US: The Gypsum Association (GA) has released the 22nd edition of its GA-600-2018 Fire Resistance and Sound Control Design Manual. Revised on a three-year cycle, GA-600 has been referenced by the model building codes as a source of fire-resistive designs for more than 40 years. The 2018 edition contains more than 140 new systems that supplement existing designs for walls and partitions, floor-ceiling systems, area separation firewalls and other assemblies.

GA-600 is currently referenced by the International Building Code, the National Fire Protection Association Codes (NFPA 703 and NFPA 5000), as well as many state and local jurisdictions in the US and Canada as a source document for fire-resistance and sound-control rated designs that incorporate gypsum board in a variety of building systems.

US: GMS’s half-year wallboard sales have risen due to its acquisition of Canada’s Titan on 1 June 2018 and rising prices. Its wallboard sales rose by 14% year-on-year to US$652m in the half year to 31 October 2018, from US$573m in the same period in 2017. Overall, the wallboard distributor’s net sales increased by 25% to US$1.61bn.

UK: British Gypsum has signed a five-year contract with PD Ports to process its natural gypsum imports. The deal will bring raw materials from Europe into the country via Teesport every two weeks where it will be stored in a new bulk storage unit. The gypsum will then be dispatched by rail to British Gypsum’s plants at Kirkby Thore in Cumbria and Sherburn-In-Elmet in Yorkshire. No value for the deal has been disclosed.

France: Saint-Gobain has appointed Benoit Bazin as its chief operating officer in an organisational and portfolio review process. The ‘Transform & Grow’ program intends to create a new organisational structure with five reporting units to improve growth and allow for a more ‘agile’ group structure.

"Saint-Gobain is evolving in a fast changing market environment, which can be a source of substantial growth opportunities, provided we are sufficiently close to our markets and sufficiently agile. We are launching an ambitious transformation plan, 'Transform and Grow' based on two pillars, an in-depth transformation of the Group's organisational structure and an accelerated portfolio rotation program,” said chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Pierre-André de Chalendar.

The new structure will consist of five reporting units, with four regional businesses and a global High Performance Solutions unit. The new regional groups will be Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Americas and Asia-Pacific. The High Performance Solutions unit will include High-Performance Materials (HPM) and the Sekurit (automotive glass) business.

The program also plans to accelerate the group’s portfolio rotation. It is preparing to divest businesses worth around Euro1bn by the end of 2019. More than 10 companies of various sizes across all sectors are being actively prepared for divestment and three significant processes have already been launched.