Lafarge Expanding Kentucky Gypsum Plant

Lafarge will invest about $120 million to expand the capacity of its gypsum drywall manufacturing facility in Silver Grove, Kentucky. The new gypsum wallboard line will increase the annual capacity of the plant from 900 million square feet to 1,600 million square feet.

Construction is expected to begin during the first half of next year, and scheduled to be completed in the second quarter of 2007. Built in 2000, the Silver Grove plant serves a market encompassing 14 states and representing nearly 10 billion square feet of annual demand.

In November 2004, Lafarge also announced that it was investing $75 million to double the capacity of its gypsum drywall manufacturing facility in Buchanan, New York State. By mid-2006, the Buchanan plant will produce have an annual capacity of around 650 million square feet.