Gypsum industry news

Canada: Saint-Gobain has named Julie Bonamy Racine as the chief executive officer (CEO) of its subsidiary CertainTeed Canada. She succeeds Richard Juggery, who led the company for four years before being named CEO of Saint-Gobain Benelux in July 2022. She will also be CertainTeed Canada's first female CEO.

Bonamy previously worked as the CEO of Saint-Gobain Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. She joined the company in 2017 in Paris as Group Vice President, Strategy & Planning. Earlier in her career, Bonamy worked in the public sector, most recently as an adviser for the budget and digital sector for the Office of the French Minister for the Economy. She is a graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Studies (IEP de Paris) and the National School of Public Administration (Ecole Nationale d'Administration).

Canada: USG subsidiary CGC plans to build a US$160m gypsum wallboard plant in Wheatland County, near Calgary in Alberta. The Government of Alberta and Invest Alberta Corporation will support the project with around US$3m from the Investment and Growth Fund. It is also set to benefit from local tax benefits. The new unit is expected to create over 100 new jobs once it is operational. Plant construction is scheduled to begin in 2023.

“Our customers in Western Canada have said they want a more efficient way to access our CGC wallboard products they’ve been buying for over 100 years. Shipping our products from Eastern Canadian or American manufacturing plants no longer meets their growing demand,” said Chris Griffin, President and chief executive officer of USG Corporation.

The proposed plant’s kiln will be powered using gas. Renewable electricity will be provided by an onsite solar power farm. The unit will also be the company’s first plant in Canada built with the technology to manufacture USG Sheetrock Brand EcoSmart Panels.

US-based USG became a subsidiary of Germany-based Knauf in 2019.

US: Gypsum wallboard companies sold 629Mm² of gypsum wallboard in the first quarter of 2022, in line with first-quarter 2021 sales, according to US Geological Survey (USGS) figures. They exported 16.9Mm², up by 6% year-on-year from first-quarter 2021 volumes. Canada received 15Mm², 94% of exports. The US Census Bureau recorded gypsum wallboard imports of 22.2Mm², up by 28% year-on-year. Mexico supplied 19.1Mm² (86%), while Canada supplied 2.89Mm² (13%).

In the first quarter of 2022, national natural gypsum production was 5.33Mt, up by 2.1% year-on-year from 5.22Mt in the first quarter of 2021.

Canada: Saint-Gobain plans to carry out a US$70.9m upgrade and 40% capacity expansion of its 30Mm²/yr Montreal gypsum wallboard plant in Quebec. The project includes the replacement of natural gas with renewable electricity and a 30% reduction in energy consumption through efficiency improvements. As a result, it will turn the facility into North America’s first zero-carbon gypsum wallboard plant. Work will commence in mid-2023, with the commissioning of the upgraded plant following in late 2024.

Saint-Gobain’s vice president environmental, social, governance (ESG) North America and managing director, circular economy solutions Dennis Wilson said "Today we begin a historic new chapter at our Montreal gypsum plant, leading our industry towards a more sustainable future while increasing our production capacity at a time of unprecedented customer demand," said. "We thank our partners in the Quebec Government, the City of Saint-Catherine and Hydro-Québec for their support, and we thank our team for pushing the limits of technology and imagination to bring this bold project to life. The electrification of our Montreal plant is a massive step forward in our broader goal to decarbonise construction materials and a significant step towards our global goal of carbon neutrality by 2050."

Canada/US: Saint-Gobain has acquired exterior building materials company Kaycan for US$928m. After the closing of the transaction in 2022, Kaycan’s US distribution arm will undergo divestiture to a third party. Kaycan currently employs 1300 people at 12 sites in Canada and the US. Saint-Gobain noted that the acquisition will complement its leadership in Canada, expanding its light and sustainable construction solutions offering in that market.

Canada: Saint-Gobain has shared plans to install a US$3.19m waste heat recovery (WHR) system at its Vancouver gypsum wallboard plant in British Columbia. It has secured US$1.12m in funding from the provincial government’s CleanBC Industry Fund for the project. The producer says that the installation will increase the plant’s energy efficiency and reduce its CO₂ emission by 10%.

