Lafarge Breaking Ground Into a More Prosperous Future for Silver Grove, Kentucky

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). The new proposal came just five years after the $94 million, 500,000 square-foot drywall plant opened in mid-2000, becoming the largest drywall plant in North America. Now, Lafarge North America, Incorporated is expected to add 100 full-time jobs at its gypsum drywall plant along the Ohio River in Silver Grove, Kentucky. The proposal called for a 143,000 square-foot expansion at its existing plant at a cost of approximately $120 million. Already capable of producing 900 million square feet of half-inch wallboard annually, the expansion is expected to increase that capacity to 1.6 billion square feet per year. Lafarge’s board of directors voted in November 2005 to approve the new expansion. On May 12, 2006, the official groundbreaking ceremony took place with the use of the traditional golden shovel. The groundbreaking was accompanied by speeches, an open house, a tour of the existing facility, free food and live music.

In addition to the new jobs predicted for Lafarge, the expansion should create approximately 1,500 new jobs directly related to the ongoing construction, operations that supply and support the facility, as well as retail spending in Northern Kentucky. At the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority monthly meeting held this past July, Lafarge received a one-year extension to complete the expansion project, the plant is eligible for up to $3 million in incentives. Although currently scheduled for completion during the fourth quarter of 2007, it may be early 2008 before the Silver Grove project is wrapped up. All this activity follows in the footsteps of Lafarge's November 2004 announcement of a $75 million expansion at its wallboard plant in Buchanan, New York, located along the east side of the Hudson River just north of New York City. The Buchanan project is well underway and scheduled to be completed later this summer.

The Gypsum Association recently reported that total gypsum board (also known as wallboard or drywall) shipped in the first six months of 2006 was 19 billion square feet. It’s thought that the strong wallboard demand is due to increasing commercial construction activity and companies are reporting record earnings. It’s obvious that Lafarge falls into that group. Just this month Lafarge released news that its net profit increased by 53% in the first half of 2006, as the strong demand from the construction industry boosted sales of building materials. Its net profit for the first six months of 2006 was $700 million, up from $450 million in the same period last year. See related article: Eastern U.S. Hot Spot for $1 Billion Gypsum Wallboard Manufacturing Plant Project Activity

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