Gypsum industry news

Belgium: Etex has donated five sustainable modular housing units to families dispossessed by flooding in the summer of 2021. The company built the houses at Rochefort and Pepinster in two weeks and their assembly took 48 hours. Etex said that it plans to develop the construction method in future in order to meet needs and new trends in the housing sector.

Bernard Delvaux, chief executive officer of Etex said “It was important for us to donate our expertise through these five houses built in a circular way with a very low carbon footprint. Our modular construction technologies meet multiple housing needs around the world with the fast construction of affordable, well-insulated, high-quality and attractive living spaces.”

Australia: Senex Energy has agreed a deal with CSR Gyprock to supply natural gas to its gypsum wallboard plant at Coopers Plains in Queensland. The agreement also covers gas supplies to CSR’s brick and insulation plants in the state. Under the initial three-year agreement, Senex will supply CSR Building Products, a subsidiary of CSR, with 0.65PJ/yr of gas, starting on 1 January 2020. CSR can extend the agreement by up to a further two years, taking the total contract quantity to 3.25PJ. Gas will be supplied at the Wallumbilla Gas Hub in Queensland at a fixed price in line with current market levels, indexed annually.

Australia: Boral will repurchase up to US$182m of its shares after a string of divestments bolstered the company's balance sheet. It intends to buy back up to 5%, or about 39 million shares, of its issued capital on-market over the next 12 months.

Boral chief executive Mike Kane said that the completion of a number of transactions, including the US$127m sale of its Western Landfill business in Melbourne to Transpacific Industries, had allowed for the share repurchase.

"This buyback reflects Boral's commitment to efficient capital management and delivering improved returns to shareholders," said Kane. "At the same time, we are maintaining flexibility to respond to changes in market conditions and to take advantage of appropriate growth opportunities that may present in the future." Kane had already flagged acquisitions in Asia and North America and said that Boral was too unbalanced towards Australia.

Boral received US$500m as part of an agreement with USG Corporation to sell half of its Australasian wallboard assets into a joint venture. It is on target to receive further performance-based payments of up to US$57.7m over the next three years.

Boral was reportedly considering a sell-off of its building products division, but indicated it would instead look for savings through cost-reduction programs and joint ventures. A brickmaking joint venture with CSR will proceed after receiving approval from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, with the expectation of savings of between US$5.39 – 7.69m between Boral and CSR.