Gypsum industry news

BNBM has announced two overseas gypsum wallboard plants since the start of 2022. In Early January 2022 the China-based producer said it was going to build a 40Mm²/yr plant in Thailand as part of a joint-venture with Sinoma International Engineering and its subsidiary Sinoma (Thailand). Notably the unit is also to be equipped with a decorative gypsum line. The estimated project investment is US$55m. Then, in February 2022 BNBM revealed plans to build a 40Mm²/yr gypsum wallboard plant in Bosnia & Herzegovina. This one is a joint venture with Rudnik i Termoelektrana Ugljevik (RiTE Ugljevik), a subsidiary of the local state-run power company. The project will be situated next to the coal-fired power plant at Ugljevik. No surprises then for what source of raw gypsum the wallboard plant is likely to be using! The estimated project cost is Euro50m.

These two projects join a pair of other plants the producer is also cooking up internationally. In mid-2019 it revealed new wallboard plants in Tanzania and Uzbekistan. The former is a 15Mm²/yr plant to be run via a subsidiary. It was reported to be in a construction phase in mid-2021. The latter is a 40Mm²/yr gypsum wallboard plant to be built in the Kokand Free Economic Zone, Fergana Region in Uzbekistan via a wholly-owned subsidiary. So far it is reportedly in the preparation stage. The company also has a number of wallboard plant projects in development at home in China, including plants currently being built at Shuozhou in Shanxi province and Yichang in Hubei province.

During the first half of 2021, BNBM’s operating income rose by 46% year-on-year to US$1.59bn from US$1.09bn. 65% of this was generated from its gypsum wallboard business sales. Overall, parent company CNBM reported gypsum wallboard sales of 2.01Bm2 in 2020 from BNBM and Taishan Gypsum.

A subsidiary of CNBM building production capacity outside of China will sound familiar to those readers who follow the cement industry. The industry has been using the Belt and Road Initiative to move redundant domestic capacity abroad as the local market has become saturated and environmental measures bite. Chinese cement production capacity per capita has seemed extraordinarily high by international norms over the last 20 years. Yet, gypsum wallboard production capacity per capita is a wildly different story. Global Gypsum Directory 2021 data suggests that the US had a rate of 12.7m²/capita compared to 2.4m²/capita in China.

With this in mind it makes one wonder why BNBM is bothering internationally given the market scope at home as China meets its climate commitments. As the move by some western multinational building material companies over the last year or so suggests, the future may lie in light building materials. On the other hand BNBM/CNBM may simply have its eye on the bigger picture. Just like its international competitors, it doesn’t want to miss out on the opportunity for market enlargement or being left behind if the ratio between heavy and light building materials switches. If it really means business, then the next steps could be wallboard plants in Western Europe or even the US. A US-based joint-venture for BNBM might help to make everyone forget the unending legal debacle with Taishan’s imports.

Bosnia & Herzegovina: China-based BNBM plans to build a 40Mm²/yr gypsum wallboard plant in a joint venture with Rudnik i Termoelektrana Ugljevik (RiTE Ugljevik). The new company will be called BNBM Eastern Europe and based at Ugljevik, where RiTE Ugljevik operates the coal-fired Ugljevik Power Plant. The project has an investment of Euro50m with BNBM contributing Euro45m towards the total. Construction is expected to take 18 months, although a start date is subject to the joint-venture meeting certain conditions to the satisfaction of its parent companies. RiTE Ugljevik is a subsidiary of the state-owned power company Elektroprivreda.

Switzerland: Sika’s sales grew by 17.3% year-on-year to Euro8.96bn in 2021 despite the Covid-19 pandemic and procurement delays for raw materials. Sales increased in all regions with notable growth reported in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, the UK, the US, Latin America and China. The group said that in the Americas a strategic focus on business activities in metropolitan areas, major infrastructure projects and cross-selling helped it. Sika is also currently in the process of buying MBCC Group, a construction chemicals suppler previously known as BASF Construction Chemicals, for Euro2.8bn.

"2021 was expected to be a challenging year and it proved to be a very successful one for Sika. We are benefiting from a number of growth platforms and are in an ideal position to achieve long-term success,” said chief executive officer Thomas Hasler. “We have solutions in place for all the development stages of construction markets, and government supported investment programs running into the billions will provide further impetus for our business.

India: The government has imposed an anti-dumping duty on imports of calcined gypsum from China, Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The Press Trust of India newspaper has reported that the duty will remain in place for the duration of the five-year period ending on 31 December 2026. The Commerce Ministry said that the duty’s aim is to guard local suppliers against the impacts of below-cost imports in accordance with World Trade Organisation (WTO) regulations.

China: Financial analyst Jefferies has estimated that Chinese gypsum wallboard sales will retain their current strength despite a property sector crash following the collapse of developer China Evergrande. Dow Jones has reported that the analyst rated the gypsum wallboard industry as 20 - 30% exposed to effects in the property market. It contrasted this with other building materials such as float glass and coatings which are 50 - 70% exposed to the present fallout.

