Gypsum industry news

China: Beijing New Building Materials has announced that its holding subsidiary Taishan Gypsum will spend more than US$39.3m building two gypsum wallboard plants and one cement retarder project using industrial by-product gypsum.

Taishan Gypsum will build one of its wallboard plants in the Shanghang Jiaoyang industrial park in Longyan City, Fujian Province. The project is estimated to cost roughly US$18.6m, of which US$5.6m will be raised by the company itself and US$13m from a bank loan.

China/Singapore: Sincap Group, a gypsum mining company in China's Shandong Province, has launched an initial public offering for a listing on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange. The company is offering 32.5 million shares, comprising 25.5 million new shares and seven million vendor shares, at US$0.16 apiece.

Sincap hopes to raise US$4.1m, which will be earmarked for use in diversification of its products and for general working capital. Specifically, the group plans to construct and commission a K-gypsum powder plant. K-gypsum powder, which can only be processed from crystalline gypsum, is commonly used in the manufacture of moulds for precision casting as well as plaster casts for medical uses. The company also possesses mining and exploration rights to some of the largest gypsum reserves in the Dawenkou Basin in Shandong Province.

"Our decision to list is timely considering our current stage of development. With the funds raised we will be able to realise the untapped potential in our gypsum business, particularly with regard to a new product, K-gypsum powder, that we intend to develop," said Sincap's chairman and CEO Fu Hao.

China: Beijing New Building Materials has announced plans to build three gypsum board lines in Tianjin, Quanzhou of Fujian province and Liaocheng of Shandong province with a total investment of over US$62.9m.

The Tianjin project is a 50Mm2 plasterboard production line. Products from the project will be sold to Tianjin, Beijing, Tangshan, Qinhuangdao, Cangzhou, Dalian and overseas markets. The company plans to set up a wholly owned subsidiary with a planned registered capital of US$7.9m in Tianjin to run the project, which will also include a steel plant. The Quanzhou project will be a 30Mm2 plasterboard production line using FGD gypsum. Products will be sold to Fujian, eastern Guangdong and Taiwan.

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.

Canada: Cabot Gypsum has relaunched gypsum production at a previously closed facility in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The company has taken over the plant previously owned by Federal Gypsum, which shut down and went bankrupt in 2008.

Sales manager Reg MacLeod said that Cabot Gypsum acquired the plant's assets earlier in 2011 and is leasing the facility from the government of Nova Scotia. MacLeod says the firm expects significant job growth in about a year after the company becomes better established. He wouldn't say how many workers are currently employed at the plant. The factory is currently providing its product throughout the region, with materials being delivered primarily to building supply dealers.

According to the Global Gypsum Directory 2008-2009, the former Federal Gypsum plant on the same site had a capacity of 25.55MM²/ yr before it closed in 2008.

Uzbekistan: Germany's Knauf International GmbH has opened its gypsum wallboard plant in Kagan, Uzbekistan. The project, which is run by Knauf Gips Bukhara, was built at a cost of around USD51.1m. Construction started in 2008 and was completed in June 2011. To date, the company has been operating the 20MM2/yr plant in test mode. The project is the second by Knauf in Uzbekistan.

India: Preparations are reported to be 'in full swing' towards the commissioning of a new fibre-glass-reinforced gypsum wallboard and building materials plant at Kochi by Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore and Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers, Mumbai.

Engineers from Rapid Building Systems, Australia, the technology provider for the project, have been in Kochi over the past month putting the finishing touches to the plant before commercial production begins later in 2011. A test run to produce the large building boards has been successful and further tests are being carried out at present.

India: FACT-RCF Building Products Ltd (FRBL), a joint venture between Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT) and the Mumbai-based Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers (RCF), is expected to commission its gypsum-based reinforced wall panel and building components plant by September 2011.

The FRBL plant in Ambalamedu, Kerala is worth USD22.43m and is a 50:50 joint venture between the two public sector fertiliser companies. The unit is being built on 12 acres of land at FACT's Ambalamedu site.

According to a statement issued by the FRBL on 29 June 2011, the project is now 97% complete, with all machinery having been erected. The wet gypsum handling section has now been commissioned.

The calciner has been successfully lit up and some plaster was first made during the last week of May 2011. This unit is now fully operational. The start of the commissioning process for the mixing plant is expected towards the end of July 2011.

A team of engineers from Rapid Building Systems, the Australian technology and machinery provider for the project, is expected to arrive in Kochi and take up the commissioning of the wall panel manufacturing unit in September 2011.

The fibreglass reinforced gypsum panels are expected to revolutionise building culture in Kerala. The project originated with the idea of utilising the nearly 6Mt of gypsum stockpiled at the Ambalamedu and Udyogamandal sites owned by FACT.

The fibreglass reinforced panels can replace brick walls and give substantial savings in time and money invested in conventional buildings. Savings in cement, bricks and scarcer resources such as river sand are highlights of the new building component. Construction time can be reduced to about one-fifth of the normal time taken for erecting a conventional building.

The new FRBL unit has a capacity to produce around 39,000 panels, each of 36m2, per year. Interior wall putty and interior wall plaster will be other products from the new joint venture. The plant will require over 0.1Mt/yr of gypsum.

Uzbekistan: Germany's Knauf International GmbH (Knauf) has completed the construction of a 20MM²/yr wallboard production plant in Uzbekistan. The project, worth US$48m, was funded through a direct investment from Knauf. The contractor for the construction project was German Samo Engineering.

KnaufGipsBuhara, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Knauf International GmbH, will manage the plant. Following the full commissioning of the new production facilities, the wallboard production capacity in Uzbekistan will be doubled to 40MM²/yr, with demand closer to 60MM²/yr.