Gypsum industry news

India: JSW Group subsidiary JSW Infrastructure has entered a concession agreement with VO Chidambaranar Port Authority to develop a new berth at VO Chidambaranar Port on a design, build, finance, operate, and transfer basis. The Hindu newspaper has reported that the company plans to commission the 7Mt/yr Berth III for the export of bulk minerals, including gypsum.

JSW Infrastructure "The asset provides access to the rich hinterland with a diverse cargo profile including coal, limestone, gypsum and rock phosphate."

US: US gypsum wallboard sales grew by 1% year-on-year to 628Mm² during the first quarter of 2024. The country imported 20.1Mm² of gypsum wallboard, down by 13% year-on-year. Mexico supplied 19.3Mm² (96%) and Canada 800,000m² (4%) of imports. Meanwhile, the US exported 19.1Mm² of gypsum wallboard during the quarter, 18Mm² (94%) of it to Canada.

Turkmenistan: Ak Bulut despatched its first shipment of gypsum wallboard to Georgia on 2 April 2024. Trend News has reported that Ak Bulut says that the market entry signals the innovation of the Turkmen building materials sector. The producer commissioned its 4Mm²/yr Dostluk gypsum wallboard plant in December 2023.

Brunei Darussalam/Indonesia: Siam-Indo Gypsum Industry delivered a shipment of gypsum products to Brunei Darussalam earlier in March 2024. The Borneo Bulletin newspaper has reported that the shipment will contribute materials for a 1000-unit housing development in country.

Importer VSL Systems reported that Indonesia's exports to Brunei Darussalam increased consistently year-on-year every year between 2018 and 2022.

US: National consumption of gypsum wallboard dropped by 4.3% year-on-year to 2.51Mm² in 2023, according to United States Geological Survey (USGS) data. Demand for natural gypsum was 45Mt, up by 3% from 43.7Mt in 2022. The market imported 8.1Mt of gypsum throughout the year, up by 18% year-on-year.

Domestic production of crude gypsum in the US dropped by 1.3% year-on-year in 2023, to 22Mt. Exports grew by 15% to 45,000t.

Morocco: Compagnie Marocaine de Plâtre et d’Enduit (CMPE), a joint venture of Knauf and Groupe Safari Maroc, has announced plans for a new gypsum wallboard production facility in Sidi-Tiji, Marrakech–Asfi Region. CMPE expects that the plant will generate 100 direct and over 500 indirect jobs.

Groupe Safari Maroc CEO Saïda Lamrani Karim and Knauf general partner Jörg Kampmeyer said "Our investment decision in a new plasterboard plant shows our trust in the growth of the Moroccan market and will strengthen the leading position of CMPE.” They added “This investment aligns with the Moroccan government's guidance to reduce imports and develop a competitive local industry of excellence. With our new production, we will supply the Moroccan market and export to Sub-Saharan markets."

Oman: Oman exported 11.2Mt of natural gypsum from its Port of Salalah in 2023, up by 11% year-on-year from 9.9Mt in 2022. Zawawi Minerals has reported that the main destination for exports was India, which received 5.3Mt (47%) of Oman’s exported gypsum for the year. Oman is reportedly the source of 90% of India’s gypsum imports.

India: The government has implemented new duties on imports of gypsum wallboard from China and Oman. Importers will pay US$23.46 – 47.62/t on Chinese gypsum wallboard and US$71.80 – 91.42/t on Omani gypsum wallboard. The Hindu newspaper has reported that precise rates will depend upon the producer of the wallboard.

Turkmenistan: Ak Bulut has inaugurated its 4Mm²/yr Dostluk gypsum wallboard plant in the Koytendag District of Lebap Region. Trend News has reported that the plant partly runs on solar power, and also produces 50,000t/yr of dry building mixes. Ak Bulut says that it sources the plant's natural gypsum from Koytendag District, and markets its products domestically and in Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Uzbekistan.

