Australia: The Port of Bundaberg has received its first shipment of gypsum for the new Knauf Plasterboard wallboard plant that has been built there. The US$55m plant has recently been constructed at the port, according to Australian Government News. The port expects to receive a gypsum shipment every two to three months from now on. The wallboard plant is expected to officially open in August 2017.

France: Saint-Gobain says that a cyber attack that hit its operations in late June 2017 is unlikely to negatively affect its first-half financial results by more than 1%. It is still investigating the impact of the incident and will report more fully in its results on 27 July 2017.

The building materials producer added that it had restored its remaining operations still 'experiencing difficulties' back to normal. It said that since early July 2017 the 'vast majority' of its businesses had been operating normally and that no personal data was disclosed to any third party. It does not expect the event to have any future commercial impact.

Germany: Rigips has inaugurated its first gypsum recycling plant at Gelsenkirchen in North Rhine-Westphalia. The subsidiary of Saint-Gobain will recycle gypsum with New West Gypsum Recycling Germany. Waste material from buildings from the Rhine-Ruhr region and the northern part of Rhineland-Palatinate will be sent to a reprocessing site operated by New West Gypsum first before being despatched to the Rigips plant where it will be returned to the production process. Rigips intends to open more gypsum recycling plants following the start-up process of its new unit.

"With the start of the plant, Rigips assumes a pioneering role for the entire drywall construction industry. As the first manufacturer, we in North Rhine-Westphalia are now able to implement the idea 'from gypsum to gypsum'. Thus we cover the complete product service life cycle, from the raw material extraction via the production and installation to the demolition and the recycling," said Werner Hansmann, chairman of the management at Rigips.

US: National Gypsum is upgrading its paper plant in Oxford, Alabama. The work includes replacing a boiler at the site first installed in 1950s, according to the Anniston Star newspaper. The investment is intended to reduce operational costs and increase energy efficiency. Paper produced at the plant is used in the manufacture of gypsum wallboard at the company's other plants. No value for the upgrade has been disclosed.