Gypsum industry news

UK: Saint-Gobain, the French building materials giant, has opened its new innovation centre on Great Portland Street in London, UK to showcase the company's products. Showcasing innovative and sustainable products, the centre contains product libraries and resources for specifiers alongside meeting spaces and conference facilities. The centre will display products from Saint-Gobain's many UK businesses, including Artex, British Gypsum, Ecophon, Saint-Gobain Glass, Isover, Pasquill and Weber.

Models of construction products and solutions provide a better understanding of how systems work in practice, whilst screens showcase products, solutions and other Saint-Gobain initiatives.

Speaking at the launch, Saint-Gobain's CEO Pierre-André de Chalendar said, "With this new Innovation Centre, Saint-Gobain opens up to professionals with a global vision of our market to help develop and stimulate research. This Innovation Centre reflects our ambition to become the reference for sustainable habitat, bringing innovative solutions to meet the main challenges of our time."

Indonesia: Saint-Gobain has announced that it will soon start building a 30Mm2/yr plasterboard plant near Jakarta. The project is estimated at Euro35m and it is the building materials manufacturer's first wallboard plant in Indonesia. It is intended to strengthen Saint-Gobain Gypsum's presence in Southeast Asia, where it currently operates four plants in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Russia: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has announced that it will consider additional investment and increased shares in the French building materials company Saint Gobain at its next board of directors meeting on 18 December 2012.

In a recent press release the EBRD stated that it will consider increasing its investment in the share capital structure in the Russian market leader leader to Euro24.3m and increase the current share of the bank in the Russian company to a maximum of 33%. The EBRD currently owns 11.19% Saint-Gobain Construction Products RUS.

Investment Bank will finance the majority of the planned investment programme of Saint Gobain Construction Products RUS, which will be implemented from 2013 to 2017. For the investment programme of the Russian units Saint Gobain will need Euro340m in this period.

The investment programme includes the development of a gypsum plasterboard plant in Nizhny Novgorod, as well as the construction and upgrade of existing plants. The project includes investments in companies in various regions and cities of Russia, such as Nizhny Novgorod, Arzamas, Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk.

UK: British Gypsum, part of the Saint-Gobain group, has been shortlisted for a Best Practice award in the Eco Innovation category from the Association of Interior Specialists (AIS). Judges recognised the lengths to which the company went to help customers prove traceability of products and, in turn, meet and exceed environmental targets. British Gypsum was the first UK gypsum-based wallboard and drylining manufacturer to achieve a BES 6001 'very good' rating for its core range of products.

Four other companies have been shortlisted in the category and the winner will be announced at a ceremony during the AIS conference at the Forest of Arden Hotel, Birmingham, on 13 November 2012.

Turkey: The winners of the Global Gypsum Awards 2012 have been announced at the Global Gypsum Conference and Exhibition 2012, taking place on 16-17 October 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey. Over 300 delegates and 50 exhibitors attended the conference.

Global Gypsum Plant of the Year was awarded to SaintGobain Rigips' Brieselang plant in Germany. Global Gypsum Personality of the Year was awarded to Jörg Bold of Bold-Technoconsult. Global Gypsum Supplier of the Year was awarded to WTW Americas. Global Gypsum Company of the Year was awarded to Knauf Gips KG. Isabel Knauf accepted the award on behalf of Knauf, while Knauf also won the Global Gypsum Product of the Year for its Safeboard X-ray resistant product. The ceremony took place at the Binbirdirek Cistern, a 1500 year old structure dating back to the Byzantine Empire.

The organisers also announced that the Global Gypsum Conference and Ceremony 2013 will take place in Toronto, Canada.

