Business News - Housing crunch hurting wallboard business

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Housing crunch hurting wallboard business

CHICAGO (UPI) -- Gypsum wallboard producer USG Corp. of East Chicago, Ill, has cut production by 75 percent in the wake of a construction slowdown, the company said.

Since 2006, USG Corp., which uses synthetic gypsum, has laid off 1,750 workers, the Chicago Sun Times reported Thursday.

This year, the company raised prices by 20 percent, as it faces production cutbacks amounting to 3.5 billion square feet of wallboard over the past seven quarters, the report said.

"This place is battened down tight," Chief Executive Officer William Foote said after the company's annual shareholder meeting Wednesday.

USG has been trying to expand its ceiling tile production, upgrade plants and open new ones.

The company is building new wallboard plants in Washingtonville, Pa., and Stockton, Calif., and has plans to produce ceiling tiles in Beijing, China and open a joint-treatment compound plant in St. Petersburg, Russia, the report said.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 05/15/2008

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