Gypsum industry news

France: Saint-Gobain says that it is confident it can offset inflation in raw material and energy costs in 2022 through price rises and hedging its energy costs. In an update on its first quarter results the group said that it expects its energy and raw material costs to increase by around Euro2.5bn in 2022 as a whole compared to 2021. Much of this inflation is related to the European market where the company says it has hedged around 80% of its natural gas and electricity purchases for 2022. It noted that it increased its prices and sales volumes by 14.5% and 1.9% year-on-year respectively in the first quarter of 2022.

The company added it had prepared contingency plans in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic should there be any disruptions to natural gas supplies from Russia. These include the classification of priority industries, using alternative energy sources already prepared at certain sites, and increasing the flexibility of its production capacities.

Saint-Gobain’s sales rose by 16% year-on-year to Euro10.4bn in the first quarter of 2022 from Euro12bn in the same period in 2021. The group said growth was driven by building renovation in Europe and by construction in the Americas and in Asia.

Mexico: The price of gypsum and its derivatives has risen by up to 12% in April 2022 compared to pre-Russian invasion of Ukraine levels. Along with a rise in the price of other materials, this has increased the cost of new house builds by 25 – 30%.

The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reported that Russia was previously Mexico’s 35th largest trade partner.

Russia: Volma says it fixed its product prices for key customers from mid-March 2022. Vladimir Ovchintsev, the general director of Volma, said, “Sometimes it is worth making decisions that are not so beneficial for business, but extremely important for supporting our partners.” He added that the company would lose profitability but that the company viewed it as strategically important to support the construction sector. He added that the decision was important in ‘unpredictable and changeable’ conditions.

Russia: Belgium-based ETEX has announced the suspension of all of its Russian activities ‘immediately and until further notice.’ The gypsum wallboard producer operates two sites for the import and sale of fibre cement façade materials near Moscow. It says that it will take care of the 50 colleagues it employs there.

The group said “We will continue to do everything we can for the safety and well-being of all our teammates and hope that peace will prevail quickly.”

Russia/Ukraine: Jörg Schanow, a member of the management board of Knauf, says that the company has no plans to leave the Russian market. In an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper he said that Russian production sites were still running as normal.

The company has set up crisis management team since the start of the war in Ukraine in late February 2022. It has been meeting daily and discussing the situation with local management in Russia. Schanow said that the biggest business problem so far was the effect of US and European economic sanctions upon Russian banks and the consequences upon moving money between banks, suppliers and customers. The Germany-based company employees 3900 staff at 14 sites in Russia. It originally purchased a gypsum plant at Krasnogorsk near Moscow in 1993.

Knauf also has operations in Ukraine. It closed its gypsum wallboard plant in Donbass in response to the current war on 24 February 2022 ‘as a precaution,’ according to the TZ newspaper. The staff were sent home and the plant will remain closed into further notice. The plant had 589 employees at the end of 2021, none of whom where German nationals.