Lorain, OH - The National Gypsum Co. plant in Lorain will shut down for an unspecified period on June 16, throwing all 58 of its workers out of a job, it was learned yesterday.

The plant at 1901 Henderson Drive makes wallboard. Its business has been hurt by the slump in the housing market amid an economic downturn, officials indicated.

National Gypsum now joins the exit of other local building materials firms including Del Lumber and Bradco-Wickes Lumber in Elyria Township and Abbe Road Lumber in Sheffield Lake.

Nancy Spurlock, communications director at National Gypsum's corporate headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., said the plant closing would be temporary, but she could not say when the plant might re-open. All 58 workers at the Lorain plant will be laid off June 16, according to Spurlock. A National Gypsum plant in Tampa, Fla., with 78 workers, is also closing, she said. Gypsum has 21 wallboard plants across the country, according to the company Web site.

''The wallboard industry is down about 30 percent nationwide due to the housing correction,'' Spurlock said. ''We're closing the Lorain plant temporarily because of business conditions.''

The company will continue to monitor business conditions to determine when the Lorain and Tampa plants could re-open, she said.

Outplacement services will be available soon for workers at the Lorain plant, Spurlock said.

At the end of April, the union will be negotiating with National Gypsum regarding severance packages, vacation time, a retraining program and health coverage, Honeberger said. The plant, which he said opened in 1959, could be closing in part due to its age, he said.

''It's less-efficient and slower than the plants they build now,'' he said. ''We run about 175 feet a minute of wallboard. But the new plants run 400-600 feet a minute.''

Less than two months ago, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama toured the Lorain plant and held an invitation-only rally there to talk about the economy ahead of Ohio's March 4 primary.

Ken Sauvey, 53, said he has worked at National Gypsum for 34 years. Signs of slowing demand for the plant's products were obvious last year, Sauvey said. Although the plant had been running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the work week was reduced to a single 40-hour shift after the July 4th holiday, he said.

''When Senator Obama was here, I wondered if I would make it to retirement,'' he said. ''I doubted it at the time, and I guess my doubts have come true.''

Ted Fenik, 40, of Lorain, said he has worked at National Gypsum for eight years. ''It doesn't look good for reopening. They're closing the Tampa plant as well and said it is even worse there than here. There are whole streets with for sale signs and people just upped and left.''

The Tampa and Lorain plants are closing because of their locations and shipping costs, said Fenik.

''Most of our business was on the east coast and (National Gypsum) have plants in Baltimore and North Carolina.

''We use to run seven days a week and then we were down to five and four days.''

Other industry plants including Detroit, New Orleans, and Ft. Dodge, Iowa have recently curtailed production due to market conditions while at the same time new high speed, large plants (primarily using modern technology lightweight wallboard paper too) have been coming on line. The most recent of these new modern, low cost, plants coming on line include National Gypsum's plant in North Carolina, American Gyspum's plant in South Carolina, CertainTeed Gypsum's plant in West Virginia and USG's plants in Virginia and Pennsylvania.

The new, large, high speed wallboard plants utilizing light weight paper are estiamted to have about a 50% lower cost advantage vs. the older, slower wallboard plants utilizing old cylinder technology, heavier weight paper.