Gypsum industry news

Brazil: Trevo Drywall has named Wilson Soares as its new CEO. In the role, Soares will be responsible for leading the US$25m expansion of the group’s 16Mm²/yr Juazeiro do Norte gypsum wallboard plant. The unit’s capacity will increase to 30Mm²/yr by 2026. The company subsequently plans to build a second plant.

Prior to joining Trevo Drywall, Soares served as general director of packaging producer Smurfit Westrock and industrial director of its Brazil-based subsidiary WestRock Brazil. His 29-year career also includes positions at food producer Danone and beverages producer Ambev. Soares holds a Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) from Fundação Dom Cabral and a degree in mechanical engineering from Rio de Janeiro State University.

Spain: Aminsa says that it will resume mining at its Villanasur Río de Oca gypsum quarry in Castile and León later in 2025. Local press has reported that the move aims to meet increased demand from Ireland-based James Hardie’s nearby Orejo fibre gypsum panel plant, which is undergoing an expansion.

Brazil: Trevo Drywall plans to invest US$25m in an expansion to its Juazeiro do Norte gypsum wallboard plant, scheduled for commissioning in 2025. This will initially raise the plant's capacity to 20Mm²/yr, and subsequently to 30Mm² by 2026. The expanded plant will be equipped with a new enterprise resource planning system to assist with the increased automation of its operations. Trevo Drywall also plans to build a second plant, the location of which is subject to on-going evaluations.

Chief financial officer Gabriel Rodrigues Granja de Alencar said "We will also strengthen compliance tools and soon announce the creation of a people development programme."

China: Grenzebach BSH, a leading global supplier of process and production technologies, has received a ‘significant’ order from XINFA Group for the supply of two gypsum wallboard lines to XINFA’s existing production plant at its headquarters in Chiping-Liaocheng, Shandong Province. XINFA, one of the world’s leading aluminium manufacturers, will expand its gypsum wallboard production capacity to approximately 830,000m²/day (273Mm²/yr). This will make its plant the world’s largest, and is the second time that XINFA has relied on Grenzebach’s expertise.

XINFA Group runs its own coal-fired power plants to cover the high electricity requirements of its aluminium plants. Flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) gypsum is produced during the purification of the exhaust gases. Using Grenzebach equipment, XINFA has been able to recycle this gypsum to produce gypsum wallboard since 2021.

Robert Brier, CEO of Grenzebach BSH, said “The project demonstrates how close we are to our customers and our competitiveness, as well as our innovative strength in supplying manufacturing plants with a focus on sustainability aspects. By recycling the FGD gypsum, we are supporting our customer’s circular economy, while at the same time using the electricity generated and the waste heat from the power plants to operate the gypsum dryers and systems.”

Australia: Saint-Gobain subsidiary CSR plans to expand its Welshpool gypsum wallboard plant in Western Australia. The producer plans to upgrade the plant’s production line and expand warehouses that serve it and the neighbouring Bradford building materials plant. CSR said that the upgrade to the Welshpool wallboard plant will reduce its consumption of natural gas and electricity and facilitate its transition to alternative fuels or electricity.

CEO Paul Dalton said "This significant investment will make Welshpool safer and more sustainable, increase capacity and improve productivity and cost efficiency, all while removing risk from our supply chain.”

Romania: Saint-Gobain Romania has inaugurated a new line at its Turda gypsum wallboard plant in Cluj County. Romania-Insider News has reported that the line cost €50m. The company had previously announced anticipated total investments €45m. All gypsum wallboard produced in the line will come with environmental product declarations (EPDs). Saint-Gobain Romania will employ an additional 100 people to work on the line, raising its total number of employees by 5% to 2000 people across 14 sites.

Saint-Gobain Romania CEO Ovidiu Pascutiu said "This new line, operating at optimal parameters, marks a significant step towards enhancing our production efficiency and expanding our product range to better serve our growing customer base."

Saudi Arabia: Canada-based Gyptech has won a contract to carry out an expansion project at a gypsum wallboard plant belonging to United Mining Industries. The project is scheduled to conclude 18 months after its commencement date. Reuters has reported the value of the contract as Euro12.3m.

