Gypsum industry news

Spain: Saint-Gobain Ibérica’s Sorbas gypsum quarry has marked a record of 17 years without any accidents. The local subsidiary of Saint-Gobain has gone 6500 days without incident. The milestone was recognised as the company signed an agreement to join a workplace health promotion program with the local government.

France: Saint-Gobain’s Interior Solutions division has grown its sales in Asia and emerging countries in the first quarter of 2018. Its sales rose by 2.4% year-on-year to Euro1.75bn in the first quarter of 2018 from Euro1.71bn in the same period of 2017. The group reported that trading in Western Europe was partly affected by weather conditions, although the underlying growth trends were good, except in the UK. North America posted growth, led by prices. Overall, the group’s sales fell slightly to Euro9.76bn due to poor weather and reduced working days.

US: USG has blamed falling sales for its wallboard business on prices rises and inclement weather. The net sales for its wallboard and surfaces business fell by 6% year-on-year to US$441m in the first quarter of 2018 from US$469m in the same period in 2017. Its operating profit fell by 38% to US$49m from US$79m. Overall the company’s sales rose by 2.5% to US$786m.

“Our wallboard volumes were impacted by the timing of our US wallboard price increase and the frequent storms that affected many regions of the country. However, we are encouraged to see shipping volumes increase over the last six weeks, as our Sheetrock brand and industry leading technology continue to be preferred by contractors,” said Jennifer Scanlon, president and chief executive officer of USG.

The company said that its wallboard price increased by 9% from the fourth quarter of 2017 and 1% from the first quarter of 2017, due to a price increase in January 2018. It added that wallboard costs were US$14m higher in the quarter year-on-year due to retained staff levels, incurred costs to start-up a lower-cost line and input cost inflation.

Iran: Azerbaijan’s Matanat-A gypsum plant is estimated to cost around US$10m. The head of mining and industrial organization of Semnan Province, Behrouz Asfadi, said that production at the plant was expected to start in the ‘near future,’ according to the Trend News Agency. Jafar Sarghini, the deputy minister of industries, mining and trade, added that Matanat-A is already using a gypsum mine in northern Iran and the plant is expected to be located nearby.

Mexico: Panel Rey has inaugurated its gypsum wallboard plant in Ciudad Juárez. The company spent over US$55m on the plant that it says it the largest in Latin America. It is its fifth wallboard plant in the country following plants at El Carmen NL, San Luis Potosi, Mexico City and Mexicali. Construction at the site started in 2010 and first production started in early April 2018. Nicolás Alverde Villareal, the general director of Panel Rey, and Javier Corral Jurado, the governor of the state of Chihuahua, attended the event. The new plant is expected to created 170 direct jobs.