Gypsum industry news

US: USG plans to upgrade its Jacksonville gypsum wallboard plant in Florida. As part of the investment, a new production line will be added to manufacture USG’s Securock ExoAir 430 panels. Investments will be made at the site to improve overall plant efficiency, including upgrades to modernise process mill equipment.

Construction and plant updates are expected to be completed by the end of 2018. The company also plans to add approximately 20 new jobs as a result. The addition of the high-speed, automated production line in Jacksonville is intended to allow USG to distribute Securock ExoAir 430 to more customers throughout the US and Canada.

US: USG’s operating profit for its gypsum business has fallen by 4.5% to US$85m in the third quarter of 2017 from US$88m in the same period in 2016. The gypsum wallboard producer blamed this on falling prices, rising input costs and poor weather. It said that the average realised selling price for US wallboard decreased by approximately 2% sequentially and was impacted by freight costs and changes in wallboard product mix due to hurricanes Harvey and Irma. US wallboard manufacturing costs also increased by US$10m due, primarily to increased waste paper costs. Despite this, overall net sales for the quarter increased.

“We had positive momentum in the third quarter, with increased net sales and wallboard volume,” said Jennifer Scanlon, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of USG.

Gypsum segment net sales rose by 5.4% to US$2bn for the first nine months of 2017 from US$1.9bn in the same period in 2016. Operating profit fell by 14% to US$266m from US$310m.

France: Saint-Gobain has continued growing its sales across all businesses in the third quarter of 2017. Its overall sales grew by 4.1% year-on-year to Euro10.2bn in the quarter from Euro9.76bn in the same period in 2016. This trend extends to the year so far, with a rise of 4.3% to Euro30.6bn in the first nine months of 2017, from Euro29.3bn in the same period in 2016.

“The third quarter confirmed the upbeat trends seen in the first half, excluding the impact of the cyber-attack. All business sectors and regions advanced, including France. We continued to see a good price effect against a tougher basis for comparison, but not yet sufficient in all of the group’s businesses given the more inflationary raw material and energy cost environment,” said Pierre-André de Chalendar, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Saint-Gobain. He added that the group had signed 23 acquisitions since the beginning of the year, including the recently finalised Glava deal.

Sales from the group’s Interior Solutions division, which includes gypsum wallboard and insulation products, saw its saw increase by 3.6% to Euro5.11bn from Euro4.94bn. The group attributed the sales growth in this business to ‘healthy’ volume trends in Western Europe and in Asia and emerging countries. Trading in North America was reported as ‘stable’ but with a smaller pricing contribution in a more competitive environment. It added that pricing for the division lags behind rises in input costs such as a raw materials and energy.

France: Saint-Gobain has appointed Laurence Pernot as its Communications Vice President (VP). She joins the company from Vallourec Group, where she has been the Communications VP since 2013.

Following post-graduate studies in American History and Anthropology at the University of the Sorbonne, Pernot began her career with the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. In 1993, she was appointed Communications VP for the Regional Council of Loire Atlantique, before moving to the industry and joining the Areva Group in 2001. She stayed there until 2013, initially as Communications VP for the Areva La Hague site and then as Communications VP for Areva North America, based in Washington DC, US, and finally as Deputy Communications VP for the Areva Group.

Finland: Construction materials manufacturer Saint-Gobain has transferred some of the manufacturing of Gyproc Habito wallboard from the UK to Kirkkonummi in Finland. Deliveries from Kirkkonummi started at the beginning of 2017. Habito products are exported from Kirkkonummi to the Baltic and the Nordic countries.

The company has invested Euro1m in Gyproc Habito production at its Kirkkonummi site in 2017. Investments have been made in the laboratory, product development, personnel training and the production line. Virpi Riekkinen, Business Director at Saint-Gobain Finland, expects further investments to be made in 2018. Gyproc Habito accounts for roughly 10% of the production of the Kirkkonummi factory. The company expects to recruit around five new employees for the Kirkkonummi site in 2018.