Grenzebach said earlier this month that it is going to invest around Euro2m on growing its presence in Pune. The current sales and service branch will be merged with a new production site in the city in Maharashtra. The site will be used for the assembly of conveyor equipment and welding work for dryers and lehr ovens for the glass industry. Production at the new unit is expected to start in October 2023 and it will create around 30 new jobs.

The decision by the Germany-based equipment supplier to expand in India follows Saint-Gobain’s expansion plans in India. It said in late 2022 that it was planning to spend US$215m towards capacity expansion plans in 2023 as part of a larger investment in the region, of US$970m between 2022 and 2025. Its stated aim for the new investment is to grow its revenue to US$4.4bn in 2032 from US$1.5bn in 2022. To break this down, half of the group’s turnover in India comes at present from glass-related businesses, 30% from gypsum and construction chemicals and the rest from abrasives, ceramics and life sciences. Some examples of this planned investment include the acquisition by Saint-Gobain of Rockwool India, a stone wool manufacturer, in February 2023 and an agreement to buy UP Twiga Fiberglass, a glass wool producer. Saint-Gobain is the biggest gypsum wallboard producer by capacity in India with four plants, followed by USGKnauf, which runs two plants, and various independent producers.

Growing the wallboard market in India has long seemed like an enticing prospect given the country’s demographics, low production capacity per capita compared to Europe and North America, and sustainability trends. However, despite all of this, it is taking a long time to get there. One commentator on LinkedIn has suggested that this may be down to reticence from the construction sector to adopt the product. In his view wallboard in India has mainly been used for ceilings and for commercial and industrial applications but not for residential projects. Producers, such as Saint-Gobain are likely to be well aware of this. So it is interesting to note that two projects in India picked up awards in Saint-Gobain’s International Gypsum Trophy in 2023.

On the crude gypsum side, data from the Indian Bureau of Mines and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) show that India produced an estimated 4.3Mt of gypsum from its mines from reserves of 37Mt. These reserves are far smaller than other countries with large populations such as China, the US, Brazil or Türkiye. The country also produced an estimated 2.1Mt of flue gas desulfurisation (FGD) gypsum in the 2023 – 2023 financial year. However, the Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA) estimates that its sector used 13 – 17Mt in 2020 – 2021 when cement production was 331Mt and that this is forecast to rise to 20 – 25Mt in 2024 – 2025 when cement production reaches 491Mt. This corresponds to the 4 – 5% of gypsum that it is added to clinker when grinding it to manufacture ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and other cement types.

In acknowledgment of this gap between mining and usage, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) started promoting recycling gypsum from fertiliser production and power plants in May 2023. So far, its main focus has been on improving access to phosphogypsum stockpiles, although the target for FGD production is an ambitious 9.9Mt by 2025 – 2026. Unsurprisingly, gypsum exporters have benefitted from this situation. Oman, reportedly, exported nearly 5Mt of gypsum to India in 2022. Historically, Thailand and Iran have also supplied the Indian market with gypsum.

India remains the great maybe for wallboard adoption outside of North America and Europe. The latest round of investment by Saint-Gobain and Grenzebach may yet deliver on this. Both companies are looking at a range of light materials including glass and insulation not just wallboard. So far though, the main merger and acquisition activity by Saint-Gobain has been targeted on insulation companies. Once or if Saint-Gobain or anyone else starts buying gypsum companies or building new plants then we will have a sense that something is changing. Alongside this, the DPIIT’s plans to recycle more gypsum may help bring further attention to the local gypsum sector.

US: CertainTeed plans to invest US$235m in an expansion to its 84Mm²/yr Palatka gypsum wallboard plant in Florida. The La Tribune newspaper has reported that the Saint-Gobain subsidiary will install a second production line to double the plant’s capacity. The company will also carry out work to increase the plant’s energy efficiency.

Tanzania: Knauf Gypsum Tanzania says that it plans to more than double the production capacity of its 15Mm²/yr gypsum wallboard plant in Mkuranga, Pwani Region, to 43Mm²/yr. IPP Media News has reported that the company's planned investment in the project as US$49.3m. The producer expects that the expanded Mkuranga gypsum wallboard plant will increase its annual gypsum wallboard exports by 170%. When commissioned in 2025, the plant will be the largest in East and Sub-Saharan Africa.