Gypsum board factories with clients in north east Japan have faced unprecedented operational circumstances during the past year following the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The disaster badly affected the Tohoku region and part of the neighbouring Kanto region, which includes Tokyo. Earthquake damage occurred in an area stretching about 500km north to south from Iwate to Tokyo along the east Japanese coastline and up 10km inland in some areas north of Tokyo. One year on, Special Correspondent David Hayes spoke to Yoshino Gypsum about the 12 months since the disaster.
According to the National Police Agency 15,782 people died and 4086 people were missing (as of 11 September 2011) following the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. The disaster severely damaged or destroyed over 270,000 buildings and caused flooding up to 10km inland, affecting a large number of communities, some of which were completely destroyed. Industrial, commercial and other enterprises in the Tohoku region and adjacent areas have been widely affected, although many have now recovered.
To fund rebuilding of homes, businesses, schools, hospitals and other public facilities, the government has approved two emergency budgets. However, work to rebuild the Tohoku region is likely to take some years to complete and the final cost remains unknown.
For Japan's gypsum wallboard industry the earthquake caused immediate disruption to the production and supply of plaster and plasterboard in the Tohoku region where the country's largest gypsum board manufacturer, Yoshino Gypsum Co Ltd, owns four plants. Fortunately for the company, none of the plants was damaged. However, power cuts, damage to roads and disruption to raw material supplies caused production to be halted at two of Yoshino's plants for a month after the earthquake.
Disruption at Yoshino
"We have three plasterboard plants in Tohoku and one gypsum factory. None was damaged - we were lucky," commented Yoshino Gypsum's technical department manager, Kazuyuki Umehara. "Most damage in the area was from the tsunami not the earthquake."
"All of our Tohoku plants are located along the coast but the tsunami did not reach our factories. The earthquake was 8.9 on the Richter scale in magnitude but the factory buildings are strong and resisted the tremors."
"None of the machines moved at our factories, but we had power failures. There was a region-wide power cut. That's the reason our machinery did not break as there was an emergency shut down at each plant," Umehara explained.
"At two plants, our Onahama and Hachinohe plasterboard plants, we stopped production for one month after the earthquake. There were two reasons, namely a shortage of gypsum and other materials but also raw materials delivery problems and gypsum board transport and distribution difficulties. In addition we were concerned about the reliability of electricity and water supplies."
Yoshino faced gypsum supply shortages because a copper smelting plant and a zinc smelter near the company's Onahama plasterboard factory were forced to shut down due to damage and power supply disruption. Three zinc smelting plants elsewhere in Tohoku shut down for similar reasons. The damage at the different plants varied but damage to roads, ports and power supplies caused more long-term problems. Such facilities produce synthetic gypsum as a by-product of the fluidised gas desulphurisation process.
By the end of July 2011 production had restarted at all five affected smelting plants though not all were in full production. Repair work continued to facilities serving various sites, with the gypsum supply situation improving as smelting activities returned to normal.
The worst affected of the five smelting plants was the Onahama copper smelter in Fukushima Prefecture, about 80km south of the now infamous Fukushima nuclear power plant. In addition to copper, the smelter is capable of producing 0.6Mt/yr of sulphuric acid and therefore significant amounts of gypsum.
Owned by Mitsubishi Materials Corp and Dowa Mining Holdings Co, the Onahama copper smelter resumed production in July 2011 after repair work had been carried out at the plant and to logistics facilities used to handle sulphuric acid during transport to customers. In addition, damage to ship berths and storage tanks at Onahama Port affected Toho Zinc's smelting plant which is also located in Onahama. Capable of producing 0.15Mt/yr of sulphuric acid in addition to zinc, the company restarted production in May 2011 after the damage had been repaired.
"After the earthquake and tsunami, Onahama copper smelter stopped production for almost three months and we could not receive gypsum from this supplier. We increased the use of imported gypsum in our Onahama factory. We also collected gypsum from smelters and suppliers in other regions of Japan," said Umehara.
Rebuilding Tohoku
As the government's reconstruction programme for the Tohoku disaster region gets underway, Yoshino Gypsum and other building materials suppliers are waiting to see what impact the rebuilding programme will have on construction materials. Yoshino supplies a major share of the Tohoku plasterboard market as Japan's other major gypsum board manufacturer, Chiyoda Ute, does not have a factory in the region.
The area accounts for about 8% of Japan's GDP. Although the earthquake hit a highly populated area in terms of world standards, the area is sparsely populated by Japanese standards. "Tohoku is a small plasterboard market for us, but we are waiting for reconstruction of the region to begin. We expect some demand from the reconstruction market," said Umehara. "Probably it will be residential housing market construction materials demand to start with."
New anti-seismic construction
About 300,000 buildings were totally or partially destroyed in the disaster, while about 700,000 suffered damage of some sort. According to various reports monitored by the earthquake-report.com website, around 35% of buildings in the Tohoku area were built pre-1980, about 55% from 1981 to 2000 and about 10% from 2001 onwards. Consequently, 65% of buildings in the Tohoku region were built to comply with Japanese seismic codes issued after 1981. Others were constructed to comply with codes issued in 1926 and 1938.
