trends from its external thermal insulation solutions (ETICS) products in the second quarter of 2020.

UK: Matt Pullen, the managing director of British Gypsum, says that the company intends to loosen restrictions on wallboard sales in August 2020. “Whilst we continue to see high levels of demand, we have sufficient capacity to supply your wallboard requirements without formal supply restrictions,” said Pullen. He added that the company’s plaster manufacturing plants continue to, ‘operate consistently at maximum capability.’

Gypsum plaster-based products have been in short supply in the UK since the local coronavirus-related lockdown started in March 2020. The subsidiary of Saint-Gobain suspended operations in April 2020 and Knauf stopped production at its wallboard plants in the UK at the end of March 2020. British Gypsum reported in late May 2020 that its wallboard capacity was at ‘approximately’ 80% of pre-coronavirus pandemic levels following the scaling up of its ‘Covid-19 safe’ operations and distribution plan. Etex’s Siniat said it was ending product allocation controls in early July 2020.