Gypsum industry news

Philippines: Knauf Gypsum Philippines has opened its first gypsum board training centre in the country in Quezon City. The ‘Knauf Academy’ is intended to help train local construction workers, according to the Business Mirror newspaper. Mark Sergio, the managing director of Knauf Gypsum Philippines and Alexander Schmidt, Acting Deputy Head of Mission at the German Embassy, attended the opening event.

Sergio said “The intent of the training centre is two-fold: we want to make sure that we can improve the capability, the workmanship quality and skills of Filipino installers. We also want to make sure that because of this, we’re able to deliver the best customer experience for our architects, developers and contractor-partners.”

US: CertainTeed has completed an upgrade to the grinding control technology at its gypsum wallboard plant at Buchanan in New York state. The new variable frequency drive at the site can vary the speed at which raw gypsum is ground and save energy accordingly. It is expected to reduce the plant’s energy consumption by nearly 700,000kWh/yr. Other recent sustainable upgrades at the plant include the installation of 2.4MW solar array on its roof in 2018.

Parent company Saint-Gobain North America has announced a number of sustainability-focused upgrade projects at its wallboard plants so far in 2022. These include switching to renewable energy at its Montreal plant in Quebec, using recycled materials at its Nashville plant in Arkansas and installing a waste heat recovery system at its Vancouver plant in British Colombia.

Belgium: Eurogypsum, the European federation of national associations of producers of gypsum products, has welcomed proposed changes to the European Union’s (EU) Construction Products Regulation (CPR). It said that it welcomed “…the proposal presented by the European Commission (EC) on 30 March 2022 as an ambitious basis to strengthen and modernise the existing rules, as well as to speed up the uptake of sustainable and circular practices in the construction product manufacturing industry.”

In preliminary feedback comments the association said that it supports a European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) driven system as opposed to increased regulatory powers for construction material manufacturing that the new proposals might create. For the assessment of the environmental performance of products the association wants more clarity about any potential new digital approach. It reiterated that it supports the continued use of Life-Cycle Assessments (LCA) and Environmental Product Decelerations (EPD). It also called for product labelling to be provided in an electronic format with easy-to-understand pictograms as the norm. However it suggested that any consumer should be able to request a paper version if required.

The CPR regulations were originally introduced in 2011 and are recognisable to consumers through the use of the CE (Communauté Européenne) markings on certain products. The EC has since decided to revise the regulations to fit with newer policy priorities including the European Green Deal.

UK: Saint-Gobain has brought its British Gypsum, Celotex and Isover gypsum wallboard and insulation brands together under the Saint-Gobain Interior Solutions portfolio. The marketing labelling is intended to allow customers to access products, solutions and services.

Dean O’Sullivan, the managing director of Saint-Gobain Interior Solutions, said “This collective three-brand approach allows customers to access the know-how and expertise of each brand in one place, through our dedicated sector and sales teams. This will bring a range of benefits to our customers, allowing us to provide even better support, with even simpler access to our market-leading systems and products.” He added, ”Each brand continues to play an important part, but by having a single point of contact and sector specific teams, we are confident our customers will realise the strength in collaboration and solutions that ultimately help them meet their needs for outstanding performance, longevity and value.”

Japan: Chiyoda Ute has issued a share sales request as part of ongoing plans to form a joint-venture with Germany-based Knauf. Knauf is expected to acquire the outstanding shares. Shares in Chiyoda Ute will then be delisted in late July 2022. The move follows a tender offer from Knauf that was issued in April 2022. The eventual plan is form a joint-venture between the companies with Knauf holding a 75% share.