Saint-Gobain Gypsum Enters Vietnam

Saint-Gobain Gypsum has moved into Vietnam through the purchase of Vinh Tuong Joint Venture, created at the beginning of 2007 and owned by Vinh Tuong Corp., Universal Cement (Taiwan) and Compact Resources (Singapore).
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The company, Vinh Tuong Joint Venture, has a manufacturing plant near Ho Chi Minh City that can produce up to 9 million square meters of plasterboard. It employs 84.
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Vietnam benefits from the high growth of the building market, and particularly of the plasterboard market whose use has been recently introduced in the country.
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This acquisition will enable Saint-Gobain Gypsum -which has been exporting to Vietnam via its Thai company for more than 10 years -to consolidate its strong position in the Vietnamese market. It represents a platform for development of other activities of the Group, in particular within the Construction Products Sector.
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This acquisition is in line with Saint-Gobain's strategy to develop the Construction Products Sector in emerging countries. During the past 12 months, Saint-Gobain has invested in Colombia (acquisition of FiberGlass), in the United Arab Emirates (construction of a plasterboard plant), in Argentina (acquisition of Iggam), in South Africa (Owens Corning South Africa in insulation -TAC and Tylon manufacturers of industrial mortars) and in Turkey (acquisition of Izocam).
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The Construction Products Sector of Saint-Gobain had consolidated sales of & euro; 10.9 billion, representing 24% of the Saint-Gobain Group's overall sales.