Saint-Gobain said “This project will help our company to maximise our positive impact for our customers and the communities where we do business, while minimising our environmental footprint. We thank the CleanBC programme for its support, and look forward to many more years of sustainable, state-of-the-art manufacturing in Vancouver.”

Canada: Irving Wallboard is preparing to rejoin the local gas distribution network near to its plant at Saint John in New Brunswick. The company has been offered a special low rate as an incentive to return, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In an interview Gilles Volpé, the vice-president of Liberty Utilities, the operator of New Brunswick's gas distribution network, said that these kinds of arrangements sometimes occurred with industrial end users. The proposed deal would see it use at least 600,000GJ/yr of gas making the wallboard producer Liberty Utilities’s largest customer.

The company, which also operates under the name Atlantic Wallboard, was previously the largest individual customer on New Brunswick's public gas distribution system but it left in 2015 in a pricing dispute. It then switched to using compressed gas delivered by truck.

An application has been made to the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board and a full hearing into the proposal is scheduled for April 2022.

US: Canada-based Building materials recycling equipment supplier TORXX Kinetic Pulverizer has launched TORXX Kinetic, a new wholly owned subsidiary. The company’s headquarters are in Chattanooga, Tennessee. TORXX Kinetic Pulverizer chose the location in order to be closer to its customer base.

Vice president Terri Ward said that in 2021 “Covid-19 pandemic-related travel restrictions hindered growth, with our North American headquarters in Canada and most of our customers and new opportunities in the US.” Ward continued “We are maintaining a presence in Toronto with engineering and service resources. However, key personnel and new hires are now in the US, making it much easier to collaborate and respond to customer needs. We were attracted to the Scenic City because of its favourable manufacturing and transportation resources, proximity to our customers, and its appeal to our valued employees.”

TORXX Kinetic Pulverizer’s kinetic pulveriser is a waste processing technology which relies on aerodynamics and matter-on-matter collisions for particle size reduction. Vortices agitate feedstock, causing more brittle material to shatter while less brittle material remains larger. This size differential facilitates the liberation and mechanical separation of contaminants.

US: The US Geological Survey (USGS) has reported a 13% year-on-year increase in national calcined gypsum production in the first half of 2021 to 9.57Mt from 8.5Mt in the first half of 2020. The country’s gypsum mines produced 10.1Mt of natural gypsum, down by 3.8% from 10.48Mt in 2021. Synthetic gypsum production remained in line with first-half 2020 levels at 7.2Mt. In total, the US exported 17,900t of natural and synthetic gypsum, up by 8.2% from 16,600t. It exported 49,000t of calcined gypsum, up by 10% from 44,500t.

In the second quarter of 2021, the US exported gypsum wallboard to 29 other countries. Volumes totalled 19Mm2, up by 40% year-on-year. Canada accounted for 95% of gypsum wallboard exports. The US imported 20.9Mm2 of gypsum wallboard during the quarter, up by 54% year-on-year. All imports came from Mexico and Canada, of which Mexico supplied 16.7Mm2 (85%).

Canada: Dalhousie University, in collaboration with the Canada and US joint Gypsum Association and Divert NS, has entered Phase 2 of its research project into uses of construction and demolition waste gypsum in concrete. The research, continuing until September 2023, will test the durability of various concrete mixes containing gypsum powder recycled from waste drywall. It will examine 81 specimens under three environmental exposures and three exposure durations. The team will use the results to understand the performance and environmental benefits of concrete containing recycled gypsum over the life of a structures. Study leader and Canada research chair in sustainable infrastructure Pedram Sadeghian said that Phase 1 of the study had demonstrated that gypsum could be a viable supplementary cementing material when combined with fly ash in concrete.

Sadeghain said “Our research group aims to study the durability of concrete containing recycled gypsum by monitoring compressive strength and potential expansion after exposure to selected environmental conditions, such as moisture and salt particle penetration, that are common to concrete structures exposed to the environment.”

Gypsum Association executive director Stephen Meima said “The gypsum industry is committed to landfill diversion of construction and demolition gypsum panel waste, and Professor Sadeghian’s work demonstrates that waste gypsum panels may have value beyond their service life in buildings and homes.”