With the rebuilding programme now getting underway, particular attention is being given to ensuring that new and rebuilt buildings incorporate the latest earthquake-resistant construction technology.
"People are interested in using anti-seismic construction technology in the Tohoku area," said Umehara. "We are not building designers or architects but we sell plasterboard so we are looking at the construction materials market for older buildings to reinforce internal walls. Property owners do this by replacing older plasterboard and plywood walls with modern gypsum walls."
"After the Kobe earthquake in 1995 the government introduced an anti-seismic requirement for building structures and gypsum board that meets that requirement. Walls must resist horizontal shaking. The building requirement is one times gravity resistance and lighter walls are more easily made with gypsum board."
New developments
In the housing sector Yoshino has been developing a new market that involves replacing concrete internal walls with new walls made of gypsum board. Gypsum board is fire resistant and the requirement for high-rise buildings is a one hour fire rating which plasterboard meets. It also meets Japan's revised code for offices.
The fire-resistance requirement under Japan's latest regulations is three hours for supporting walls. "A single gypsum board cannot meet all requirements but if a client wants to use plasterboard we can meet the three hour requirement," Umehara said, "We meet this by using multiple layers of board. We have verified this by testing."
To ensure two hours' fire resistance two 21mm thick panels are used to construct each side of an interior wall. As four 21mm panels give two hours' fire resistance, six 21mm panels used as two sets of three panel thickness each side of the wall can be used to meet the three hour fire resistance requirement.
"People all over Japan are interested in anti-seismic building technology to replace and strengthen existing walls and floors. People in the Tokai region and western Japan are also interested in anti-seismic building methods as they may be affected in the future," said Umehara.
"Japan's construction industry is already strong in using anti-seismic technology. But this time the main damage with the Tohoku earthquake came from the tsunami and there is no advantage using plasterboard when faced with a tsunami."
The current trend in Japan to replace low-rise buildings with modern high-rise buildings has increased the use of plasterboard in construction, which is preferred for high quality developments due to its sound insulation and lightweight properties.
Due to advances in construction technology that ensure building foundations are secure in the event of an earthquake, Japanese property developers are keen to build taller high-rise buildings. While about half of new homes in Japan are houses built of wood, new high-rise apartments constructed using steel girders and reinforced concrete increasingly use internal plasterboard.
Demand for plasterboard has grown with the increased use of the A-2000 partition wall construction system in Japan for high-rise buildings over 30 stories. Basic A-2000 walls are made with a 21mm thick inner board which serves as the inner base layer to which is glued and steel stapled a high density (1.2 density compared with 0.75 normal density) 9.5mm thick plasterboard as the outer wall surface.
A-2000 WI series walls have a one hour fire resistance rating and weigh much less than reinforced concrete walls. This reduces the total building weight and reduces the space needed for foundations and bearing piles due to thinner columns and beams being used.
Apart from their lighter weight, research has shown that basic A-2000 WI walls, though just 136mm thick, can provide sound insulation equivalent to 260mm thick reinforced concrete walls.
Yoshino's 2012 forecast
Japan's gypsum board industry has faced challenging market conditions since demand peaked in 2006 prior to the global financial crisis. Total production of plasterboard in Japan was 441MM2 in 2010 and total shipments were 439MM2, both down around 25% compared to 2006 (587MM2 and 584MM2).
Yoshino Gypsum, Japan's market leader, accounts for about 80% of total gypsum board production and sales countrywide. Chiyoda Ute Co Ltd, the only other producer of gypsum board in Japan, accounts for 20%.
Yoshino Gypsum expects final 2011 figures for Japan's housing construction market to be similar to those for 2010. Demand for gypsum board dropped after the earthquake due to the lower number of new housing starts in February 2011 and March 2011 compared to January 2011. This was not to do with the earthquake, but rather that January is the peak month for wallboard use in Japan.
"In Japan plasterboard is used two months after house construction starts," Umehara explained. "We expected construction of 800,000 housing units to start in 2011 including 50,000 temporary houses for the homeless. Therefore 6% of starts are temporary housing which is single storey pre-fabricated housing. Our patterned plasterboard is being used in the temporary housing so there is no need to finish the walls."
"In the past we enjoyed a construction boom but in recent years the economy has picked up just a little. Business in 2010 improved a little and we expected the same during 2011, but then the earthquake hit," Umehara said, noting that a fourth quarter pick up is expected to show when results are announced for 2011.
With new housing starts estimated at about 800,000 units in 2011, around the same level as 2010 (813,000), production and shipments of plasterboard in 2011 is thought to have remained about the same level overall as the previous year.
The number of new housing units started in 2010 was down 37% on 2009 compared with housing starts in 2006 (1.29 million).
The fact that gypsum board shipments declined by 'only' 25% from 2006 to 2010 while new housing starts fell by 37% over the same period is thought to have resulted from the increased use of plasterboard in new and existing buildings.
People moving inland
One growing challenge facing the Japanese construction industry is that people have become even more wary of living on the coast.
