Gypsum industry news

Romania: Saint-Gobain Romania has inaugurated a new line at its Turda gypsum wallboard plant in Cluj County. Romania-Insider News has reported that the line cost €50m. The company had previously announced anticipated total investments €45m. All gypsum wallboard produced in the line will come with environmental product declarations (EPDs). Saint-Gobain Romania will employ an additional 100 people to work on the line, raising its total number of employees by 5% to 2000 people across 14 sites.

Saint-Gobain Romania CEO Ovidiu Pascutiu said "This new line, operating at optimal parameters, marks a significant step towards enhancing our production efficiency and expanding our product range to better serve our growing customer base."

Azerbaijan: Azerbaijan’s total production of construction gypsum was 17,100t in the first eight months of 2021, up by 33% year-on-year from 12,900t in the corresponding period of 2020.

On-going large-scale state construction projects the new territories East of Zangazur and Karabakh are anticipated to increase full-year gypsum production in 2021 and into subsequent years.

Spain: Saint-Gobain subsidiary Saint-Gobain Placo has participated in the renovation of Madrid’s Julián Antonio Sánchez Municipal Auditorium in San Martín de la Vega with the supply of sound-absorbing gypsum wallboard solutions. The company says that it used its 12.5mm Rigitone 8/15/20 Super laminated boards on the walls of the building. It said it selected the product for its high acoustic performance, and improvement of indoor air quality. It added, “This improvement in acoustic absorption will allow the sound to be better distributed within the auditorium and, that reverberation does not occur in it, which will improve the comfort of the users.”

The company said, “The use of Rigitone 8/15/20 Super in the renovation work of the Julián Antonio Sánchez Municipal Auditorium has managed to improve the acoustics of the auditorium, create a healthy environment for the people who come to it, in addition to offering an aesthetic and design finish functional as well as modern, essential in this type of enclosure.”

UK: Associated British Ports (ABP) has proposed the construction of a new gypsum wallboard plant at the Port of Newport. The project is at the planning stage with the submission of an environmental impact report to the local government. The 14,000m³ unit will be built on brownfield land south west of the port’s South Dock. It will include a simple warehouse-type structure enclosing production lines, conveyor belts, storage loading areas and two hoppers. No cost for the project has been disclosed.

Gypsum for the production line will be delivered by ship and unloaded into a quayside storage facility. Plasterboard products will be distributed from the proposed plant mainly by road although export markets by sea could be possible. It is anticipated that around 70 jobs would be created by the plant.

Vietnam: Yoshino Gypsum Vietnam has started building a US$50m gypsum plant at Phu My in Vietnam’s Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province. Sudo Eisaku, the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Yoshino Gypsum Vietnam, said the project is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan’s Yoshino Gypsum, according to the Viet Nam News newspaper. The unit will supply gypsum products to the local construction market. The plant is scheduled to start operation in December 2020.

Turkmenistan: Hilligurlushikonumleri has announced that it is building a dry gypsum compound and plasterboard plant in the city of Magdanly, Lebap Province. The plant, designed to produce 12Mm2/yr of gypsum wallboard and 100,000t/yr of dry gypsum mixtures, will be equipped with modern equipment and technology. Hilligurlushikonumleri says that this will make it possible to compete in the production of high-quality products, while creating new jobs. The construction of the facility is due to be completed by the end of 2019.