Gypsum industry news

US: The board of directors of USG has authorised its management to commence negotiations with Germany’s Knauf regarding a potential sale of the company. USG has advised Knauf that it is prepared to agree to a customary confidentiality agreement to facilitate sharing appropriate due diligence information. The board added that it, “…remains committed to acting in the best interests of all shareholders and will evaluate all options to do so.”

Knauf made a US$5.9bn bid for USG in March 2018 that was rejected. It then urged shareholders to vote against director nominees at USG’s annual general meeting. Warren Buffett, the chief executive officer Berkshire Hathaway, subsequently agreed to back the opposition to the directors. Berkshire Hathaway holds a 31% stake in USG and Knauf holds a 10.5% stake.

Canada: Red Moon Resources has submitted a development plan for an open cast gypsum mine at the Ace deposit in western Newfoundland to the government of Newfoundland and Labrador. The project has already received environmental clearance. It is currently attempting to find customers for gypsum and anhydrite from mine. Previously the site was used by the Flat Bay mine, which produced at least 15Mt of gypsum prior to 1990.

Red Moon Resources is an industrial minerals company developing the Ace Gypsum deposit, the Black Bay Nepheline deposit and the Captain Cook Salt deposit in Newfoundland and Labrador. Its majority shareholder is Vulcan Minerals.

Spain: Saint-Gobain Ibérica’s Sorbas gypsum quarry has marked a record of 17 years without any accidents. The local subsidiary of Saint-Gobain has gone 6500 days without incident. The milestone was recognised as the company signed an agreement to join a workplace health promotion program with the local government.

France: Saint-Gobain’s Interior Solutions division has grown its sales in Asia and emerging countries in the first quarter of 2018. Its sales rose by 2.4% year-on-year to Euro1.75bn in the first quarter of 2018 from Euro1.71bn in the same period of 2017. The group reported that trading in Western Europe was partly affected by weather conditions, although the underlying growth trends were good, except in the UK. North America posted growth, led by prices. Overall, the group’s sales fell slightly to Euro9.76bn due to poor weather and reduced working days.

US: USG has blamed falling sales for its wallboard business on prices rises and inclement weather. The net sales for its wallboard and surfaces business fell by 6% year-on-year to US$441m in the first quarter of 2018 from US$469m in the same period in 2017. Its operating profit fell by 38% to US$49m from US$79m. Overall the company’s sales rose by 2.5% to US$786m.

“Our wallboard volumes were impacted by the timing of our US wallboard price increase and the frequent storms that affected many regions of the country. However, we are encouraged to see shipping volumes increase over the last six weeks, as our Sheetrock brand and industry leading technology continue to be preferred by contractors,” said Jennifer Scanlon, president and chief executive officer of USG.

The company said that its wallboard price increased by 9% from the fourth quarter of 2017 and 1% from the first quarter of 2017, due to a price increase in January 2018. It added that wallboard costs were US$14m higher in the quarter year-on-year due to retained staff levels, incurred costs to start-up a lower-cost line and input cost inflation.