US: Georgia-Pacific has appointed Andy Konieczka as Executive Vice President of Building Products. He will report to the company's president and chief executive officer (CEO) Christian Fischer.

Konieczka previously worked as the president of Structural Panels at Georgia Pacific since 2019. He has worked for Koch Industries and subsidiaries, including Georgia-Pacific, since 1992. In 2006, he joined Georgia-Pacific, holding strategy, optimisation and management roles in wood, fibre and building products. Konieczka serves as a member of the board of directors for the APA - The Engineered Wood Association.

India: Saint-Gobain has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Vibrant Energy, a subsidiary of Macquarie Asset Management's Green Investment Group (MAM-GIG), to provide wind and solar electricity to six local sites. The 20-year PPA will start in 2024 and bring the company’s national renewable electricity share to 65% in 2025. Under the agreement, Vibrant Energy will provide Saint-Gobain with 189GWhr/yr of renewable electricity. The company says that it is on target to achieve 100% renewable electricity in India by 2030 by replacing fossil fuels with biomass, using waste heat recovery and other measures.

Saint-Gobain India operates 76 manufacturing plants in the country including four gypsum wallboard units.

Bosnia & Herzegovina: The shareholders assembly of state-owned power company RiTE Ugljevik has approved the signing of contracts for the sale of gypsum and coal with Beijing New Building Materials (BNBM) Ugljevik. The project intends to build a 40Mm²/yr gypsum wallboard plant and it has a budget of Euro50m, according to the Sarajevo Times. RiTE Ugljevik previously agreed to supply 250,000t/yr of flue gas desulfurisation (FGD) to the proposed wallboard plant.

US: Eagle Materials reported sales of US$2.1bn in 2022, up by 15% year-on-year from 2021 levels. The producer's earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 19% to US$782m. Its light materials sales, including gypsum wallboard, rose by 22% to US$981m. Sales volumes of gypsum wallboard rose by 4% to 87.8Mm³, while it raised prices by 17% to US$8.46/m³.

President and CEO Michael Haack said "Looking ahead, we anticipate continued attractive fundamentals in our markets, despite headwinds relating to higher interest rates and affordability constraints in single-family residential construction. Among the favourable demand factors we expect will affect our results in future periods are projected funding increases for infrastructure projects and healthy demand for heavy industrial projects and multi-family residential construction. We remain well-positioned to capitalise on these conditions, given our geographical footprint across the (Central) US Heartland and fast-growing Sun Belt (Southern US) and our financial strength and flexibility."