Russia: Saint-Gobain has started production at its first wallboard plant in Russia. Pierre-André de Chalendar, chairman and CEO of Saint-Gobain, officially opened the plant, located near Gomzovo in the Nizhny Novgorod region, on 10 July 2013. The new Euro70m plant, which also contains a gypsum quarry, has a workforce of 87 employees.

"The start-up of this new plant is an important step in the group's development within the Russian habitat and construction markets," said de Chalendar. "With its unique portfolio of products and solutions, Saint-Gobain serves rapidly-growing construction markets worldwide. Russia's climate, its rising purchasing power and pressing need for housing means that it's a country with great potential for the group."

US: Mined gypsum supply in the US has risen by 43% to 3.41Mt in the first quarter of 2013 from 2.38Mt in the same quarter of 2012, according to a report from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Imported gypsum production rose in the quarter year-on-year to 0.85Mt and synthetic gypsum production fell year-on-year to 1.79Mt. The overall total supply of gypsum rose by 21% year-on-year to 6.05Mt from 5.01Mt.

Total supply of board products stood at 327MM² for the first quarter of 2013, a slight decline compared to 334MM² for the first quarter of 2012 and a 19% fall to 403MM² in the fourth quarter of 2012. Major crude gypsum importers in the first quarter of 2013 included Mexico (0.34Mt), Canada (0.27Mt) and Spain (0.24Mt).

Russia: Matanat-A, the Azerbaijani building materials producer, has re-registered land in Uspensk district of Krasnodar region of the Russian Federation intended for a industrial complex including a gypsum wallboard plant. Company president Elkhan Bashirov said that they Matanat-A is continuing negotiations with the district administration about the start of construction.

"The point is that the purchased land is registered as agricultural land. In this respect we submitted the documents for re-registration of land for industrial work," said Bashirov.

The agreement to build the complex has originally signed on 16 September 2011 at the Jubilee X Investment Forum in Sochi. The plans consist of five plants, including a gypsum wallboard plant, built on a 37 hectares plot. Matanat-A has also purchased a 78 hectare site to mine gypsum at Otradnensky in Krasnodar region. The plant build will be funded by a Euro30m investment, of which 30% comes from Matanat-A and the remaining 70% from a loan.

US: Lafarge has announced that is preparing the sale of its North American gypsum business to US private equity firm Lone Star in a deal worth an enterprise value of US$700m.

Lafarge North America's Gypsum division manufactures gypsum wallboards and joint compounds throughout a network of plants in the United States and Canada, including three US gypsum wallboard plants. In 2012, these operations generated sales of US$310m. The assets have been held for sale in the Lafarge's consolidated balance sheet since 2011.

This transaction, which is expected to close very soon, is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Global building materials producer Lafarge reduced its net debt by Euro700m in 2012 to Euro11.3bn. It sold the majority of its worldwide gypsum business – in Asia, Europe, South America and Australia – to Boral and Etex in 2011. Lafarge retains a 20% stake in the joint venture with Etex.