Gypsum industry news

USA: USG has announced that its chairman, William C Foote, will retire from the company on 1 December 2011. The USG board of directors has elected James S Metcalf, USG's President and Chief Executive Officer, to the additional post of Chairman of the Board effective upon Foote's retirement.

"It has been an honour and a privilege to lead this great company for the last 15 years," said Foote. "I have great confidence in the company's leadership team and its future. I will sincerely miss the many friendships I have developed throughout the company and the industry over the years. I will always be grateful to our board of directors for their steadfast support and wise counsel."

Foote has served as USG's chairman since 1996, after having been elected chief executive officer in 1995 and president in 1994. Foote has nearly 27 years of service, having joined USG in 1984. The youngest chairman in USG's 109-year history, Foote successfully led the company through periods of rapid growth, severe economic contraction and a Chapter 11 bankruptcy related to legacy legal liabilities.

Under Foote's leadership, USG launched a large-scale modernisation of its manufacturing operations in the late 1990s that added more than 1.5Bnm² of low-cost wallboard manufacturing capacity. Foote also directed the expansion of USG's specialty distribution business, L&W Supply Corporation, which now has more than 150 locations and is the only specialty dealer of building materials with a nationwide presence.

He also helmed the firm through the company's legacy asbestos liabilities and led the company through a Chapter 11 restructuring to protect shareholders from a wave of lawsuits. In a Wall Street Journal article at the time USG emerged from bankruptcy, Warren Buffet called it, "the most successful managerial performance in bankruptcy that I've ever seen." Buffett's investment company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., owns a 16.2% in USG.

Metcalf, who joined the company in 1980 as a trainee, was elected to the USG Board of Directors in 2008 and became chief executive officer on 1 January 2011. Foote remains chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Uzbekistan: Germany's Knauf International GmbH has opened its gypsum wallboard plant in Kagan, Uzbekistan. The project, which is run by Knauf Gips Bukhara, was built at a cost of around USD51.1m. Construction started in 2008 and was completed in June 2011. To date, the company has been operating the 20MM2/yr plant in test mode. The project is the second by Knauf in Uzbekistan.

India: Preparations are reported to be 'in full swing' towards the commissioning of a new fibre-glass-reinforced gypsum wallboard and building materials plant at Kochi by Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore and Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers, Mumbai.

Engineers from Rapid Building Systems, Australia, the technology provider for the project, have been in Kochi over the past month putting the finishing touches to the plant before commercial production begins later in 2011. A test run to produce the large building boards has been successful and further tests are being carried out at present.

US: International Paper Co. (IP), the world's largest pulp and paper maker, has agreed to acquire Temple-Inland Inc for USD3.7bn. Temple-Inland, which is based in Austin, Texas and has four US wallboard plants, previously rejected a bid made by IP on 6 June 2011 because it was too low.

"The strategic benefits of this combination are clear and we are pleased to be able to move forward on terms that are financially attractive for both sets of shareholders," said International Paper Chief Executive Officer John Faraci in a statement.

North America: France's Saint-Gobain has announced the appointment of John Crowe as President and CEO of both the Saint-Gobain Corporation, Saint-Gobain's North American holding company, and CertainTeed Corporation, which is Saint-Gobain's largest North American subsidiary.

Crowe will take on these two new roles effective from today. As President and CEO of Saint-Gobain Corporation, he will act as Saint-Gobain's representative in North America, overseeing the company's North American businesses and chairing the company's Executive Committee. In this role, he succeeds Gilles Colas, who will return to Saint-Gobain's Paris headquarters as Senior Vice President in charge of global strategic developments.

In addition, Crowe will assume operational responsibility for CertainTeed, following in the footsteps of Peter Dachowski, who retired yesterday after 35 years of service in a wide variety of senior leadership roles at Saint-Gobain and CertainTeed.

"With more than 30 years of experience in Saint-Gobain's innovative materials businesses, John is an exceptional leader with strong operational skills," said Pierre-Andre de Chalendar, Chairman and CEO of Saint-Gobain. "His appointment underscores Saint-Gobain's focus on leveraging its innovation and technical expertise to develop products and solutions that change the way we think about built environments. John will help CertainTeed and other Saint-Gobain businesses in North America to develop innovative materials that advance the way we build today in order to meet the challenges of tomorrow."

Crowe sees his main role as continuing to drive innovation throughout the company. "CertainTeed has been a leader in the construction industry for over one hundred years, Saint-Gobain for over three centuries, but we have never seen such a rapid pace of change or so many exciting new building technologies," he said.