USG Corp. announced that its United States Gypsum Co., subsidiary will invest $132 million to rebuild and modernize its SHEETROCK(R) Brand Gypsum Panels manufacturing plant in Norfolk, Virginia.
Construction is expected to begin early this year, and be complete by the end of next year.
The modernization will increase the plant's annual manufacturing capacity by about 180 percent, to 750 million square feet of wallboard. The existing plant, which was built in 1947, has an annual The Norfolk plant currently manufactures SHEETROCK Brand Gypsum Panels from natural gypsum rock. The modernized facility will be designed to make wallboard from natural gypsum, recaptured (or synthetic) gypsum, or any combination of the two.
Besides incorporating environmental control equipment, the rebuilt facility will use recycled materials in the wallboard production. These include recycled paper for the wallboard's face and back, plus agriculturally renewable resources that are used as binders. In addition, the plant will be equipped with a production recycling system to help reprocess manufacturing waste.