Gypsum industry news

US: Taishan Gypsum and its owner China National Building Material Company (CNBM) say they have settled with Lennar Homes, LLC and US Home Corporation in one of its lawsuits about alleged defective gypsum wallboard. Fellow subsidiary Beijing New Building Material (BNBM) and Taishan Gypsum have agreed to pay the companies concerned US$0.5m and US$6m respectively in instalments by 31 July 2017. In return the plaintiffs have agreed to drop all claims and allegations within three days of receipt of the payment.

China: The Ministry of Justice has returned a lawsuit in which thousands of US homeowners say a 'cabinet-level' agency should pay for damage to their homes from alleged defective wallboard made in China. The ministry says it won't serve the legal papers because the agency is immune to such lawsuits and the legal service would infringe upon China's sovereignty.

US District Judge Eldon Fallon has ruled that Taishan Gypsum Company must pay for damages from the wallboard it made. The judge is considering damages for up to 4000 homeowners in six states. The brief letter from Beijing became part of the court record this week, about 21 months after lawyers for the homeowners sued the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, which oversees 117 state-owned companies. It was dated 8 April 2016.

Fallon ruled in 2010 that Taishan's wallboard emitted sulphur gas that damaged the homes of seven 'bellwether' plaintiffs from Virginia, making occupants ill, corroding copper, silver and other metals, damaging appliances and electronics, and stinking up the houses so they were "hard if not impossible to live in." The other states involved in the lawsuit include Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, according to Associated Press.

China: China National Building Materials' (CNBM) 45.2%-owned subsidiary Beijing New Building Material Public Limited Company (BNBM) has agreed to acquire a 35% equity interest in Taishan Gypsum Company through a private issuance of 369 million BNBM shares to Taishan Gypsum minority shareholders at US$1.79/share for a total of US$661m.

Upon completion, BNBM will directly and indirectly hold the entire equity interest in Taishan Gypsum. Taishan Gypsum minority shareholders will hold 20.7% of the enlarged issued share capital of BNBM after the private issuance. The equity interest held by CNBM in BNBM will reduce from about 45.2% to 35.84%.

Upon completion of the transaction, Taishan Gypsum will be wholly-owned by BNBM, enabling CNBM to further integrate its internal resources, allowing BNBM to improve its operating results and further consolidate the group's market position.

US: Taishan Gypsum Company Limited, which is a 65% held subsidiary of China National Building Materials' (CNBM) 45.2%-owned subsidiary Beijing New Building Material Public Limited Company (BNBM), has refused to participate in a Judgment Debtor Examination in the United States District Court of Louisiana.

Taishan Gypsum has been ordered to pay US$15,000 in attorney's fees, US$40,000 as a penalty for contempt and has been banned from conducting any business in the US as Taishan Gypsum or via its affiliates or subsidiaries until or unless it participates in the judicial process. If it violates the injunction, it will pay a further penalty of 25% of the profits earned for the year of violation.

US: China's Taishan Gypsum Co Ltd, which was accused of manufacturing substandard gypsum wallboard, has been ordered not to conduct business in the United States.

The US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana found Taishan in contempt for failing to appear on 17 July 2014 for a hearing related to a US$2.6m judgment that it has refused to pay to seven Hampton Roads families.

The China-based company had previously claimed that US courts did not have jurisdiction in a lawsuit filed by the affected families. After losing that argument in the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in early 2014, Taishan chose not to file an appeal with the US Supreme Court. Taishan made no move toward paying the judgment or working out a settlement, so it was called into court to explain its actions.

"We will be pursuing them until hell freezes," said Arnold Levin, an attorney who had argued in New Orleans on behalf of the families.

For failing to appear, Taishan was ordered by US District Judge Eldon Fallon to pay US$15,000 in attorneys' fees and US$40,000 in penalties. He also prohibited the company from conducting business in America and declared that if it did, it would have to forfeit 25% of its profits. Fallon chided Taishan's leaders for participating in the legal process until they lost and then deciding to 'thumb their nose at the court' by not following his orders.

Fallon sent his ruling to the US secretary of commerce, the chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and the US Attorney General's Office to take 'any appropriate action they may see fit.'