Vietnam: Knauf Vietnam has introduced Duc Nam Construction and Trading Company as its first gypsum wallboard distributor in Hanoi in northern Vietnam. This is its second distributor in Vietnam after assigning one in the Cuu Long Delta region. Having received an investment license in 2013, Knauf Vietnam is building a 12Mm²/yr capacity gypsum wallboard plant worth US$40.7m in the northern province of Haiphong.

Brazil: Knauf has inaugurated its second wallboard plant in Camacri, Bahia. The US$66m plant will increase the company's annual production in Brazil by 80% to 45Mm²/yr. The company has forecast a 15% increase in sales volume in 2014, with the new plant supplying the north, north east and part of the central west regions of the country, with the possibility of exporting to the Caribbean and Africa. The plant is expected to be operating at full capacity within four to five years.

India: Engineering firm Pennar Industries Ltd has announced that its subsidiaries, Pennar Engineered Building Systems (PEBS Pennar) and Pennar Enviro Ltd (PEL), have received US$17.5m of orders, including a gypsum storage unit for UltaTech Cement in Gujarat State.

"Pennar is pleased to announce receipt of orders worth US$17.5m from prestigious customers," said Pennar's vice chairman and managing director Aditya Rao. "All business units are focused on gaining market share and maintaining operating margins. We believe that as the macro-economic conditions improve, our positioning will ensure that we benefit in revenue and even gain market share."

US: Tennessee State has launched a crackdown on construction companies classifying full-time workers as contractors in order to avoid taxes and insurance. A US$300,000 fine for misclassifying construction workers may be having a deterrent effect, according to officials with the Tennessee Department of Labour. The penalty was the largest to date in a state-wide crackdown on labelling full-time employees as contract workers.

TJ Drywall of Nashville was making US$2m/yr, but only paying 5% of what regulators say that they should have been in workers compensation and unemployment insurance premiums.

The Labour Department's Scott Yarbrough said that the practice remains rampant in the construction industry. "It upsets me when somebody who is following the rules, paying their insurance and paying their taxes like they're supposed to, is trying to compete with people who aren't."

After seeing the giant fine imposed, Yarbrough said that another business owner in Sumner County volunteered to reclassify his contract workers to avoid a fine. The money collected in fines for misclassifying employees will go toward hiring more investigators.