Georgia Pacific Gypsum Operations Showing Benefits of Consolidation

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Several strategic plant closures and consolidations seem to be paying off for G-P Gypsum Corporation, a subsidiary of Georgia-Pacific Corporation (NYSE:GP) (Atlanta, Georgia). Recent reports from Georgia-Pacific indicate that the gypsum sector is out performing most other sectors in the company's $7 billion manufacturing & distribution business of Georgia Pacific's building products division. Cost cutting measures have been the norm for the company for the past 2-3 years after several years of significant expansion.

Riding a fairly strong new housing market, a recent report from the USGS indicates that domestic gypsum wallboard sales are on pace to surpass those of 2001 despite the fact that for the month of June gypsum wallboard sales were down about 15% of what they were last year at this time.

G-P Gypsum has shut down several plants recently. Its plant in Long Beach California is no longer manufacturing gypsum wallboard, but is being used as a distribution facility. The company's Sigurd, Utah gypsum products plant shutdown July 1st of 2001. The production from the Sigurd plant was taken up by the company's state of the art plant located in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Las Vegas plant opened in 1987 and recently completed a $50 million expansion and a $15 million plaster mill addition. The company also consolidated its Canadian wallboard production capabilities with the closure of its Winnipeg, Manitoba plant. Production from Winnipeg was transferred to the Edmonton Alberta plant. The company has closed two gypsum wallboard plants in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Industrialinfo.com is currently tracking 21 operational G-P Gypsum plants in the U.S. and Canada as part of its North American Industrial Database.