Gypsum industry news

Switzerland: Sika's net sales rose by 4.7% year-on-year to Euro5.40bn in 2016 from Euro5.16bn in 2015. Its net profit rose by 21.8% to Euro533m from Euro437m. the company attributed this to growth in all regions.

"We continued our growth strategy with great success in the 2016 business year, once again increasing both sales and earnings. Operating profit, net profit and operating free cash flow reached new records. By opening nine new factories, establishing four more national subsidiaries and acquiring four companies, we have laid the foundations for ongoing future growth," said chief executive officer Jan Jenisch.

France: Saint-Gobain's Interior Solutions division's sales rose by 1.5% year-on-year to Euro6.58bn in 2016 from Euro6.49bn in 2015. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 9.6% to Euro982m from Euro896m. It attributed the rise in sales to good growth in the first half of the year with growth in most regions. It also noted that productivity gains and a fall in costs, particularly energy, drove a 'sharp' improvement in its operating margin.

"Saint-Gobain showed strong progress in its 2016 results. We saw the benefits of our optimisation efforts and of our development in emerging markets, in a more supportive economic environment than 2015. As expected, France stabilised over the year as new-build activities recovered. All other regions enjoyed good momentum. The group also benefited from its focus on pricing against a backdrop of lower energy and raw material costs," said Pierre-André de Chalendar, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Saint-Gobain.

UK: Nottingham County Council has granted permissions to the Marblaegis Mine near British Gypsum's East Leake wallboard plant to operate for a further 17 years. The mine was originally licensed to operate until the end of 2025 but can now operate until 2042.

"The phasing out of coal-fired power stations means we have reducing access to synthetic gypsum or desulphogypsum, also called DSG, an important by-product we have been recycling into plasterboard since the early 1990s. We need to counteract this reduction in DSG output by increasing supply from mined and quarried natural gypsum as well as continuing to support plasterboard recycling programmes," said Jeremy Elvins, minerals and estates manager at British Gypsum to Inside Media.

The mine has an installed production capacity of 600,000t/yr but only 250,000t/yr is extracted at present. The mine supports 26 full-time staff at present although the nearby wallboard plant employs 264 staff and 125 contractors.

Australia: Boral's revenue from its gypsum wallboard join venture, USG Boral, has risen by 2% year-on-year to US$566m in the first half of its financial year, which ended on 31 December 2016, from US$552m in the same period in 2015. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 18% to US$116m from US$98.5m. It attributed the sales growth to growth in its Sheetrock plasterboard product. The on-going rollout of Sheetrock is scheduled to continue until the end of 2017. Regionally, sales growth in South Korea, Australia and Thailand offset a declining market in China.

The building materials company added that its joint venture had started building a new warehouse at its USG Boral's Dangjin facility in South Korea in the reporting period. The upgrade at the site is intended to add incremental capacity and support the longer-term addition of at least 30Mm²/yr of plasterboard production capacity at the site, which has existing capacity to produce around 70Mm²/yr. The investment will be self-funded through the joint venture.

Overall, Boral's sales revenue fell by 5% to US$1.6bn from US$1.68bn. However, its profit after tax rose by 9% to US$114m from US$105m. It attributed this to a 'solid' performance in Australia combined with good earnings from Boral USA and USG Boral.