Image 1: Isabel Knauf accepting Global Gypsum Company of the Year for Knauf Gips KG at the Global Gypsum Awards 2012

Image 2: Global Gypsum Supplier of the Year was awarded to WTW Americas

Image 3: Bob Bruce, Innogyps, presenting at the Global Gypsum Conference & Exhibition 2012

France: Saint-Gobain has posted a net income of Euro1.3bn for 2011, a rise of 14% from Euro1.1bn in 2010. The group has attributed this to strong demand for its building materials in emerging markets combined with its ability to pass higher raw material costs to customers in the form of higher prices.

Recurring net income spiked to Euro1.7bn in 2011, a 30% rise from Euro1.3bn in 2010. Operating income rose to Euro3.4bn, a 10% rise compared to Euro3.1bn. Group sales increased to Euro42bn, a 5% rise from Euro40bn.

"We managed to limit the impact of the strong increase of raw material and energy thanks to the increase of the prices of our products," said chief executive Pierre-Andre de Chalendar.

De Chalendar added that he expects a moderated growth of revenues in 2012 as the company intends to continue transferring higher costs to its products' prices. He declined to give specific data, though he said the growth will be slower than the 5% in 2011.

In its Interior Solutions division (which includes gypsum) the group recorded sales of Euro5.5bn for 2011, a rise of 6.1% from Euro5.2bn in 2010. Operating income met Euro450m in 2011, a rise of 19% from Euro380m. Notably capital expenditure increased to Euro330m, a rise of 70% from Euro190m. Overall the group doubled investment spending for 2011, in energy efficiency and energy markets, to almost Euro900m.

Sales volumes for Interior Solutions were up in all geographic areas, particularly in the US, Asia and emerging countries. In Western Europe and especially France, trading continued to be buoyed by stricter energy performance regulations.

Saint-Gobain's CEO has announced an ambitious expansion plan to boost total revenues to Euro55bn and net profit to Euro3bn by 2015, through acquisitions and organic growth. The company said the plan to spin off its unit Verallia is still being considered, but market conditions are not favourable in the short term.

North America: CertainTeed Gypsum, a Saint-Gobain subsidiary, has announced that UL Environment Inc. has completed its independent Environmental Claims Verification (ECV) process for products manufactured at five of its sites in North America. The company says that the move demonstrates a strong commitment to environmental responsibility and transparency.

UL Environment's ECV process has been completed for products manufactured at CertainTeed's Cody (Wyoming, US), Vancouver (British Columbia, Canada), Toronto (Ontario, Canada), Seattle (Washington, US), and Moundsville (West Virginia, US) manufacturing facilities. Specifically, UL Environment confirmed the pre- and post-consumer recycled content, origination of source materials (and adherence to ASTM D 3273 mould-resistance standards, if applicable) for 19 CertainTeed products. The validation process is currently underway for products manufactured at the company's remaining North American plants.

"CertainTeed has taken a unique approach by seeking validation for environmental product claims based on the specific plant in which they are manufactured," said Steve Wenc, president of UL Environment. "This demonstrates CertainTeed's commitment to providing detailed product information and an unprecedented level of transparency."

"Third party verification of environmental claims is a critical component of today's green building culture, as it provides independent evaluation and enhanced transparency," said John Donaldson, president of CertainTeed Gypsum. "CertainTeed has made significant strides in ensuring that building and design professionals have access to sustainable, high-performance gypsum products that help them to achieve their goals in the responsible development of our built environment."

India: Saint-Gobain Gyproc India is planning to strengthen its gypsum business in India with an investment of up to USD100m over the next three years. The company plans to focus more on emerging markets, including India, for future growth.

"Saint-Gobain's gypsum division has said it will focus more on the emerging markets for its future growth and India is one of them. In the next three years, we may invest USD82 –100m to strengthen our operations here", said Saint-Gobain Gyproc India Managing Director V Subramanian. He added that the company will primarily focus on enhancing its existing production capacities besides setting up new facilities in the country.

"We have already invested about USD61m since 2006 and the future investment will be more as the country provides huge opportunity to grow," Subramanian stated. When asked about revenue Subramanian said, "In 2010 we clocked USD82–100m turnover. We are aiming to double this in the next three years."