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Catch up on NGC information through press releases and announcements. |
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National Gypsum to Build Plant in North Carolina
National Gypsum Company, a leading manufacturer of gypsum wallboard, announced today
it will invest up to $125 million to construct a new high-speed wallboard plant
in Mt. Holly, NC. The plant will create 100 direct jobs and 100 indirect for Gaston
County while recycling tons of waste material which would otherwise go to landfills.
It will be capable of producing approximately one billion square feet of wallboard
annually at speeds over 500 feet per minute. That is enough wallboard to complete
approximately 100,000 average-sized homes per year. Construction on the new plant
will begin next year and is expected to be operational during the third quarter
of 2007.
“We needed a 100-acre-plus site for our new plant with easy access to the Interstate
highway system, natural gas, and rail,” said Thomas C. Nelson, chairman, president
and CEO. “We also needed a high-quality workforce. Mt. Holly provides all of this.
It is an excellent site for our plant and we believe our clean manufacturing process
will fit nicely into the community.
“This major investment fills an important gap in supplying wallboard to the southeast
markets,” Nelson continued. “With the new plant in place, we will be better able
to serve key markets such as Charlotte and Atlanta, while improving supply in Florida
and the Mid-Atlantic from our plants located in those regions. Our goal is to grow
with our customers, and we are actively pursuing and are positioned to make additional
expansions as the market dictates.”
“I am delighted that National Gypsum has chosen a site in Gaston County,” said State
Senator David Hoyle. “We are looking forward to a great relationship. I appreciate
everything National Gypsum does, not only for Gaston County and the Charlotte area,
but for all of North Carolina.”
“We are certainly glad National Gypsum has selected Gaston County for its new wallboard
facility,” said Donnie Hicks, executive director of the Gaston County Economic Development
Commission. “This project will help Gaston County continue its strong manufacturing
heritage and National Gypsum joins a growing group of world-class manufacturers
who have chosen our county for new and expanded facilities.”
Gypsum wallboard is typically produced from gypsum rock. In partnership with Duke
Power, the new plant will use byproduct gypsum produced at Duke’s coal-fired power
plants. As Duke Power scrubs sulfur dioxide from its coal-fired emissions, the byproduct
of the process is calcium sulfate, which is the chemical name for gypsum. National
Gypsum will receive byproduct gypsum that will be produced at the four Duke Power
plants involved, the Marshall, Cliffside, Allen, and Belews Creek stations.
“We are very pleased to have Duke Power as our partner in this project,” Nelson
said. “Duke is one of the most respected names in the industry, and it is recognized
as a leader in power generation, environmental stewardship, and community involvement.”
“We are excited about National Gypsum building a wallboard plant in this location
and will work with them to make this project a reality,” said Bill Hall, group vice
president, Duke Power. “This is a perfect example of a win-win opportunity. Duke
Power and our customers win because we can recycle the gypsum produced by our power
plant scrubbers and keep our operating costs low. The economy wins because good
jobs will be created during the construction and operation of the plant. The environment
wins because gypsum is recycled rather than put in a landfill.”
National Gypsum has a successful track record using byproduct gypsum and now operates
byproduct plants near Pittsburgh, Pa., and Tampa, Fla. Its Pittsburgh plant won
the Pennsylvania Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence in 2002. Its byproduct
plant near Tampa is currently a finalist, one of only 25 in the entire U.S., in
IndustryWeek Magazine’s Best Managed Plants competition. Winners of the competition
will be announced next month.
Headquartered in Charlotte, National Gypsum is a leading supplier of wallboard,
interior finishing products, and cement board to the construction industry. It has
a network of 20 wallboard plants in North America, in addition to finishing products
and cement board plants, paper mills, and gypsum mines and quarries.
August 3, 2005
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