Gypsum industry news

UK: A range of British Gypsum plaster and plasterboard solutions have been used in a contemporary housing complex developed by Taylor Wimpey's North Thames regional business in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, to help the house-builder meet thermal and acoustic requirements. The large-scale new-build development includes 159 apartments and 50 three-storey terraced houses.

"Due to the size of the project and the strict timescales we were working to, we needed a solution that required as little labour as possible. Drylyner TL was easy to use and really simplified the installation process from start to finish," said Tony Butcher, senior project manager at Taylor Wimpey North Thames.

For ease of application and speed, British Gypsum DriLyner Thermal Laminate (TL), a wallboard masonry lining system, was used on partitions and separating walls. The system offers a quick and easy solution to drylining brick, block and concrete walls by utilising adhesive dabs to bond the wallboard onto the walls. This meets the acoustic performance requirements in accordance with Part E of the UK Building Regulations, to provide superior sound insulation.

For further acoustic performance, Gyproc Soundcoat Plus was used on the partition walls in both the apartments and terrace houses. This coat is a gypsum based compound that is designed to seal masonry walls prior to drylining, was used to minimise air leakage through cracks and unfilled joints, improving energy efficiency and limiting noise pollution.

In keeping with the sustainability focus of the project, Taylor Wimpey took advantage of the British Gypsum Plasterboard Recycling Service in order to minimise the environmental impact of the project.

"The Plasterboard Recycling Service was a great help. It was a cost-effective recycling option that not only saved us a lot of time and effort, but also helped us meet our sustainability objectives. British Gypsum supplied the skips we needed for the waste products and took them away to be recycled at its onsite recycling facility," said Butcher.

US/Canada: Georgia-Pacific plans to 'idle' one wallboard plant in Caledonia, Ontario and one wallboard plant in West Memphis, Tennessee in early 2014. Eric Abercrombie, a spokesperson for Georgia-Pacific, attributed the decision to production optimisation and a slow recovery in the building materials market.

"We are doing this because of market conditions and the fact we've just acquired new capacity through a merger," stated Abercrombie to local media. 60 employees will be affected at the Caledonia plant and 39 employees at the West Memphis plant.

In early 2013, Georgia-Pacific acquired four new gypsum wallboard plants when it took over Memphis-based Temple-Inland Building Products from International Paper. That deal, worth US$750m, added 1800 employees to Georgia-Pacific and 16 production facilities.

New Zealand: The New Zealand government is considering cutting import duties on home building materials to help reduce rising house prices in the country.

"Building material costs are too high and can be as much as 30% more in New Zealand than in Australia according to the Productivity Commission. The industry needs a shake-up through increased competition and greater transparency to ensure kiwi families can get access to more fairly priced building materials and homes," said Housing Minister Nick Smith in a statement.

Smith and Commerce Minister Craig Foss released an options paper outlining possible measures to curb the cost of house construction. The paper said that 19% of the output of the home construction industry was made up of imported content. Tariffs notionally still applied to most items used in housing construction, such as wallboard, insulation, timber products, steel and aluminum joinery, particle board and roofing materials, but adjusted tariffs - the duty as a percentage of the value - were small and diminishing due to free trade agreements. Submissions to the options paper close on 18 December 2013.

New Zealand has imposed anti-dumping duties on imports of plasterboard from Thailand since 2011, wire nails from China since 2011 and reinforcing steel bar and coil from Thailand since 2004.

US/UK: The gypsum market is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.9% to reach approximately US$2.4bn by 2018, and US$3.8bn by 2023, according to a new report by analysts Smithers Apex. 'The Future of Gypsum: Market Forecasts to 2023' reports that 252Mt of gypsum is expected to be consumed in the year 2013, with 31.9% and 62.5% being consumed in the plasterboard and cement industries respectively.

The market study reports that about 75% of gypsum is used in wallboard manufacture in the US and Western Europe. Outside of these regions, Smithers Apex reports that one of the major factors driving gypsum consumption is population growth, particularly in India and China, as developing countries move from traditional wet construction techniques towards dry construction using materials such as prefabricated wallboard. Countries such as China are also encouraging wallboard usage through government policies.

The report also describes how a large portion of the world's gypsum is produced from a very large number of small operations in developing countries. For example, there are as many as 400 mines in Iran and probably more in China. The US ranks fifth globally in raw gypsum production after China, Iran, Iraq and Spain. US crude gypsum production in 2012 grew by 11% to 10.4Mt. In 2012, 10.7Mt of this gypsum was synthetic, and 11Mt was calcined gypsum.

The global financial crisis saw demand for gypsum drop in the construction industry by around 20% in 2008. The decline slowed between 2002 and 2010 and stabilised in 2011. The US and other parts of the world saw a strong recovery period in 2012. The most likely path forward for the US construction industry will be a relatively steady one, that features moderate recovery through 2013 and accelerates in 2014 and beyond.

US: Eagle Materials has reported financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2014, which ended 30 September 2013. Total revenues were up by 53% to US$252.6m. Earnings before interest and income taxes (EBIT) were US$63.5m, an increase of 114% compared to the same quarter of the prior fiscal year.

Sales volumes were improved across all lines, with gypsum wallboard sales volumes of 51.5Mm², an 11% increase from Q2 of fiscal 2013. This provided earnings of US$36.8m, a 52% increase from the same quarter of fiscal 2013. The earnings increase resulted primarily from the increased average net gypsum board sales prices, which were 21% higher.