Gypsum industry news

UK: Knauf UK and Ireland has announced the launch of a new gypsum wallboard recycling service in partnership with waste management company Encore Environment. The partners will trial the service at contractor Manchester Design and Build’s renovation of the Piccadilly Warehouse in Manchester.

Knauf UK and Ireland national client development manager Jon Watts said “The existing Sittingbourne recycling plant and service is fantastic. However, with this partnership we’re able to really tap into on-site recycling and ensure as much goes back into the supply chain as possible. This is critical, as we don’t want plasterboard being transported all over the country. It’s broken down locally and then gets distributed back to plasterboard manufacturers.”

Japan: Chiyoda Ute intends to launch a gypsum board product, Chiyoda Hokkaido Board, which uses 50% recycled gypsum, from December 2023. The product will be manufactured at its Muroran plant in Hokkaido. Subsidiary Tokuyama Chiyoda Gypsum opened a gypsum recycling plant in Muroran in September 2023. Chiyoda Ute owns a 49% share in Tokuyama Chiyoda Gypsum and Tokuyama Corporation owns the remainder.

US: Beneficial Reuse Management (BRM) has acquired Pennsylvania-based gypsum wallboard recycling firm USA Gypsum (USAG).

BRM board chair Dave Schuurman said “The acquisition of USAG gives BRM an opportunity to further diversify our sources of gypsum to include recycled scrap wallboard, as well as to grow our geographic footprint. USAG’s operations will complement our existing gypsum processing operations, which provide gypsum in pelletised form to agricultural and other markets. This acquisition aligns perfectly with our mission of providing sustainable solutions for the management of industrial byproducts to divert materials away from landfills.”

Austria: Saint-Gobain Austria, waste management company Saubermacher and construction firm PORR have secured permission to build a new gypsum-to-gypsum recycling plant in Stockerau. The plant will cost Euro7m. Saint-Gobain Austria said that the facility will support the government’s Raw Materials 2030 circular economic development plan.

CEO Peter Giffinger said "Gypsum is endlessly recyclable, but special quality criteria must be met in order for recycled gypsum to be used again to produce new panels.”

US: Xeriant has hired the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and another accreditation agency to test its NEXBOARD waste plastic-based wallboard for the construction market. The producer says that tests will include the NFPA 286 and the ASTM E84 fire safety tests, as well as tests of tensile strength, hardness, water resistance, acoustic and thermal insulating performance, and volatile organic compound emissions.

Grenzebach said earlier this month that it is going to invest around Euro2m on growing its presence in Pune. The current sales and service branch will be merged with a new production site in the city in Maharashtra. The site will be used for the assembly of conveyor equipment and welding work for dryers and lehr ovens for the glass industry. Production at the new unit is expected to start in October 2023 and it will create around 30 new jobs.

The decision by the Germany-based equipment supplier to expand in India follows Saint-Gobain’s expansion plans in India. It said in late 2022 that it was planning to spend US$215m towards capacity expansion plans in 2023 as part of a larger investment in the region, of US$970m between 2022 and 2025. Its stated aim for the new investment is to grow its revenue to US$4.4bn in 2032 from US$1.5bn in 2022. To break this down, half of the group’s turnover in India comes at present from glass-related businesses, 30% from gypsum and construction chemicals and the rest from abrasives, ceramics and life sciences. Some examples of this planned investment include the acquisition by Saint-Gobain of Rockwool India, a stone wool manufacturer, in February 2023 and an agreement to buy UP Twiga Fiberglass, a glass wool producer. Saint-Gobain is the biggest gypsum wallboard producer by capacity in India with four plants, followed by USGKnauf, which runs two plants, and various independent producers.

Growing the wallboard market in India has long seemed like an enticing prospect given the country’s demographics, low production capacity per capita compared to Europe and North America, and sustainability trends. However, despite all of this, it is taking a long time to get there. One commentator on LinkedIn has suggested that this may be down to reticence from the construction sector to adopt the product. In his view wallboard in India has mainly been used for ceilings and for commercial and industrial applications but not for residential projects. Producers, such as Saint-Gobain are likely to be well aware of this. So it is interesting to note that two projects in India picked up awards in Saint-Gobain’s International Gypsum Trophy in 2023.

On the crude gypsum side, data from the Indian Bureau of Mines and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) show that India produced an estimated 4.3Mt of gypsum from its mines from reserves of 37Mt. These reserves are far smaller than other countries with large populations such as China, the US, Brazil or Türkiye. The country also produced an estimated 2.1Mt of flue gas desulfurisation (FGD) gypsum in the 2023 – 2023 financial year. However, the Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA) estimates that its sector used 13 – 17Mt in 2020 – 2021 when cement production was 331Mt and that this is forecast to rise to 20 – 25Mt in 2024 – 2025 when cement production reaches 491Mt. This corresponds to the 4 – 5% of gypsum that it is added to clinker when grinding it to manufacture ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and other cement types.

In acknowledgment of this gap between mining and usage, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) started promoting recycling gypsum from fertiliser production and power plants in May 2023. So far, its main focus has been on improving access to phosphogypsum stockpiles, although the target for FGD production is an ambitious 9.9Mt by 2025 – 2026. