Gypsum industry news

France: Saint-Gobain recorded sales of Euro51.2bn during 2022, up by 16% year-on-year from Euro44.2bn in 2021. The group reported that its sales volumes fell by 1.3% year-on-year. It nonetheless recorded growth in revenues of 9.2% in Northern Europe, 8.2% in Southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, 33% in the Americas and 19% in Asia-Pacific.

During the year, Saint-Gobain made Euro3.8bn-worth of divestments, including of its Polish and UK distribution businesses, and Euro1.9bn-worth of new acquisitions.

CEO Benoit Bazin said “In an unsettled geopolitical, energy and macroeconomic environment in 2022, the group once again delivered record results. The group’s profile has been profoundly optimised: one-third of the group’s scope has changed in the past four years and over 60% of our earnings now come from North America and emerging countries." Bazin continued "I am confident that 2023 will be a good year for Saint-Gobain. Our roadmap is clear: disciplined execution of the Grow & Impact strategic priorities, leveraging the strength of our operating model against the backdrop of a slowdown in new construction but good resilience in renovation."

Poland: Saint-Gobain has signed a renewable electricity agreement (Power Purchase Agreement) with Tion Renewables AG (currently being renamed from Pacifico Renewables Yield AG), the German wind and solar power producer. The 15-year agreement will run from 2025 and cover around 45% of Saint-Gobain Poland's electricity needs.

"This power supply agreement is an important milestone for Saint-Gobain in Poland. It will contribute to a significant reduction in our CO₂ emissions, in line with the group's commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050' said Joanna Czynsz-Piechowiak, chief executive officer of Saint-Gobain Poland. "It will enable a reduction in CO₂ emissions of 135,000t/yr, i.e. nearly 20% of Saint-Gobain's scope 1 and 2 emissions in Poland.

The PPA foresees the purchase of approximately 190GWh of wind energy annually. This is equivalent to supplying about 100,000 European homes with renewable electricity each year. The total capacity of the wind farms is equivalent to circa 52MW spread over three sites and 20 wind turbines. This announcement illustrates how Saint-Gobain is stepping up the pace on its carbon neutrality roadmap and comes in the wake of the recent endorsement by the Science Based Targets initiative of the group's commitments to reduce CO₂ emissions by 2050.

France: Saint-Gobain says that it is confident it can offset inflation in raw material and energy costs in 2022 through price rises and hedging its energy costs. In an update on its first quarter results the group said that it expects its energy and raw material costs to increase by around Euro2.5bn in 2022 as a whole compared to 2021. Much of this inflation is related to the European market where the company says it has hedged around 80% of its natural gas and electricity purchases for 2022. It noted that it increased its prices and sales volumes by 14.5% and 1.9% year-on-year respectively in the first quarter of 2022.

The company added it had prepared contingency plans in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic should there be any disruptions to natural gas supplies from Russia. These include the classification of priority industries, using alternative energy sources already prepared at certain sites, and increasing the flexibility of its production capacities.

Saint-Gobain’s sales rose by 16% year-on-year to Euro10.4bn in the first quarter of 2022 from Euro12bn in the same period in 2021. The group said growth was driven by building renovation in Europe and by construction in the Americas and in Asia.

Poland: Finland's Valmet has signed a contract with CIECH Soda Polska for the supply of a flue gas desulphurization plant (FGD) to Soda Polska's Janikowo combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Poland. This is the second order of a FGD plant from CIECH Soda Polska. In August 2015, Valmet signed a contract for a similar plant for the Inowroclaw CHP plant including a Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) plant. The value of the order is around Euro20m.

"This investment will extend the lifetime of the Janikowo CHP plant and help us in complying with the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) by decreasing our SO2 and dust emissions," said Marcin Malek, Director of Investments at CIECH Soda Polska.

The Janikowo CHP plant provides energy to the Janikowo Chemical Plant, owned by the Polish CIECH group. The CHP plant is in the national transition plan in Poland for compliance with the IED and will have to comply with tight annual emission ceilings for SO2, NOx and dust starting in 2017.

Valmet's delivery includes a wet limestone based flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) plant to remove SO2 from the flue gases of two existing coal fired steam boilers, each with 140t/hr steam capacity. The FGD is planned to be in commercial operation in September 2017.