USG to build its largest production line

United States Gypsum Company, the domestic plasterboard arm of USG Corporation, is to build what it claims to be the world’s largest plasterboard production line on a 186 acre site at Washingtonville in north central Pennsylvania.  Construction is expected to start next year, with completion scheduled for the first half of 2008.  The annual capacity has been designed for approximately 93m m² and the new plant will be using desulpho gypsum from a near-by coal-fired power station.  An environmentally friendly project, the new plant will recycle all production waste and a closed-loop liquid effluent system will eliminate any discharge into near-by waterways.
 
Further underlying the buoyancy of US plasterboard demand, the smaller Temple Inland has reported a 13.6 per cent increase in first half plasterboard shipments, with prices in the second quarter being ahead by some 10% last year, while a capacity constrained BPB, which as two US plants under construction, was only able to raise its North American volumes by 0.8 per cent.