China: Sales revenue from China National Building Materials’ (CNBM) new materials business grew by 28% year-on-year to US$3.36bn in the first half of 2021 from US$2.63bn in the first half of 2020. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) from the segment, which includes gypsum producers BNBM and Taishan Gypsum, rose by 66% to US$873m from US527m. The gypsum wallboard producers reported a combined sales volume increase of 41% to 1.12Bnm² from 0.79Bnm_². The group said that BNBM had also been working on the development of the first domestic automatic edge keel packaging machine for a ‘super large’ production line of gypsum wallboard with an output of 120Mm²/yr.

Overall across all business lines the group’s revenue grew by 14% to US$18.9bn from US$16.5bn in the same period in 2020. Adjusted EBITDA rose by 13% to US$3.98bn from US$3.51bn. Total revenue benefitted from particular gains from its New Materials and Engineering businesses.

China: Rui Silicone subsidiary Ruijiang has commissioned a new methyl hydrogen silicone oil RJ-202 plant in China following completion of a successful test run on 10 February 2021. The plant will supply the gypsum wallboard industry with methyl hydrogen silicone oil for use as a waterproofing additive. It will also produce hexamethyldisilazane RJ-HMDZ, hexamethyldisiloxane RJ-MM, heptamethyltrisiloxane RJ-HMTS and some other modified silicone oils.

China: France-based Saint-Gobain plans to establish ten gypsum wallboard plants under the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s 14^th five-year plan. China Daily News has reported that the move aims to ramp up production capacity in order to meet growing gypsum wallboard demand. In 2021 building materials company intends to open two more units to produce calcined gypsum in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province and Huzhou, Zhejiang Province respectively.

Asia-Pacific regional senior vice-president and chief executive officer (CEO) Javier Gimeno said, “China has recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic in an exceptional manner. We have seen the quick recovery of the Chinese economy and the many industries that we serve. In our segment, the Asia-Pacific region has remained largely positive in the third quarter, driven by the continued strong demand in China." He added, “Our business growth in China is linked with the development of the Chinese society and the growth of China's middle-income earners, who are more demanding in terms of quality and performance of products.”

France: Saint-Gobain’s says its sales for June 2020 rose by 3.7% on a like-for-like basis as markets recovered from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Its sales fell by 12.3% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis to Euro17.8bn in the first half of 2020 from Euro21.7bn in the same period in 2019. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) decreased by 32.4% to Euro1.64bn from Euro2.42bn.

“In a macroeconomic and health environment which remains affected by uncertainties, our earnings growth in June and outlook for the third quarter suggest that our operating income for second-half 2020 will improve significantly on first-half 2020,” said Pierre-André de Chalendar, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Saint-Gobain. He added that the group’s portfolio of products, including those in energy-efficiency and renovation markets, positioned it to benefit from national and European stimulus plans supporting energy saving initiatives.

The group noted a 19.2% year-on-year sales decrease in the second quarter of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, with very different situations between countries and markets. Most of its business segments reported growth in June 2020 with the exception of Asia-Pacific, where the Indian market held the division back. Gypsum sales helped deliver ‘robust growth’ in the US and Canada in June 2020. Strong growth in gypsum was reported in Brazil for the first half of 2020. Chinese sales in gypsum benefitted in the second quarter of 2020 from a new plaster plant, which originally opened in 2019, reaching full production capacity. The group’s High Performance Solutions division reported positive trends from its external thermal insulation solutions (ETICS) products in the second quarter of 2020.

France: Saint-Gobain says that its overall group activity fell to 60% of 2019 levels in April 2020 due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Since then its level of activity surpassed 80% ‘at comparable working days, with large variations by market and country,’ according to Regulatory News Service. The group expects a ‘challenging’ second quarter 2020 before a recovery in the second half of the year. It continues to preserve cash and reduce costs.

In Europe the group reported that, by the end of May 2020, Nordic countries had almost reached 2019 levels. Germany and Eastern Europe were still seeing activity levels below those of 2019. The UK has seen activity levels progress by around 10%/week since a low point in mid-April 2020 when activity were at a ‘virtual standstill’, reaching around 70% of 2019 levels in the last week of May 2020.

In the group’s Middle East & Africa region activity levels surpassed 50% of 2019 levels since a low in mid-April 2020. In France, activity in distribution came close to the 2019 level in the last week of May 2020, but with big differences by region and brand. Spain and Italy are picking up gradually, but remain below the average level of the region. The Netherlands remains close to a normal level of activity, while the Middle East and Africa remain impacted to varying degrees.

North America has reported a ‘contrasting situation state by state,’ but has shown improvement since the low point of mid-April 2020. Activity in May 2020 moved closer to 2019 levels due to ‘significant’ volumes in exterior solutions and a rebound in gypsum volumes. In Latin America, despite the health situation remaining difficult, activity is picking up week after week, from 40% in mid-April 2020 to around 80% in May 2020 with a ramp-up in Brazil.

In Asia-Pacific sales have now reached 2019 levels following the gradual restart of all its production sites in China in March 2020. India remains ‘severely’ disrupted with the restart dependent on the relaxing of confinement measures. The situation is varied across South-East Asia with a rebound in Vietnam where activity has surpassed 2019 levels, but disruptions still relatively significant in Thailand and neighbouring countries.