Carole Sanek| South Florida Business Journal – February 2, 2009 http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/othercities/southflorida/stories/2009/02/02/story1.html?b=1233550800^1769884 |
This past weekend we here at Castle Dream Real Estate began to hear the buzz about the complaints coming in regarding the use of dry wall imported from China starting in 2006. I started to do my research on this immediately because I sell a lot of new construction. I need to know about things like this because I need to pass it on to my customers. Here is the best article I found on this topic:
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Chinese drywall imports surged in 2006
South Florida Business Journal – by Paul Brinkmann, Bill Frogameni and Oscar Pedro Musibay
Correction at bottom of article
Knauf, whose Chinese-made drywall is being linked to reports of sickness and metal corrosion, sent 67.3 million pounds of the construction material to the U.S. in 2006, according to a trade research firm.
That’s enough to build 3,000 to 7,500 average-size single-family homes, depending on the design, construction experts estimate.
This may be the first time the total amount imported by Knauf has been reported, although the drywall issue has drawn national media attention in The Wall Street Journal and on Fox News.
The bulk of the material, 44.8 million pounds, entered New Orleans in 2006, the year Knauf imported the most Chinese drywall into the country, according to The Datamyne, a Miami-based trade research firm. New Orleans and the surrounding region were hit in 2005 year by Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed tens of thousands of homes, and prompted widespread rebuilding.
Charleston, S.C. received 18.8 million pounds that year, with much less shipped to Los Angeles/Long Beach, Calif., and Port Canaveral.
Homeowners on Florida’s west coast, the first to file complaints with the state, have reported that the drywall gas has corroded metals in household appliances and caused health problems. Complaints from South Florida have surfaced, too.
Knauf, a German company with two plants in China, has acknowledged complaints about odors from some of its drywall from its Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co. Ltd. (KPT) plant.
“KPT is the only manufacturer to respond to builders’ complaints and conduct testing to ensure that there are no health risks to Florida homeowners,” the company said in an e-mail.
A toxicologist hired by Knauf said some tests were done on unoccupied, incomplete homes.
The statement said the company “is doing its own investigation, and believes the problem drywall came from a specific [gypsum] mine, which also supplied other manufacturers.” Gypsum is a key ingredient in drywall, which has a cardboard surface and a plasterlike inner layer.
According to Knauf, the company stopped using the questionable mine in 2006.
Datamyne identified Knauf Plasterboard Wuhu as another source of imported plasterboard during that time. But Knauf spokeswoman Yeleny Suarez, who works in Miami, said Knauf does not believe the Wuhu plant used gypsum from the problem mine.
Post-hurricane spike in imports
Knauf drywall imports spiked in 2006, at the height of the building boom – shortly after hurricanes Katrina and Wilma – when construction materials were scarce.
Industry sources and state officials contacted for this report said they are not sure how many Chinese manufacturers may have exported problematic drywall to the U.S.
Knauf said about 20 percent of the drywall imported from China over 16 months, mostly in 2006, came from the Tianjin facility.
Datamyne’s information indicates 38.7 million pounds of Knauf’s Chinese drywall came from the Tianjin plant in 2006 and 28.6 million pounds came from the Wuhu plant.
Datamyne’s information, based on U.S. Customs and Census information, indicates 78 percent of Chinese drywall imports in 2006 came from the two Knauf plants.
Miami-based Lennar Homes (NYSE: LEN), the country’s second largest homebuilder said Knauf drywall was used in some of its houses. A Lennar spokesman confirmed that subcontractors bought drywall from two Chinese manufacturers – one of which was Knauf – from November 2005 to November 2006. The spokesman said the company plans to provide the public with more information about the other manufacturer in the near future.
Lennar has acknowledged two complaints in South Florida, but won’t provide any details on location or status of the complaints.
The state of Florida has logged two complaints in South Florida regarding the drywall, one of which is tied to Homestead’s Keys Gate residential community. At press time, 54 total complaints have been lodged with the Florida Department of Health.
Pablo Andrade, VP of Miami-based Executive Drywall, said the problem is widespread.
“I know it’s large,” he said. “When these ships come in with board, they don’t come in with 500 square feet. They come in with hundreds of thousands of square feet. I’m sure it spread all over Florida.”
Knauf said most Chinese manufacturers do not stamp their name on their drywall.
Andy Padron, owner of Blue Coast Drywall in Miami, said 2006 was a year with big shortages of materials – including drywall. The demand was coupled with the rise of drywall from China in the marketplace.
“There were a lot of people selling Chinese drywall,” he said.
Lennar said on Jan. 21 that it has begun repairing a dozen homes on Florida’s west coast affected by imported drywall. The company said it has identified about 80 homes there that appear to have been built with Chinese drywall between November 2005 and November 2006.
Drywall installers surveyed said that a typical single-family home might have 100 to 250 sheets of 4-foot-by-12-foot, half-inch-thick drywall. Shipping information indicates that the majority of the 2006 Knauf drywall fit those dimensions – the primary size used in single-family, residential construction, experts said.
For that reason, most commercial builders in South Florida aren’t worried about the drywall problem, said Tracy Brown, director of preconstruction for Balfour Beatty Construction in Fort Lauderdale, which specializes in commercial and institutional construction. She said condominium towers and commercial buildings generally use five-eighths-of-an-inch drywall.
These drywall problems follow a few years of safety issues that have emerged in connection to a multitude of Chinese goods – everything from toxic children’s toys to pet food to antifreeze in toothpaste.
One of the major goals of the green building trend is to work with local suppliers and to know the source of materials to avoid problems. There are two drywall manufacturers in Florida – National Gypsum Co. in Apollo Beach and Lafarge Gypsum in Palatka.
“Working with suppliers close to home is probably the best solution,” said Brown, who is accredited through the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. “Maybe this is a wake-up call to the building community.”
Research Director Amy Limbert contributed to this report; pbrinkmann@bizjournals.com | (954) 949-7562; bfrogameni@bizjournals.com | (954) 949-7511; omusibay@bizjournals.com | (954) 949-7567
Correction:An earlier version of this article understated the amount of drywall imported by Knauf from China in 2006 by 3.5 million pounds, because of misinterpretation of information provided by Datamyne. The total should have been 67.3 million pounds. The total imported via Port Canaveral was 3.7 million pounds while a graphic earlier indicated it was only 1,321 pound. An earlier version also said Lennar bought drywall from China, but the company said common industry practices were followed and the drywall was purchased by subcontractors.
Filed under: Buyer Beware
