Gypsum industry news

Indonesia: PT Saint-Gobain Construction Products Indonesia (SGCPI), a subsidiary of Saint-Gobain Group, has invested approximately US$45m in the construction of a gypsum wallboard plant within the Cikande industrial estate in Serang, Banten. The 33Mm²/yr capacity plant, which is located on a 60,000m² plot of land, will be officially opened on 28 October 2014 after 18 months of construction.

According to Edward Loy, SGCPI's managing director for Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, production will start in November 2014 and the plant is expected to operate at full capacity by the end of 2015. Loy said that the plant was a first for the firm's industrial mortars division in Indonesia, hinting that there would be more investments to come from its glass and abrasives production in the near future.

"We want to position ourselves as strategic investors in Indonesia and we have more investments coming through in the next few years as well," said Loy.

With the opening of the plant, Loy suggested that the company would become more efficient in terms of pricing. "The opening of the plant will allow us to position ourselves as a local player in the market, so even though we started in 2007 with imports, it wasn't competitive. Now we'll have no more freight charges or shipping and handling," said Loy. In spite of his optimism, the regional managing director acknowledged that his firm would need to face the challenge of competing against cheaper, readily available yet unsustainable construction materials like asbestos and sand bricks.

"We can't compete with clay and sand bricks when the labour is still very cheap, but we can make sure the price difference is small and they are not offering the same kind of quality that we are," said Loy. "We'll deliver quality and performance to the homeowner." According to him, three factors will be decisive in driving the adoption of SGCPI's Gyproc brand of gypsum boards in the country; rising labour costs, knowledgeable consumers and the shift toward using green and sustainable construction materials.

Loy said that around 40-45% of the firm's business would be in the residential sector, while the rest of his clients would come from the commercial and public sectors, catering to spaces such as shopping malls, airports and hospitals.

Indonesia: Vanguard Mining Corporation has agreed with Yupolo Resources to buy 80% equity interest in the cement plant and to co-develop a 3.5km² gypsum and limestone mine in Nusa Tenggara Timur, Indonesia. It is expected that the gypsum deposits will be in excess of 30Mt, while the limestone deposits are approximately 400Mt. The proposed mining concession is 4km away from the newly-expanded Menanga Sea Port. The companies plan to develop the concession in four stages.

Indonesia: Vanguard Mining Corporation (VNMC) has declared that it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to purchase an 80% equity interest in Yupolo Resources in exchange for a combination of cash and stock.

VNMC and Yupolo Resources will co-develop a 35km2 gypsum and limestone concession in Nusa Tenggara Timur, Indonesia. The mine is 4km from the newly-expanded Menanga Sea Port. The gypsum deposits at the concession are of high quality (purity of 85 - 95%) and estimated to be in excess of 30Mt, while the limestone deposits are about 400Mt.

The two companies plan to establish the concession in four stages: Stage 1 includes the gypsum and limestone mining to produce up to 2Mt/yr of gypsum and limestone by the second year of production. Products will be sold to local markets and exports, for which Yupolo Resources already has committed buyers. Stage 2 will consist of the construction of a 2.5Mt/yr capacity clinker plant. The clinker would be supplied to cement plants in the local region. Stage 3 involves the construction of a mini cement plant with 0.1Mt/yr of production capacity. Cement consumption in the surrounding areas is more than 3Mt/yr and has a double-digit growth rate. Stage 4 includes the construction of an integrated 1.2Mt/yr capacity cement plant.

Choky Simanjuntak, chairman and CEO of Yupolo Resources, said "We are pleased to cooperate with Vanguard Mining Corporation to develop this concession and are confident that our products will be able to meet part of the growing demand of gypsum, limestone, clinker and cement for the domestic, as well as the export markets."

Indonesia: Saint-Gobain has announced that it will soon start building a 30Mm2/yr plasterboard plant near Jakarta. The project is estimated at Euro35m and it is the building materials manufacturer's first wallboard plant in Indonesia. It is intended to strengthen Saint-Gobain Gypsum's presence in Southeast Asia, where it currently operates four plants in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Indonesia: Indonesia's largest producer of gypsum PT Petrojaya Boral Plasterboard (Jayaboard) is building a new gypsum board factory in Cilegon, Banten with a production capacity of 30MM²/yr. The project is estimated to cost US$25m and it will expand the capacity of the company to 65MM²/yr.

Construction of the project is already underway and it is to be completed in 2013 said Kil-Joo Lee, the president of the Boral subsidiary.

Vietnam/Indonesia: Lafarge Boral Gypsum Asia, soon to be wholly-owned by Boral, has awarded a new contract to Claudius Peters Projects GmbH Germany for two gypsum calcining lines with a capacity of up to 30t/h to expand its gypsum wallboard production in Asia.

In Vietnam a fully-integrated line will be installed at the site of Lafarge Boral Vietnam Gypsum Co. Ltd near Ho Chi Minh City, extending the capacity of the current wallboard production line. The second line will be installed in Indonesia and will be part of an extension programme of the Cilegon installation of PT Petrojaya Boral Plasterboard.

Both of the lines consist of a Claudius Peters Mill EM59-585 along with the auxiliary equipment and controls of a complete raw material handling, gypsum calcining and cooling system.