Gypsum industry news

UK: Etex Building Performance recycled 14% its Siniat gypsum wallboard products in 2019, a UK gypsum wallboard recycling record. The company says that the figure exceeds both the UK average of 8% in 2019 and the industry target of 10% in 2020. It attributed the achievement to its “substantial investments in operational improvements to reuse waste gypsum, which can also be recycled.”

The improvements consisted of an upgrade to gypsum wallboard production at the company’s Ferrybridge plant in West Yorkshire and the addition of a new recycling facility at the site. Its planned new gypsum wallboard plant in Bristol will be able to produce wallboard using a higher proportion of recycled gypsum and source part of its water intake from rain. The producer has additionally secured a dedicated supply of post-consumer gypsum from construction sites across England and Wales via its subsidiary Crucible Gypsum Recycling. It said it decided to form the subsidiary after taking part in the European Commission’s Gypsum to Gypsum research project, which “showed the importance of controlling the quality of post-consumer material and re-orientating the industry for the recovery of waste at the end of a building's lifecycle.”

Head of environment and sustainability Steve Hemmings said, "Recovering waste gypsum makes business as well as environmental sense. The plasterboard industry traditionally relied on quarried gypsum or desulphurised gypsum – the latter is becoming less available as the UK switches to alternative energy sources. Recycling offers a greener future for construction, but it requires investment and coordination across the supply chain. We're investing early to make sure we have the capability and capacity to continue leading the UK's gypsum wallboard sector and to provide more sustainable solutions for our clients.”

US: Georgia-Pacific has begun construction of a 65Mm²/yr gypsum wallboard plant adjacent to its existing 30Mm²/yr Sweetwater gypsum wallboard plant in Nolan County, Texas. The company says that the plant will start production in late 2022, following a total investment of US$285m and it will employ 120 people.

President Brent Paugh said, “The demand for our diverse gypsum products continues to be strong, especially in Texas. By having two production lines in Nolan County, Georgia-Pacific can strengthen its capacity to meet our growing customer needs in Texas’ residential, commercial and industrial construction.”

Romania: Etex has proposed investing Euro6m at the Rovinari thermal power plant run by Oltenia Energy in order to secure supplies of flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) gypsum for its Turceni wallboard plant. It wants to build a desulphurisation unit at the power plant following falling energy production at the Turceni power plant, according to Economica. Etex is currently in negotiation with Oltenia Energy over the proposal.

France: Building Material Group (BMG) plans to build a 30Mm²/yr gypsum wallboard plant in Marseille. It has signed a lease with the port of Marseille Fos for a six-hectare plot of land at Caban, Fos-sur-Mer. The project has a budget to Euro60m and construction will start in 2020. Commissioning is scheduled for late 2022.

Canada: CertainTeed Canada plans to close its McAdam gypsum wallboard plant in New Brunswick by the end of February 2021. It said that the decision was made after ‘an extensive review of our business,’ according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). 50 employees are expected to lose their jobs, although the subsidiary of France-based Saint-Gobain says it will try to find roles at other CertainTeed and Saint-Gobain plants for them.
Production will stop at the unit at the end of August 2020. The plant will then continue using inventory until February 2021 with a skeleton staff. The plant was reported to be operating at 22 – 25% production capacity. The closure has been blamed on a decline for wallboard products in the Atlantic Canada region and elsewhere.

UK: Matt Pullen, the managing director of British Gypsum, says that the company intends to loosen restrictions on wallboard sales in August 2020. “Whilst we continue to see high levels of demand, we have sufficient capacity to supply your wallboard requirements without formal supply restrictions,” said Pullen. He added that the company’s plaster manufacturing plants continue to, ‘operate consistently at maximum capability.’

Gypsum plaster-based products have been in short supply in the UK since the local coronavirus-related lockdown started in March 2020. The subsidiary of Saint-Gobain suspended operations in April 2020 and Knauf stopped production at its wallboard plants in the UK at the end of March 2020. British Gypsum reported in late May 2020 that its wallboard capacity was at ‘approximately’ 80% of pre-coronavirus pandemic levels following the scaling up of its ‘Covid-19 safe’ operations and distribution plan. Etex’s Siniat said it was ending product allocation controls in early July 2020.

US: The Bureau of Land Management has approved American Gypsum’s proposal to expand its gypsum mine at Eagle, Colorado by around 40 hectares. The current quarry has been in operation since 1984. The mine and associated Eagle gypsum wallboard plant near Gypsum produce around 60Mm2/yr of wallboard and employ nearly 100 people. American Gypsum is the fifth largest producer of gypsum wallboard in North America, operating four wallboard plants.

Australia: Knauf is reportedly looking for buyers for its business in Australia. The Royal Bank of Canada and PricewaterhouseCoopers have been helping the gypsum wallboard producer manage a potential sale, according to the Australian newspaper. The German company operates three wallboard plants in the country. They are thought to be worth up to US$200m.

Any such sale is likely to be related to Knauf’s acquisition of USG in 2019. The US-based company owns a 50% share in USG-Boral, which also operates wallboard plants in Australia. Boral said in April 2020 that it thought it unlikely that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) would approve its plans for USG-Boral so far. If Knauf were able to sell its other assets in Australia then its options with USG-Boral are more likely to be accepted. Speculation has mounted in the local press about partial or full asset divestments by Knauf in Australia since the USG acquisition.

UK: Planning permission has been granted by Newport City Council for a new gypsum wallboard plant to be built by Associated British Ports (ABP). The unit will be built on empty land to the south west of Newport Dock’s South Dock, according to the South Wales Argus newspaper. The building will be up to 202m long and 110m wide, with a maximum height of 21m. Gypsum for the plant will be delivered by ship. The project is expected to create up to 70 jobs. Once complete, the facility will be leased to a manufacturer by ABP.

UK: British Gypsum says its wallboard capacity is at ‘approximately’ 80% of pre-coronavirus pandemic levels following the scaling up of its ‘Covid-19 safe’ operations and distribution plan. Managing director Matt Pullen said that the company’s plaster capacity was already at 80% and it was increasing supply volumes to merchant and distributor customers. It is continuing to allocate wallboard and plaster at lower levels than usual as it resumes normal production. It has also restarted taking new orders for its plasterboard recycling service. The subsidiary of Saint-Gobain shut down its non-essential operations in early April 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.