Gypsum industry news

US: Continental Building Products' net sales have risen by 10% year-on-year to US$343m in the first nine months of 2016 from US$311m in the same period of 2015. Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 8.6% to US$100m from US$92m. Its gypsum wallboard sales volumes rose by 18% to 176Mm2 from 149Mm2. The company attributed this in the third quarter of 2016 to stronger demand in major construction markets, especially from new residential construction and overall in the southeast of the country.

"For the third consecutive quarter, we experienced stronger demand in our markets east of the Mississippi which drove the 6% net sales growth versus last year," said Jay Bachmann, Continental's chief executive officer.

US: Johns Manville (JM) has received UL certification for DuraCore 300 chopped strands used to reinforce wallboards in the building industry. The product is manufactured at JM's facility in Slovakia. The certification recognises the product for performance and safety standards.

"Our customers can continuously rely on UL certified DuraCore products with improved dosing consistency and dispersion in wallboards," said Jared Cox, Global Product Manager-Chopped Strands Fibers for JM Engineered Products.

US: Gypsoil is stopping production at its pelletised gypsum fertiliser plant in Winona, Minnesota. The plant has been shut down due to poor market demand, according to the Winona Daily News. The US$5m plant opened in early 2016. It used synthetic gypsum from coal smoke stack scrubbers in Ohio.

India: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has started investigating officials at Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Limited (FACT) for corruption related to the sale of gypsum. The CBI is exploring whether a cartel was formed between FACT and Nagarjuna Chemicals to sell fertiliser-derived gypsum to NSS Trade India Private Limited at a significantly lower rate than the market value, according to the Times of India. In addition a clause in an agreement between the companies suggest that they may have intended to keep the price of gypsum artificially high to the end clients.

US: Net sales from USG's gypsum business have risen by 4.5% year-on-year to US$1.9bn in the first nine months of 2016 from US$1.82bn in the same period in 2015. Its operating profit rose by 18% to US$310m from US$262m. the company said that surfaces and substrates products drove US$5m of this improved profit. US wallboard volumes increased by 1% while domestic wallboard price was down roughly 1% from the third quarter of 2015. Inflation in wallboard input costs was offset by reduced selling, general and administrative expenses spending in the US gypsum business.

"I'm pleased to report that we expanded margins in both of our US businesses as well as in our USG Boral joint venture," said James S Metcalf, president and CEO of USG. He added that the company intends to use the US$670m from its sale of L&W Supply to reduce debt.

Overall, the company reported that its net sales rose by 4% to US$2.28bn from US$2.2bn and its net income rose by 13% to US$203m from US$179m. Sales from its USG Boral business rose by 4.9% to US$778m from US$742m. Improved results from USB Boral in the third quarter of 2016 were attributed to improved gypsum wallboard price and volume, manufacturing efficiencies and increased sales of 'adjacent' products.