ENR's 20-city wallboard price peaked at $236 per thousand sq ft in the first quarter of 2000, after increasing 36% the previous year. ENR's price then fell 20% over the next two years before recovering in 2002. At $203 per thousand sq ft, it is now 8% above last year's level. "Wallboard prices are definitely starting to trend up," says Sam Nicholson, vice president of pre-construction services for Framingham, Mass.-based Perini Corp.'s building division.
The recovery in wallboard prices comes with demand holding at last year's level. Through July, wallboard shipments totaled 17.5 billion sq ft, up from 17.2 billion sq ft for the first seven months of 2001, according to the Gypsum Association, Washington, D.C. "We expect to meet in 2002 last year's wallboard production figures of 29 billion sq ft," says Shannon Bass, an association spokesperson. The difference is that there is now less supply chasing that demand. Last year, Chicago-based USG Corp. closed two plants and Georgia-Pacific, Atlanta, idled six. This year, USG closed an additional plant, while Georgia-Pacific idled two more, says the association.