Gypsum industry news
Search Gypsum News
Saint-Gobain North America offers coronavirus help
Written by Global Gypsum staff
01 April 2020
US: France-based Saint-Gobain subsidiary has reached out to ‘federal, state and local government to understand where and how’ it can redeploy ‘technologies, manufacturing operations and human expertise to help them address the covid-19 crisis.’ It also extended the offer of assistance to its partners, suppliers and customers ‘in their own efforts to help.’
Department of Industry and Mines lowers 2020 gypsum export quota
Written by Global Gypsum staff
26 March 2020
Thailand: The Department of Primary Industries and Mines (DPIM) has lowered Thailand’s gypsum export quota to 6.0Mt in 2020, the same as in 2019 and down by 17% from it original 2020 quota of 7.0Mt.
Thailand’s 2019 gypsum exports were 5.04Mt.
BNBM shares 2019 results
Written by Global Gypsum staff
25 March 2020
China: Beijing National Building Materials (BNBM) recorded a net profit of US$62.3m in 2019, down by 82% year-on-year from US$348m, ‘mainly caused by settlement fees.’ Its profit after deduction of non-recurring profit and loss was US$335m, down by 7.0% from US$359m in 2018. Its revenue rose by 6.0% to US1.88bn from US$1.77bn.
BNBM’s gypsum wallboard sales volumes were 1.97Bnm2, up by 5.2% year-on-year from 1.87Bnm2. This corresponds to a 2019 Chinese market share by volume of 59%.
Simotix Connect 400 forms basis of Currax and Siemens joint Industry 4.0 pilot project
Written by Global Gypsum staff
24 March 2020
Germany: Currax and Siemens have announced their collaboration on a mill operations digitisation pilot project involving the Simotics Connect 400 motor data collector and transmitter. They hope that analysis of data processed via the Simotics 400 will better enable the remote operating of mills ‘to increase efficiency and component life’ and speeding the shift towards automation and production that is resilient to crises such as the coronavirus outbreak.
Additional hurdles for troubled Boral
Written by Global Gypsum staff
23 March 2020
Australia: Boral, already dealing with financial difficulty even before the coronavirus pandemic, has withdrawn its full-year profit guidance and warned that it will likely have to re-work its complex wallboard buyout transaction with USG / Knauf. The US$441m deal, announced in August 2019 with Knauf will likely need to be changed, after the Australasian component of it attracted the attention of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
Under the complicated deal between USG Boral and Knauf, Boral was to pay US$200m for the other 50% of USG Boral that it did not already own in Australia, and US$241m for a 50% stake of the plasterboard joint venture in Asia. Knauf then had a call option to return to 50% ownership of the Australasian business within five years.
However, the ACCC is now looming as a roadblock. "As Boral and Knauf work with regulators as part of an ongoing process to obtain the relevant approvals, Boral's view now is that the ACCC is unlikely to approve the call option in relation to the Australian and New Zealand business," said Boral in a statement. This means a range of other options will be considered for the transaction.