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Etex publishes 2020 Sustainability Report
Written by Global Gypsum staff
25 October 2021
Belgium: Etex’s 2020 Sustainability Report has recorded the company’s progress towards its sustainability goals under four headings. Under the heading ‘carbon neutrality,’ it produced and purchased 72% of its electricity consumption renewably, compared to 14% in 2019. Under ‘health, safety and wellbeing,’ its lost-time accidents per million working hours fell by 36% year-on-year to 1.4 from 2.2. Under ‘waste management and circularity,’ it reduced its waste generation by 8.9% to 254Mt from 278Mt and reduced the share of its waste sent to landfill to 18% from 26%. Lastly, under ‘diversity and inclusion,’ 28% of the company’s newly hired staff were women, compared to a group total share of 19%.
CEO Paul van Oyen said “At Etex, we have a clear commitment to helping build a better, sustainable future. We seek to offer holistic value to our customers, employees, shareholders and other stakeholders, as we continue to decouple our growth from environmental and social impacts. To help achieve this, we focus on lightweight materials and prefabricated construction. These methods offer advantages such as reduced raw material use, energy consumption, waste and emissions. Even more, they contribute to enhanced long-term circularity by creating opportunities for deconstruction, reuse and recycling.”
Saint-Gobain to acquire IMPAC
Written by Global Gypsum staff
22 October 2021
Mexico: Saint-Gobain has agreed to acquire construction chemicals producer IMPAC. The company operates a construction chemicals plant in Monterrey, where it employs 630 people. The takeover aims to strengthen Saint-Gobain’s Latin American regional position and to accelerate its growth by growing its light and sustainable construction product range. The transaction is due to close in late 2021 or early 2022.
Trevo Drywall to build gypsum wallboard plant in Southeast Brazil
Written by Global Gypsum staff
19 October 2021
Brazil: Trevo Drywall has begun raising funds for the construction of a new gypsum wallboard plant in Southeast Brazil. The company’s existing gypsum wallboard plant at Juazeiro do Norte, Ceará, is currently undergoing expansion to 16Mm²/yr from 14Mm²/yr. The plant will transition to natural gas power in January 2022. Trevo Drywall plans to further increase its capacity to 20Mm2/yr before 2024. Prior to this, it will use resources from its cash generation and proprietary and third-party capital to build the new unit in the Southeast. The company says that its location will be ‘closer to the main drywall consumer centres in Brazil.’ Currently, more than 80% of its sales are outside of the Northeast. The producer holds an 11% share of the Brazilian gypsum wallboard market.
CEO Sávio Maia said “We have been expanding our production potential at a rate of 26% per year since 2014 and, despite all the macroeconomic difficulties that Brazil went through during this period, we have always used 100% of our installed capacity.” He added “We generate more than 220 direct jobs, which has a great effect on the lives of many families in Juazeiro do Norte and the surrounding region, either by the income generated directly and indirectly, or by the company's prominent role among the largest local taxpayers.”
Saint-Gobain to install third line at Mogi das Cruzes gypsum wallboard plant
Written by Global Gypsum staff
15 October 2021
Brazil: Saint-Gobain plans to expand the capacity of its Mogi das Cruzes gypsum wallboard plant with the installation of a third production line. The plant will produce wallboard with its expanded capacity from early 2023. The Mogi das Cruzes plant currently has a gypsum wallboard production capacity of 22Mm2/yr.
Saint-Gobain launches new strategic plan and forecasts increased costs in 2021
Written by Global Gypsum staff
15 October 2021
France: Saint-Gobain has launched Grow & Impact, a new strategic plan to increase profitable growth. The plan consists of new annual financial targets for 2021-2025, including organic sales growth of 3 - 5%, an operating margin of 9 – 11%, a free cash flow conversion ratio above 50%, a return on capital employed of 12 - 15% and an annual dividend payout ratio representing 30-50% of recurring net income. The company also announced a Euro2bn share buyback programme for 2021 – 2025.
Saint-Gobain has forecast full-year energy and raw materials costs of Euro1.5bn, up by 36% from its previous estimate of Euro1.1bn. Euro1.1bn (73%) of the new estimate is forecast for the second half of 2021. The group said that it will need a positive price impact of around 6% over the full year and of 8% in the second half of 2021 in order to offset this. CEO Benoit Bazin said “The Group will build on the success of its new local organisation and its multinational culture driven by performance and by proximity to its customers, in order to benefit fully from strong growth on its underlying markets. By capitalising on innovation and the power of data to enrich our range of solutions, Grow & Impact will enable us to outperform our underlying markets and maximise our positive impact in numerous areas.” He added “Our vision is to become the worldwide leader in light and sustainable construction. In a world moving towards net-zero carbon, Saint-Gobain aims to provide a full range of solutions that address three major issues of our time: drastically reducing the 40% of CO2 emissions linked to construction, protecting natural resources and facing the challenge of rapid urbanisation in emerging countries.”