Dive Brief:

• A Chinese drywall manufacturer has paid $3.2 million to seven Virginia homeowners whose houses were damaged by the company’s product.

• Taishan Gypsum Co. was required to make the payment in order to participate in an upcoming hearing that will determine how much the firm will have to pay approximately 4,000 additional homeowners who have claimed chemicals in the drywall emitted fumes that damaged copper pipes, wiring and air conditioner coils, among other parts of their homes.

• In a similar case in 2010, another manufacturer that made drywall in China, German-based Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co., agreed to pay for home repairs totaling more than $1 billion.

Dive Insight:

The settlements have been a long time coming. Health and housing issues related to defective drywall imported to the U.S. from China began in 2001. Used mostly in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, up to 100,000 homes may have been built with the material.