Gypsum industry news

US: Eagle Materials offset higher energy and maintenance costs by raising the prices of its products in the first quarter of its 2023 financial year. This contributed to an 18% year-on-year sales rise to US$561m. The group achieved earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of US$184m during the quarter, up by 13% year-on-year.

President and CEO Michael Haack said "Our results this quarter exceeded our expectations, as our portfolio of businesses performed well, and we executed on the opportunities available to us. Construction activity remained healthy across our markets, and we realised broad pricing gains across our portfolio again this quarter."

The producer’s light materials sales rose by 30% year-on-year to US$248m due to increased gypsum wallboard sales volume and prices. Wallboard volumes increased by 5% to 74.1Mm2; their average price increased by 24%. Haack said “In our light materials sector, wallboard shipments and orders remain strong, but we recognise quantitative tightening will likely have an impact on residential construction activity in the future. In the near term, we expect record home construction backlogs to support product demand this year. With Eagle's excellent balance sheet, the favourable geographic positioning of our operations and consistent execution of our operating strategies, we are poised for a strong fiscal 2023."

US: Continental Building Products says that a significant equipment malfunction took place at its Buchanan gypsum wallboard plant in New York state on 24 January 2019. The plant will likely be shut until the end of February 2019 to make repairs. Standard insurance coverage is expected to pay for the maintenance work. No staff injuries occurred during the incident.

"We apologise to our customers for any disruptions caused by these supply constraints," said Jay Bachmann, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Continental building Products.

The company expects to limit new orders for shipments normally delivered from our Buchanan plant during the shutdown. The 60Mm² plant represents about 20% of the company’s wallboard production capacity. Plants in Silver Grove, Kentucky and Palatka, Florida will make up some of the shortfall while the Buchanan plant is being repaired. However the company admitted that due to ‘capacity constraints, logistics and product availability’ the two plants will be unable to make up for all of the lost production.