Gypsum industry news

New Zealand: Winstone Wallboards says it will increase the supply of gypsum wallboard available for distribution by merchants by 1Mm² from July to September 2022. It said this will equate to a 7 – 8% increase of various types of plasterboard.

Fletcher Building chief executive Ross Taylor said “The increases we will be bringing to market are possible because we will soon commission changes to the configuration of our manufacturing that we have been working on over the past three months which will produce extra, locally produced, volumes. We have also been able to secure and will import additional board from an Australian manufacturer that we can feed into our supply chain.” He added that the allocation model the company has introduced had started to help supply levels and that the completion of the new plant at Tauranga in June 2023 would also help.

In early June 2022 social housing developer Simplicity Living said it had cancelled all of its orders of Fletcher Building Gib board. In an interview with Stuff, Shane Brealey - the managing director of Simplicity Living, said that the company had decided to import wallboard instead. It said it could source equivalent wallboard products at a 20% discount or more. It added that it was taking it eight weeks to import wallboard from South-East Asia compared to eight months from Auckland.

Winstone Wallboards responded to the criticism by saying it previously had been importing wallboard from Etex Australia for around six months until the end of 2021. The arrangement ended as Australia also has a wallboard shortage. However, it added that the import arrangement might restart from August 2022 onwards.

Romania: Belgium-based Etex invested Euro1m on upgrades to the logistics capacities of its Turceni gypsum wallboard plant and its Aghiresu plaster plant. It also started work on a Euro6m sludge drying unit at coal-fired power plant in Oltenia that will supply synthetic gypsum for use at Turceni, according to See News. The company operates locally under the Siniat Romania brand. It reported a 20% year-on-year rise in turnover to Euro59.6m in 2021.

Peru: Etex says that an upgrade to its Huachipa gypsum wallboard plant is currently being built and should be operational by mid-2023. It is intended to double the production capacity of the unit, according to the Gestión newspaper. The company has invested Euro36m in the project.

Etex markets its wallboard under the Gyplac brand locally. Robert Haanschoten Rodríguez, Etex’s Andean Region Marketing Manager, said that the country exhibits a strong self-build market. Gypsum wallboard sales represent 20 – 25% of the group’s sales in the country. Since 2018 sales of wallboard have grown by 50%. The country reportedly has a wallboard consumption of 0.7m²/capita compared to 4m²/capita in Chile. However, increases in the cost of raw materials have led Etex to put its product prices up by 5 – 12% across all lines.

Belgium: Etex has raised Euro800m through a sustainability-linked medium - long-term unsecured loan. The producer says that the private placement, called a Schuldschein in German finance law, comprises three Euro-denominated tranches with maturities of three, five and seven years, at fixed and floating rates.

CEO Bernard Delvaux said “We are very pleased with this new Schuldschein issuance which we successfully completed in a challenging context. It testifies to a significant appreciation of Etex’s credit quality, of its performance of the last years and it demonstrates the investors’ confidence in the company’s strategy. Moreover, this operation broadens our investors’ base at attractive market conditions, increases the number of maturities and considerably extends the duration of our debt profile.”

Belgium: Eurogypsum’s board of directors has elected Jörg Ertle president of the association. The Etex head of corporate social responsibility will succeed Saint-Gobain Group vice-president for sustainable development Emmanuel Normant, who now takes over the position of Eurogypsum vice-president. Knauf Group Central Europe managing director and Knauf Gips chair Christoph Dorn will serve as the association’ new treasurer.

Ertle studied mining and mineral engineering at RWTH University Aachen and holds a Ph.D in environment technology from Berlin Technical University. He has over 20 years’ gypsum industry experience, including time spent in management roles Lafarge before and after its acquisition by Etex. Having previously headed Etex’s worldwide gypsum sourcing, Ertle took on his current role in the group in 2019. He has also participated in different Eurogypsum working groups concerning raw material policy, and has chaired the association’s Environment and Sustainability Committee since 2018.

Ertle said “I am taking over Eurogypsum’s presidency at a challenging time for Europe, with a global climate and environmental challenge, as well as a particularly unstable international environment. Economic actors are working under increased regulatory and financial pressure.” He added “I am convinced that gypsum solutions are a strong enabler to facilitate this transition, supporting the ambitions of the European Green Deal.”

Belgium: ETEX recorded consolidated net sales of Euro2.97bn in 2021, up by 14% year-on-year from Euro2.62bn in 2020. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 12% to Euro522m from Euro468m, while its profit for the year dropped by 1.4% to Euro198m from Euro201m. The group’s building performance recorded like-for-like sales growth of 21% from 2020 levels and of 15% from 2019 levels. Its gypsum wallboard volumes grew year-on-year, while strong demand in all regions except South Africa impacted some export businesses through supply chain issues and increased shipping costs. The company adapted its prices to offset a sharp rise in raw material and energy cost prices.

During the year, ETEX acquired a top-three Australian gypsum wallboard producer and completed its rebranding as Siniat. It also diversified with the launch of a fourth group division, new ways, which includes light steel framing production operations.

UK: Etex has awarded a contract for construction of its new Euro167m Bristol gypsum wallboard plant in North Somerset to McLaughlin & Harvey. The plant will include a post-consumer gypsum recycling facility and is scheduled for commissioning in 2022.

Russia: Belgium-based ETEX has announced the suspension of all of its Russian activities ‘immediately and until further notice.’ The gypsum wallboard producer operates two sites for the import and sale of fibre cement façade materials near Moscow. It says that it will take care of the 50 colleagues it employs there.

The group said “We will continue to do everything we can for the safety and well-being of all our teammates and hope that peace will prevail quickly.”

UK: Belgium-based Etex has announced a new UK trading agreement with Kier, a provider of construction and infrastructure services.The arrangement will see Etex and Kier collaborate on a variety of new projects using Etex’s products, including its Siniat brand wallboard.

Gerard Cox, Head of Procurement for Kier Construction, added “We are excited to include Etex Building Performance to our carefully selected list of preferred supply chain partners and look forward to engaging with them on our projects where we believe their range of products, warrantied systems and customer focussed approach, have the potential to add real value to our business.”

Etex previously said it plans to start operations at its new wallboard plant at the Port of Bristol in 2022. It has invested around Euro165m in the project that is set to double its production capacity in the UK.

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.”