Gypsum industry news

UK: Construction company the Carey Group has acquired drylining specialist the BDL Group for an undisclosed sum. BDL has a turnover of Euro50m/yr and it employs nearly 120 people with an additional 650 craft operatives working on commercial and residential projects at any one time. The company is known in the UK for working on big London projects such as the Shard, the Olympics, Terminal 5 at Heathrow airport and Canary Wharf in the City of London.

Carey Group intends to preserve BDL's trading name, retaining the existing management team and staff to ensure continuity of service on existing contracts. BDL will continue executing operations from it offices in Uxbridge, London

Australia: Boral's Asian profit for its gypsum division has fallen by 10% for its 2012 – 2013 financial year, which ended on 30 June 2013.

The Australian building materials manufacturer calculated that, in the first full year following its acquisition of all of Boral Gypsum Asia, its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) fell to US$51.2m from US$56.6m on a like-for-like basis. It blamed the decline on challenging conditions in South Korea and China, lower demand in Vietnam, plant ramp-off costs and the effects of lower capacity utilisation rates. However, on the same basis revenue for the subsidiary rose by 4% to US$502m in the period.

Boral's Australian gypsum division, Plasterboard Australia, saw its revenue fall by 5% to US$301m from US$316m. EBIT remained flat at US$22.5m.

"Boral Gypsum delivered softer underlying earnings in FY2013 due to cyclical challenges in some Asian markets and the cost impacts of investment ramp-ups in China and Indonesia. The business remains extremely well positioned for future earnings growth in Asia and Australia and has invested in three additional board lines that will increase net capacity in Asia by 16%," said Boral's chief executive officer and managing director, Mike Kane. For its gypsum businesses, Boral reported that capacity expansion projects at Chongqing, China (15Mm²/yr) and Ho Chi Minh City ,Vietnam (30Mm²/yr) have been delayed for completion in the second half of 2013 and early 2014 respectively.

Overall, Boral made a loss of US$192m for its 2012 – 2013 financial year. In the previous year it made a profit of US$160m. Its sales revenue rose by 5% to US$4.71bn from US$4.26bn in the prior year. Its profit after tax but before significant items rose by 3.2% to US$94.3m from US$91.4m. EBIT before significant items rose by 14% to US$206m from US$180m.

In the 2013 – 2014 financial year the division's performance is expected to remain strong, despite lower property sales and reduced major project work. However, overall the results in 2013 – 2014 are not expected to exceed those in 2012 – 2013.

Canada: Bob Bruce of Innogyps has announced that Robert Morrow has joined Innogyps as a partner. Innogyps says that Rob brings with him North American, European and Australasian regional experience and gypsum and construction products business experience with CertainTeed (BPB), Genstar Corporation and Arthur Young (Ernst & Young).

In addition to his undergraduate degree in commerce, Rob is a chartered accountant and has operations experience in supply chain and mining, business strategy and leadership development. Inogyps says that his diverse set of skills will assist Mark Flumiani and the rest of the team in providing an organisation to meet customer needs.

Belarus: The Belarusian government has approved a decision to sell its entire 99.5% stake in OJSC Belgips to Russia's Volma Corporation according to Architecture and Construction Minister Anatoly Nichkasov. At a press conference reported upon by Russian News Agency Interfax, Nichkasov added that the government will sell its stake of the wallboard and gypsum partition block producer for to US$7m.

"This topic has been considered at the government level and it was approved in principle by the presidential administration. At the request of Russian company Volma, the government stake will be transferred to it once preparations of the investment contract are finished," the minister said. The sale is expected to be finalised in the third quarter of 2013.

The government intends to modernise Belgips' existing wallboard plant in Minsk, which was originally commissioned in 1948, and to build a new plant outside of Minsk with the sale. In addition, the sale will carry the agreement that the Volma will supply raw gypsum to the company at a reduced cost.

US: Eagle Materials has reported financial results for the first quarter of the 2014 fiscal year, which ended on 30 June 2013. It saw its revenue for the quarter increase to US$227m, an increase of 47% year-on-year and earnings before interest and income taxes were up by 109% to US$49.5m. Its net earnings were US$30.1m, a 115% rise from US$14m in the first quarter of the prior fiscal year.

Eagle's Gypsum Wallboard and Paperboard businesses reported first quarter operating earnings of US$35.3m, up 83% from the same quarter of the prior fiscal year. Improved gypsum wallboard net sales prices were the primary driver of the quarterly earnings increase. Additional contributions came from improved sales volumes in both wallboard and paperboard.

Gypsum Wallboard and Paperboard revenues for the first quarter totalled US$114.9m, a 28% increase from the same quarter in the 2013 fiscal year. The revenue increase reflects higher average wallboard net sales prices and higher gypsum wallboard and paperboard sales volumes. The average gypsum wallboard net sales price this quarter was US$1.57 per square meter, 23% greater than the same quarter a year ago.

Wallboard sales volume for the quarter of 532 million square feet represented a 16% increase from the same quarter of the 2012 - 2013 fiscal year.