Gypsemna has made a bold move by building a 110MM2/year-capacity gypsum wallboard plant in the UAE with facilities to supply the rest of the Middle East and further afield. Opening in the middle of an economic downturn was not part of the plan, but Gypsemna is biding its time and is waiting for the upturn to come again.
The Gypsemna factory in Abu Dhabi is so well-connected to the sea that you might be surprised to find an ocean-going ship progressing in stately fashion along a huge sea-connected canal right next to the factory (a factory which otherwise appears to be in the desert). But here, appearances can be deceptive: The Gypsemna factory was built on flat scrubland partially reclaimed from the sea and which is now part of a huge industrial estate on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi, the richest of the seven Emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The industrial estate, owned by the Abu Dhabi Municipal Government, is traversed by industrial-sized canals that allow direct access and loading of ships to take the industrial area's products - steel products and aluminium - abroad to consumers, or to deliver raw materials for the area's factories, including gypsum to Gypsemna. In fact, Gypsemna's tenancy covers 300,000m2 of land on this huge estate and the factory built up area is 46,000m2. Gypsemna is owned by the Jamal Al Ghurair Group, a diversified industrial group with assets in sugar, porcelain tiles and now gypsum wallboard. Global Gypsum Magazine recently had the opportunity to visit Gypsemna's factory in Abu Dhabi in the company of Mr Gunasekar, the plant manager. Mr Gunasekar has been at the Gypsemna plant (Gypsemna means 'Our gypsum factory' in Arabic') for two years.
"Construction of the plant here began in 2008 and we started production in 2009. Our position next to the canal," started Mr Gunasekar, "means that we not only bring in raw gypsum rock - in barges of up to 10,000t at a time, from our gypsum suppliers around this region but also we can export our products in barges." The gypsum is high-purity, 94%, with smaller amounts of silica and magnesia and with chloride at less than 100ppm. The moisture level of the rock as delivered (with a lump size of 50 - 250mm) is lower than 1%. We use mechanical shovels and grabs to transfer the gypsum to the open-air 50,000t gypsum storage yard. Due to the nature of the lumpy gypsum, we do not have a problem with dust."
"A front-end loader is then used to drop the gypsum into a hopper, from where it is conveyed to a hammer crusher where it is reduced to <50mm and from there it is conveyed to the crushed gypsum storage dome."
"From the storage dome the gypsum is conveyed to a flash calcination mill with a capacity of 72t/hr of feed and 60t/hr of produced stucco, using a closed-circuit classifier. After cooling, the stucco is transported to one of two 240t buffer storage silos."
"Passing along to the forming line itself, the stucco and other ingredients are mixed in the mixer and extruder. Most of the equipment at the plant was provided by Grenzebach. Water for the plant is provided by the municipality. The stucco mix uses a number of different additives to give wallboard its properties: a liquid sodium laurate foamer; a dry maize starch additive; and an anti-sagging and anti-creep boric acid additive. We also use a ball mill accelerator (BMA), a mixture of raw sugar and gypsum, to modify the setting time of the stucco mixture on the board forming line."
"We use a Favalessa paper roll handing machine to seamlessly supply paper to the board forming line. A variety of suppliers are used for our paper, from Australia, Asia and Europe. These suppliers provide us with products to our specifications. We don't want to rely on just one supplier. We use 180gsm paper on the face and 160gsm paper on the back of our products. Our management is now looking at the future development of the product and at the cost-benefit implications of using the lighter weight paper. A paper alignment machine is used to ensure proper alignment of the paper on the board line."
"Around 8 - 10% of our gypsum comes from recycling, with perhaps 2 - 3% coming from materials received from construction and demolition sites. Our policy is to receive boards from sites that have used our boards in the first place, but of course board from other manufacturers may also end up in our recycling deliveries from job sites as well."
"The line speed is 90m/min or 270ft/min and we use a series of 90m-long rubber belts as a forming line. The total distance from the mixer to the knife is 500m. We have a 12-deck dryer that uses natural gas for drying. Humidity sensors on each deck allow us to tune the dryer to maximum efficiency. A large air compressor and drier is used to provide process air to the production line and plant. After the dryer, a high-efficiency saw can be used to divide the boards into two, in either equal or unequal lengths. Two stacking systems have to be used due to the high speed and high capacity board production line. The overall board production line is controlled using a Siemens control system. Everything in the plant must be built to last in tough conditions, since - under the midday sun and with the line working - temperatures in the factory can increase to 45°C with 94% humidity."
"Most of our production is half inch (12.5mm) board, but we can produce boards ranging from 7mm to 25mm thickness. Our boards are produced to ASTM C 1396 and EN 520 (DIN 18 180/BS 1230 Part I), so that they are internationally accepted as high-quality boards. Gypsemna's wallboard can be fixed to timber, metal framing and masonry works for use as wall lining and ceiling partitions, providing a high quality and economical finish to any interior projects.
"In addition to the Regular wallboard, we also manufacture Moisture resistant, Firewall, Moisture resistant Firewall and Tuff board. These are among the paper liner faced family. Finally, we also manufacture a glass-mat faced board, using glass mats imported from Europe and US, for exterior and wet area applications. We also sell smaller quantities of stucco in one tonne FIBC 'jumbo' bags."
The cavernous and cathedral-like warehouse can store a maximum of 2Mm2 of board, equivalent to 15 days of production. In normal seven-day operation, the plant would be expected to work around 350 days per year, but currently, due to the market situation, the factory is not running at full capacity.
"We primarily supply markets in the UAE and in 15 other countries. The boards are transported to these destinations on flat beds trailer or in containers or on barges."
"We have a collaboration with Rondo of Australia to produce building systems: We have a systems manufacturing facility within the Gypsemna factory, which uses roll formers supplied by Rondo to manufacture the metal profiles for wallboard systems."
Conclusion
Gypsemna is well-located to take advantage of increasing demand from the UAE, Arabian peninsula, the wider Middle East, India and further afield. Higher capacity utilisation will futher decrease its already competitive manufacturing costs and its versatile drywall system solution offering. One thing's for sure: keep your eye out for Gypsemna!
