Gypsum industry news

Germany: Rigips has inaugurated its first gypsum recycling plant at Gelsenkirchen in North Rhine-Westphalia. The subsidiary of Saint-Gobain will recycle gypsum with New West Gypsum Recycling Germany. Waste material from buildings from the Rhine-Ruhr region and the northern part of Rhineland-Palatinate will be sent to a reprocessing site operated by New West Gypsum first before being despatched to the Rigips plant where it will be returned to the production process. Rigips intends to open more gypsum recycling plants following the start-up process of its new unit.

"With the start of the plant, Rigips assumes a pioneering role for the entire drywall construction industry. As the first manufacturer, we in North Rhine-Westphalia are now able to implement the idea 'from gypsum to gypsum'. Thus we cover the complete product service life cycle, from the raw material extraction via the production and installation to the demolition and the recycling," said Werner Hansmann, chairman of the management at Rigips.

Germany: Hamburger Containerboard has restarted production at its Gelsenkirchen plasterboard plant following a Euro20m upgrade project. The plant can now produce 0.25Mt/yr of uncoated containerboard, an increase of 20% from previously. During a three week shutdown the production width was widened to 5m and the film press and drying section were updated. In addition, a new pope reeler for wider tambour diameters and an upgraded soft-nip-calander were installed.

"With the restart at the start of the year we are happy to be online with probably one of the most efficient machines in the market again," said Andreas Noss, general manager of Hamburger Rieger.

Hamburger Rieger, with its three German paper mills in Spremberg, Gelsenkirchen and Trostberg is part of the Hamburger Containerboard Division with a total of seven paper mills and 2Mt/yr of produced container board. The Gelsenkirchen plant produces white testliner and grey plasterboard liner.

Germany: Gebr Pfeiffer will build a MPS 160 B vertical roller mill at the Siniat Hartershofen gypsum wallboard plant. The mill will replace the existing Pfeiffer MPS 125 A at the site. The new mill will be set up in an annex next to the old grinding plant and the majority of the existing equipment will be reused.

The scope of services comprises delivery of the mill, adjusting equipment including a hot gas generator, process ducting, electrics, buildings and foundations, including installation and connection works as well as integration into the existing process. Switch-over and commissioning of the grinding plant is planned for December 2016.

Germany: Canada-based New West Gypsum Recycling (NWGR) has announced that it will invest in a new gypsum recycling facility in Hürth / Cologne, Germany. NWGR, together, with its local joint venture partner Schulz Baustoffe GmbH, will build a state-of-the-art plant with a gypsum recycling capacity of 90,000t/yr. It will begin operations in January 2017.

NWGR says that the plant location allows easy access to the main industrial areas of Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund and the south west of the Netherlands. It adds that the new plant will 'set the new standard in recycled gypsum, unmatched particle size and paper content, combined with the highest care for safety and the environment.'

100% of the recycled gypsum produced by the plant will be used in the production of gypsum wallboard in the Rigips plant in Scholven, Germany.

Germany: The European Commission has approved Euro33m investment aid to Hamburger Rieger. It designated the aid as being in line with European Union (EU) state aid rules, in particular the Guidelines on Regional State Aid for 2014 -2020, because it furthers regional development without unduly distorting competition in the single market. The German producer of paper and plasterboard liner has plans to invest Euro363m to upgrade its paper production capacity by setting up a new stock preparation process and building an additional paper machine in its plant in Spremberg.

"It's important that public investments foster economic growth in disadvantaged regions in Europe. We have carefully assessed the project. The investment aid to Hamburger Rieger will further develop the region without distorting competition and will help bringing truly innovative production processes to market," said EU Commissioner in charge of competition policy Margrethe Vestager.

Germany: Jochen Fabritius has been appointed with shareholder approval as the new CEO of the Xella Group with effect from 1 March 2016. Fabritius has been on the management board of the Xella Group since 1 November 2014 in his role as Chief Operation Officer (COO). He will remain COO and also retain responsibility for the technology division in his new role.

Fabritius succeeds Jan Buck-Emden, who left the company in October 2015. Since then, the company has been jointly managed by Dr Jochen Fabritius and CFO Jürgen Wiecha.

The Xella Group produces and markets building materials, gypsum fibreboards and cement-bonded and fire protection boards and lime. In 2014 Xella generated sales of approximately Euor1.27bn with a workforce of 6686. The company is indirectly owned by private equity companies PAI Partners and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners.

Colombia/Germany: Knauf International GmbH has announced that a definitive agreement has been signed with Gyptec, a Colombian wallboard producer, to acquire the assets of the company. As well as in Colombia, Gyptec has interests in Venezuela, Ecuador and Central America. The transaction also includes Hanetec, a supplier of building products associated with wallboards.

Serge Azaïs, member of the Knauf Management Committee in charge of South America, said, "It is a very significant move for our group to be part of the development of the northern part of South America, after our industrial presence for 15 years in Brazil and Argentina. We are extremely confident of the potential of this zone. We will very shortly increase capacity in order to deliver to Central America and the Caribbean countries from the facility in Cartagena. We look forward to welcoming the Colombian team into the Knauf family."

Germany: Schenck has launched the AccuRate DMO Weighfeeder, which is suitable for weighing and feeding up to 500t/hr. According to Schenck, it is the perfect solution for a variety of heavy-duty industrial applications.

The drive system, with reducer and motor, are all directly mounted on the head pulley shaft reducing the need for alignments and maintenance. At the heart of the DMO is a direct multi-cell weighing system that does not use levers or counterbalance weights. This reduces any chance of error during the weighing process. The DMO comes in standard belt widths of 70 – 137cm with feed rate accuracies of ±0.5% over a 10:1 range. These rates are achievable in a range of material particle sizes up to 10cm lumps.

Germany: Wacker, the German chemical company, has reorganised its distribution network for silicone and polymer products in central and eastern Europe.

As part of a regional optimisation process, the existing partners IMCD, Euro-Him-1, Hellermann, Radka, Revada and Variachem will be entrusted with the distribution of Wacker's product range for silicones and polymers. Effective from 1 July 2014, these partners will replace the previous distribution partner Brenntag CEE.

IMCD, Euro-Him-1, Hellermann, Radka, Revada and Variachem already distribute products from the group's silicones and polymers portfolio in different regions. As part of the reorganisation of the distribution network in central and eastern Europe, Wacker is further extending these partnerships.