Securing sustainable energy sources has been the priority for some of Spain’s gypsum wallboard producers in recent weeks.

In late November 2023 Pladur revealed that it plans to use green hydrogen at its production plants from the second half of 2024 onwards. It will start at its Valdemoro plant near Madrid before rolling usage out elsewhere afterwards. The subsidiary of Belgium-based Etex is also considering trials with biomethane and biogas. Then a few weeks later in early December 2023 Knauf Ibérica announced that it is planning to build a 7.5MW biomass unit at its Guixers plant in Lleida. Commissioning is currently scheduled for late 2024. This follows the installation of solar panels at the site earlier in 2023. Along similar lines, Saint-Gobain Placo signed an 11-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with electricity company Endesa at the end of 2022 to supply 150GWh/yr of renewable energy. Together with a previous renewable energy deal this was expected to cover up to 65% of the group’s electricity requirements in Spain.

Wallboard plants all over the world have been embarking on sustainable energy drives in recent years but the particular drivers in Spain are worth mentioning. The country’s high electricity prices have frequently been raised by large-scale industrial users in the past, often in terms of competitiveness of exports. However, the situation worsened following the start of the war in Ukraine in early 2022 as the wholesale price of coal and gas jumped. The high price of gas in particular pushed the electricity prices up in Spain and wallboard plants typically use both sources of energy. The government eventually capped the price of gas and coal for power generation. It then offered an aid scheme for large-scale gas users but missed the gypsum sector out, much to the chagrin of the Asociación Técnica y Empresarial del Yeso (ATEDY), which complained about it at the end of 2022. The gypsum industry was later included in July 2023 when a funding scheme was announced. It’s unknown how much this initiative has helped wallboard manufacturers but the shift to renewables by the three main companies mentioned above tells its own story.

Despite the energy supply problems a new entrant to the wallboard market in Spain announced itself in March 2023. Italy-based Fassa Bortolo said it was going to spend Euro90m on building a wallboard plant at Tarancón in Cuenca. No commissioning date or main supplier name has been disclosed, but Italy-based Bedeschi did say in late November 2023 that it was providing raw bulk material handling equipment including an apron feeder, stacker, excavator and conveyor belt line. There has also been no word on how the new plant will power itself.

On the topic of exports, Spain has long been one of the world’s larger shippers of natural gypsum. Data from the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (IGME) shows that the country exported 9.2Mt of gypsum in 2021 with a value of Euro60m. Whether this changed in 2022 when the energy prices increased is unknown at the time of writing. In 2021 Almería was the epicentre of the country, accounting for 70% of the 13Mt total volume of gypsum extracted that year with a quarry at Sorbas, operated by Saint-Gobain Placo, reportedly being the second largest in the world. Most of the gypsum extracted at Sorbas was then driven by truck to the Port of Garrucha, making it the busiest gypsum port in Europe by volume.

Eurogypsum, the European federation of national associations of producers of gypsum products, launched its industry roadmap to net-zero by 2050 on 9 November 2023 at the Global Gypsum Conference 2023, which took place in Chicago, US. Various actions and technologies were unveiled as part of the plan including some of the approaches being taken in Spain such as using ‘green’ electricity, biomass and green hydrogen. All of these suggestions were split into short, mid and final term feasibility categories. So, for example, using renewable sourced electricity is dependent on it being affordable and available. It was placed in the immediate category. Yet, using biofuels or green hydrogen is flagged as requiring investment, so deemed as short-to-mid term.

Spain presents a case where the cost of energy for industrial users may be aligning with sustainability goals. How this translates onto balance sheets remains to be seen though. These kinds of sustainable energy projects may only be slowing the inevitable as raw material and energy costs mount anyway leading to tighter margins, increased competition and potential consolidation. The gypsum sector in Spain may well be testing out slightly earlier than elsewhere how much a more sustainable world will actually cost.