Gypsum industry news

US: National Gypsum has halted its plans for a West Milton power generation plant fuelled by burning tyres due to the plummeting price of natural gas and protests from local residents.

National Gypsum planned to buy steam and electricity produced from the plant, but with the price of natural gas considerably lower, using the tyre-burning power generator no longer offered cost savings. The company stated that it still firmly believes the En-Tire project is environmentally sound and would have provided much-needed jobs, but that it must also consider the objections of the White Deer community, with which it has a good working relationship.

"I'm glad to hear that," White Deer township supervisor Don Wilver said. "That speaks well of them as a partner in the community."

The Tyre Burner Team, a group that vocally and persistently protested the plant, plans to share its steps with other organisations and remains ready to re-commit to stopping the project should any such plans emerge again.

En-Tire Logistics LLC of Bedford, Texas, which would have operated the facility, plans to pursue a tyre-derived fuel plant elsewhere in Pennsylvania. The company is disappointed over the demise of the White Deer Energy Project, said CEO Willess Vincent. "We will be looking for another site for the facility and will absolutely look in Pennsylvania," he said, but would not disclose where. Vincent signed the written request sent to the state Department of Environmental Protection to shelve the air-quality permit approval the agency had granted the project in September 2013.

US: Rhino Linings Corporation has acquired the assets of Expo Industries Inc, a San Diego-based manufacturer of Expo Stucco™ interior and exterior stucco products, sealers, bonders, patch products and plaster mixes.

The acquisition expands Rhino Linings line of building products, which already include waterproofing products, spray polyurethane foam insulation, decorative concrete and epoxy flooring systems.

"Expo Stucco is a well-respected and recognised leader in the building industry," said Pierre Gagnon, president and CEO of Rhino Linings Corporation. "Since Expo Stucco blended and packaged our Concrete Solutions bag mixes, we are now able to bring product packaging in-house and expand our line of building products. We are also excited about the opportunity to expand name recognition and sales for the Expo Stucco brand."

US: A US$24m settlement has been reached between owners of Villa Lago, a collection of private residences in Boynton Beach, South Florida and Coastal Construction regarding 'defective' Chinese wallboard.

A two-tower condominium complex was constructed by RCR Holdings II LLC at Villa Lago using Chinese wallboard. Once the residents became aware of the 'defective' wallboard they formed a class action and sued RCR Holdings. However, since RCR kept equity in the property, the two sides soon joined forces against the general contractor, Coastal Construction and other defendants.

RCR Holdings maintained that Coastal Construction and the other defendants knew the wallboard was defective when it was being installed. They further alleged that Coastal's conduct fell below the duty of care owed the class. The defendants denied knowingly using defective wallboard, although a settlement was eventually reached after six mediations.

Coastal agreed to pay US$24m, which was preliminarily approved by US District Judge Eldon Fallon on 24 April 2013. The Villa Lago owners are using the funds to remove the 'defective'wallboard.

US/Canada: Georgia-Pacific plans to 'idle' one wallboard plant in Caledonia, Ontario and one wallboard plant in West Memphis, Tennessee in early 2014. Eric Abercrombie, a spokesperson for Georgia-Pacific, attributed the decision to production optimisation and a slow recovery in the building materials market.

"We are doing this because of market conditions and the fact we've just acquired new capacity through a merger," stated Abercrombie to local media. 60 employees will be affected at the Caledonia plant and 39 employees at the West Memphis plant.

In early 2013, Georgia-Pacific acquired four new gypsum wallboard plants when it took over Memphis-based Temple-Inland Building Products from International Paper. That deal, worth US$750m, added 1800 employees to Georgia-Pacific and 16 production facilities.

US/UK: The gypsum market is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.9% to reach approximately US$2.4bn by 2018, and US$3.8bn by 2023, according to a new report by analysts Smithers Apex. 'The Future of Gypsum: Market Forecasts to 2023' reports that 252Mt of gypsum is expected to be consumed in the year 2013, with 31.9% and 62.5% being consumed in the plasterboard and cement industries respectively.

The market study reports that about 75% of gypsum is used in wallboard manufacture in the US and Western Europe. Outside of these regions, Smithers Apex reports that one of the major factors driving gypsum consumption is population growth, particularly in India and China, as developing countries move from traditional wet construction techniques towards dry construction using materials such as prefabricated wallboard. Countries such as China are also encouraging wallboard usage through government policies.

The report also describes how a large portion of the world's gypsum is produced from a very large number of small operations in developing countries. For example, there are as many as 400 mines in Iran and probably more in China. The US ranks fifth globally in raw gypsum production after China, Iran, Iraq and Spain. US crude gypsum production in 2012 grew by 11% to 10.4Mt. In 2012, 10.7Mt of this gypsum was synthetic, and 11Mt was calcined gypsum.

The global financial crisis saw demand for gypsum drop in the construction industry by around 20% in 2008. The decline slowed between 2002 and 2010 and stabilised in 2011. The US and other parts of the world saw a strong recovery period in 2012. The most likely path forward for the US construction industry will be a relatively steady one, that features moderate recovery through 2013 and accelerates in 2014 and beyond.

