Gypsum industry news

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.

US: United States Gypsum Corporation subsidiary L&W Supply has announced the closure of eight of its stores, citing a continued weak US housing market. It also announced that it was to wrap up its Nevada-based custom door and frames business by the end of the current quarter. The closure is expected to cost the unit somewhere in the region of USD13-15m in total.

Asia: French cement group Lafarge has announced that it has completed the signing of a deal to sell to its Australian peer Boral its stake in their 50/50 gypsum-producing joint venture Lafarge Boral Gypsum Asia (LBGA) for USD619.4m.Thanks to the sale, Lafarge will exceed its target to divest assets worth USD1.08bn in 2011.

The transaction is part of Lafarge's plan to reduce debt and is due to be finalised by the end of 2011. The plan has already seen assets in South America and Europe transferred to Etex and Australian operations sold to Knauf.

LBGA has 2100 employees spread across 20 production sites and registered sales of USD260.8m in 2010. Its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were USD44.7m in 2010. This latest deal means that Lafarge now only has gypsum assets in North America.