Gypsum industry news

Australia: Gypsum wallboard product manufacturer Gyprock has decided to put on hold a planned price increase due to start in June 2020 in response to the coronavirus outbreak. It said that it was doing everything it could to make it sites safe for customers and staff and that its plants, warehouses and trade stores remained open.

UK: France-based Saint-Gobain subsidiary British Gypsum has announced the suspension of non-essential operations until 22 April 2020, subject to regular review in light of government advice. British Gypsum managing director Matt Pullen said, “Further information on when new orders can be placed and deliveries made will be available nearer the time, after the safe re-start of our operations.”

The company says that it will retain a ‘small-scale customer services, operations and logistics team to be able to provide drylining products to support those NHS and other Covid-19 response essential infrastructure and building projects.’

US: France-based Saint-Gobain subsidiary has reached out to ‘federal, state and local government to understand where and how’ it can redeploy ‘technologies, manufacturing operations and human expertise to help them address the covid-19 crisis.’ It also extended the offer of assistance to its partners, suppliers and customers ‘in their own efforts to help.’

Thailand: The Department of Primary Industries and Mines (DPIM) has lowered Thailand’s gypsum export quota to 6.0Mt in 2020, the same as in 2019 and down by 17% from it original 2020 quota of 7.0Mt.

Thailand’s 2019 gypsum exports were 5.04Mt.

China: Beijing National Building Materials (BNBM) recorded a net profit of US$62.3m in 2019, down by 82% year-on-year from US$348m, ‘mainly caused by settlement fees.’ Its profit after deduction of non-recurring profit and loss was US$335m, down by 7.0% from US$359m in 2018. Its revenue rose by 6.0% to US1.88bn from US$1.77bn.

BNBM’s gypsum wallboard sales volumes were 1.97Bnm², up by 5.2% year-on-year from 1.87Bnm². This corresponds to a 2019 Chinese market share by volume of 59%.