US/Australia: Boral and USG Corporation have entered into agreements to form a US$1.6bn joint venture producing wallboard in 12 countries across Asia, Australasia and the Middle East. Boral will contribute its Gypsum division to the joint venture, which includes its plasterboard operations in Australia and Asia. USG will contribute its Asian and Middle Eastern businesses, as well as exclusive access to its ceilings, cement board, fibre board, lightweight plasterboard and joint compound building products technologies in the joint venture's territory.

"The transaction is a major step forward for Boral and our vision is to create a world-leading interior linings business in Asia, Australasia and the Middle East," said Boral's CEO & Managing Director, Mike Kane.

The joint venture will be owned 50% by Boral and 50% by USG. In order to achieve an interest of 50% in the joint venture, USG will pay Boral up to US$575m in tranches. It will have a wallboard production capacity of 633Mm²/yr. The joint venture is expected to be completed by January 2014.

Management of the joint venture will be shared between Boral and USG with Frederic de Rougemont from Boral Gypsum who is appointed as CEO and Paul Monzella from USG Corporation who is appointed as CFO. USG will appoint the Chairman, Jennifer Scanlon, with the right to appoint chairman alternating between USG and Boral every two years.

US: USG Corporation has entered into a Solar Energy Power Purchase and Sale Agreement (PPA) with Green Light Plaster City Solar 1 (GLPCS1) to install a solar facility at its Plaster City, California manufacturing plant. The 1MW photovoltaic (PV) system is intended to provide USG with more predictable energy costs until the 2030s.

Through the PPA, GLPCS1 and local engineering firm ZGlobal, will install solar cells on three hectares of the Plaster City site. Installation began in September 2013 and should be completed by December 2013.

"We are always looking for opportunities for our plants to use solar energy, and it made a lot of sense to move forward with this renewable energy investment at our manufacturing plant in Plaster City," said Al Zucco, senior director, Energy and Sustainability, USG.

Currently the Imperial Irrigation District (IID) supports and provides all of the USG plant's energy. IID rates are expected to increase at an unknown rate, but with the PPA USG will have predictable pricing for energy produced by the solar PV system.

In addition to improving the environmental profile of USG's Plaster City plant, the project is expected to save the company more than US$1m over the 20-year life of the project through lowered electricity costs.

US: Carbon monoxide (CO) from external sources can easily penetrate gypsum wallboard according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association by Neil B Hampson, James R Holm and Todd G Courtney of the Virginia Mason Centre for Hyperbaric Medicine. The study is believed to be the first to examine the ability of CO to diffuse through gypsum wallboard.

In the study, a plexiglas chamber divided by various configurations of gypsum wallboard was used to determine whether CO diffuses across wallboard. Wallboard of various thicknesses were used. CO test gas was infused into the chamber and then CO concentrations were measured once per minute in each chamber for 24 hours. The authors sought to determine how rapidly a concentration of CO toxic to humans would be reached in the non-infused chamber and whether diffusion would then continue. The researchers found that CO diffused across single-layer gypsum wallboard of two thicknesses, double-layer wallboard and painted double-layer wallboard.

"Gypsum's permeability to CO is due to its porosity. The ability of CO to diffuse across gypsum wallboard may explain at least some instances of CO poisoning in contiguous residences. Exempting residences without internal CO sources from the legislation mandating CO alarms may put people in multifamily dwellings at risk for unintentional CO poisoning," said the study. Carbon monoxide poisoning causes about 500 accidental deaths annually in the US.

US: The Gypsum Association has released GA-227-13, 'Recommendations for the Prevention of Ceiling Cracking', a publication outlining methods to mitigate cracking in large-span wallboard ceilings due to fluctuations in temperature and humidity.

GA-227-13 explains that ceiling cracks can appear at gypsum board joints when the span between framing members approaches or exceeds 4.5m. The centreline cracks can occur because materials such as gypsum wallboard and wood framing shrink and expand at different rates due to periodical changes in moisture content and temperature. To address the issue, the document details how resilient channels can reduce the occurrence of cracking.

"The methods for the use of resilient channels described in this document have been shown to be very effective in preventing ceiling cracks due to swings in temperature and moisture content of wood framing - particularly in long spans," said Robert Wessel senior director of technical services for the Gypsum Association. "The swings usually occur during a change in season from summer to winter or in dry areas such as desert environments."

US: USG Corporation (USG) has elected Thomas A Burke to its board of directors. He will serve on the Audit and Governance committees of the USG board of directors. With the addition of Burke, USG's board includes nine independent directors.

Burke has been president and chief executive officer of Modine Manufacturing Company since 2008. Prior to his current role, he served as executive vice president and chief operating officer. Previously Burke served in several leadership positions with Visteon Corporation including vice president, North America and Asia operations, and Vice President, European and South American operations. Burke's experience spans a variety of roles over more than 30 years, including senior engineering and operations positions with other well-known companies such as Ford Motor Company and Deere and Company.

Burke serves on Modine Manufacturing's board of directors. In addition, he is a trustee of Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI), a board member of the United Way of Racine County, a member of the board of regents of the Milwaukee School of Engineering and a director of the National Association of Manufacturers.

Burke holds a bachelor's degree from Purdue University and has completed the Executive Business Program at Northwestern University's Kellogg Management Institute.