Gypsum industry news

US: Continental Building Products' Palatka wallboard plant in Florida has endured Hurricane Irma without any serious damage to the facility. The site is about 30 miles inland of St Augustine and it employs over 125 workers. It closed for the storm to allow employees to prepare themselves and their families. However, it didn't lose power and 'sustained essentially no known damage'. Continental Building Products has announced it will donate US$25,000 to the American Red Cross to support the relief effort.

Turkey: Hamburger Turkey, part of Austria's Prinzhorn Group, has signed a land purchasing agreement to set up a third paper mill at Kütahya.

The new paper machine will have state-of-the-art technology, a width of 7.80m and an annual production capacity of 480,000t containerboard, mainly light-weight Testliner and Fluting. The Euro300m investment will create 500 new jobs and is planned to be finalised in 2020.

"Turkey is an important market for us and this investment shows our strong commitment to this fast growing region. If all relevant factors, such as governmental permissions and political stability, show a green light we are happy to proceed with the next project steps." said Cord Prinzhorn, chief executive officer (CEO) of Prinzhorn Group.

Hamburger Turkey is part of the Hamburger Containerboard Division of Prinzhorn Group with a total of seven paper mills in four countries and 2Mt/yr of produced containerboard. The two existing paper mills in Turkey are based in Corlu and Denizli.

El Salvador: Sika is setting up a sales and distribution subsidiary in El Salvador. The unit will be the Swiss company's 99th national subsidiary around the world.

"Sika already has a strong market position in El Salvador, as we have been supplying the construction sector out of Guatemala for many years. With this new national subsidiary we can develop the market more efficiently and grow more rapidly. Our aim is to further develop Sika's leading position, particularly in the Sealing & Bonding target market," said José Luis Vázquez, Sika's Regional Manager for Latin America.

Belgium: Etex has reported 'top line' growth for its Etex Building Performance division, particularly in France, Poland, and the UK. Outside of Europe the group said that its South Africa market is suffering from political instability whilst sales in Peru grew, thanks to a new housing concept that was successfully launched.

Overall the group's half-year revenue rose by 3.9% year-on-year on an adjusted basis to Euro1.41bn in the first half of 2017. It reported sales of Euro1.48n in the same period in 2016 but the sale of its ceramic floor and wall tiles business in Latin America in September 2016 had an impact upon its results. Its operating income rose by 4.2% to Euro125m from Euro119m.

In July 2017 Etex reach an agreement to become the majority shareholder of Pladur, a Spanish manufacturer of gypsum products. The deal, subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to complete by the end of 2017.

India: Thomas Paul, the operations director of USG Boral, has met with the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, N, Chandrababu Naidu, to discuss building a plant in the state, according to the Hindu newspaper. Earlier in 2017 the wallboard producer said that it was building a 30Mm2/yr wallboard plant near Chennai in Tamil Nadu.