Gypsum industry news

Georgia: Knauf inaugurated a new Euro30m plaster plant in Georgia on 13 October 2022, Sarke News has reported.

Georgian Minister of Economy Levan Davitashvili said that Georgia's current 'high economic growth' is partly due to Knauf's continued investment in its gypsum activities in the country. Davitashvili noted that Knauf has trained 1000 people at its construction industry training centre since 2018.

The minister said that Knauf continually raises the Georgian building materials industry to 'new standards.' He added "The professional knowledge brought by the company and the technologies introduced by it are also very important."

France: Alphaplatre's gypsum wallboard and plaster line engineering subsidiary RBL-REI has acquired calcination equipment supplier Gupsos.

RBL-REI general manager Lionel Landreau and Gupsos founder Michel Dairay said "The integration of Gupsos now allows RBL-REI to offer new technologies for its production lines, thanks in particular to the indirect cooking process using a Beau type kiln."

Germany: Gypsum products manufacturer CASEA has ordered a Robotpac type robotic palletiser from Beumer due to increased demand for its products. The new palletiser will be equipped with a fork gripper and a pallet gripping device will be used for handling special product mixtures. Delivery of the order is planned for the third quarter of 2022. CASEA already uses a Beumer palletiser at its Dorste plant in Osterode am Harz, which was installed in 2017.

Turkey: France-based Saint-Gobain and building materials producer Dalsan have signed a joint-venture agreement, pursuant to which they will merge their gypsum wallboard operations in Turkey. The merge will give the new joint venture a gypsum wallboard production capacity of over 100Mm²/yr. It will also see the companies’ plaster production consolidated under their new subsidiary.

The partners said “This partnership will offer Turkish customers access to the most innovative and complete portfolio of light and sustainable solutions for the construction and renovation of the building envelope, as well as internal partitioning.”

France: Placo and Serfim Recyclage have revealed that they started operating a new 140t/day plaster recycling plant at Quincy-Voisins near Paris in October 2021. The companies say that the Pari Plâtre site is the first in the Paris region to be solely used for recycling plaster waste from construction sites.

Daily deliveries via the Placo Recycling network bring plaster waste from within a 250km radius to the site. The waste is then sorted by hand along an 80m production line to remove wood, ceramic, cardboard and polystyrene fractions. These materials are recycled separately. The plaster is crushed and screened with a 98% recovery rate. The plant stores reclaimed gypsum in two 80m³ silos. The gypsum is then transported to Placo’s gypsum wallboard plant at Vaujours for use as a secondary raw material.

Placo says it is the leading recycler of gypsum in France. Following the opening of Pari Plâtre the company has increased its plaster recycling target in 2030 target to 200,000t/yr. This will allow the subsidiary of Saint-Gobain to use up to 30% of recycled materials in the production of its wallboard products.

Tunisia: Elizabeth Knauf has expressed Knauf’s interest in growing its production capacity for the local market and export. The group president of the board of directors met with Prime Minister Najla Bouden in mid-January 2022, according to the Agence Tunis Afrique Presse. Bouden praised the success of Knauf Tunisia’s training centres at Tataouine and Meknassy (Sidi Bouzid). The group acquired Plâtres Tunisiens in 2004 and operates a plaster plant at Meknassy.

Egypt: Dahab Sinai says that it has commenced pilot production at its 0.18t/yr plaster plant in the Suez region. The company invested around US$18m in building the unit. In early 2019 it was reported that Dahab Sinai ordered a gypsum production plant from Germany-based Claudius Peters. Rowad Tourism holds the 64% majority stake in Dahab Sinai.

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.

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.

Azerbaijan: The president of Azerbaijan has attended the opening of the 0.4Mt/yr Ağdağ gypsum plaster plant built by Matanat-A in Baku's Garadagh District on 30 January 2016. The plant has been built using US$0.9m loan from the national business promotion fund. It employs more than 800 workers.

Suppliers supporting the project include Boemer, Saake, Haver and Boecker, Atlas Copco, ABB, Caterpillar, STP and Erisim. Half of the products made at the plant will be exported to Russia, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Iran.