"After the earthquake people are afraid of tremors so low rise housing in inland locations is becoming more popular," said Umehara. "There is low demand for new housing in the Tokyo Bay area because people are scared of tsunamis and land liquefaction. The taller the building, the more the tremors are felt. People hate tremors in high-rise buildings, so many people prefer low-rise housing."
New ideas
Work to develop new gypsum products continues at Yoshino Gypsum's research and development centre. Trials are underway on various new developments though no new products have been released recently.
"We are developing an improved plasterboard to absorb formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds because some people are concerned about 'sick building' syndrome," said Umehara. "This new board will be mostly for schools but it's still at the drawing board stage." The new board will likely build on Yoshino's existing Hi-Clean formaldehyde absorption board range for use in hospitals and school classrooms for the past decade.
In addition to Hi-Clean board, Yoshino's thin decorative Tiger Glass Rock Clear, a 4.3mm thick plasterboard designed for housing renovation and Tiger Anero board also have formaldehyde absorption and decomposition properties. The same properties are offered by Yoshino's Hi-Clean Gyptone and Hi-Clean Marble Tone ceiling tiles.
"Hi-Clean board started about 10 years ago for schools but house builders have only become interested in this product very recently," Umehara remarked. "We expect the same response for our special new formaldehyde absorbent board when it is launched. It will take time to become popular in the market."
Although the reasons behind Hi-Clean's sudden popularity remain unclear, Yoshino is pursuing this emerging market due to changes in energy consumption policy the government has introduced following the Tohoku earthquake.
The government introduced regulations requiring companies to reduce electricity consumption by 20% from 1 July 2012 onwards to avoid power shortages due to the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power station caused by tsunami damage.
"People need to save electricity and energy, so there is more hot air and volatile organic compounds in many rooms," Umehara said. "The new sales pitch from Yoshino Gypsum is that these volatile organic compounds are absorbed by our Hi-Clean board products."
Restructuring for the future
2006 is likely to remain a record year for Yoshino for some time due to Japan's falling birth rate and economic difficulties. Realising this, the company completed a three year production restructuring programme in mid-2010 such that it now owns 16 gypsum board plants across Japan. It has a combined plasterboard production capacity of 486MM2/yr. All plasterboard is sold domestically to customers located within a 200km radius of any individual plasterboard plant. Each of the plants has a single production line that operates 24/7 and some produce plasterboard ceiling tiles.
Yoshino's four largest plasterboard lines are its Chiba II, Chiba III, Mikawa and Kitakyushu plants. Each is capable of producing 60MM2/yr, running at 6.6MM2/month for 10 months of the year. Routine maintenance is carried out during the two other months.
In addition to the company's gypsum board plants, Yoshino owns four gypsum plaster factories with the combined capacity to produce 300,000t/yr of plaster and four other plants with the combined annual capacity of 50,000t/yr of industrial plaster. It also owns two paper mills for plasterboard liner paper.
Umehara pointed out the company's newest plant is the Chiba III factory, which was opened near Tokyo's Narita International Airport in December 2007. Since then Yoshino has rationalised its operations by closing two older plants in Tokyo (2008) and Toyama (2010) to increase efficiency.
Chiba III
Yoshino's showcase Chiba III plant is located on a 144,000m2 site. "We have achieved 200m/min production at Chiba III, the highest speed of all our plants," said Umehara.
"Chiba III has many special features. For example, we have a catwalk so customers can visit and see inside the plant. We have an indoor stacker silo for gypsum. Normally gypsum is stored outside but we store it inside owing to maintenance reasons. Chiba III is close to the coast and we were concerned about sea air corrosion. Also, we have adopted state-of-the-art stack calcination technology."
Consumption of gypsum
Plasterboard production used 4.07Mt of raw gypsum in 2010 according to government figures. This was a 5.7% increase compared with 3.85Mt in 2009. The rise was due to increased plasterboard production in 2010 although shipments were just about 1% lower than 2009.
Whether consumption of gypsum was affected by post-earthquake supply shortages will not be known until complete figures are available for 2011. Gypsum imports are expected to have increased due to production stoppages at the smelting plants.
The proportion of domestic synthetic gypsum and reclaimed gypsum used in plasterboard, mostly recovered from construction waste, grew from 66% combined in 2006 to 77% in 2010, while the proportion of imported gypsum declined from 34% to 23% over the same period.
In 2010 some 2.9Mt (71%) of gypsum used for plasterboard production was domestic byproduct gypsum while 0.94Mt (23%) was imported natural gypsum. The remaining 0.25Mt (6%) was from other sources like recycled waste gypsum board from construction sites.
"For the moment we expect demand for gypsum board for private housing and temporary housing to pick up. The government has passed a reconstruction budget, so we expect housing reconstruction to start," commented Umehara.
"However, we can only see the near future," he continued. "Before the earthquake happened we expected demand to pick up from the gypsum board market but after the earthquake demand flattened. Probably the demand trend will be to pick up in 2012 but we have no forecast for afterwards."
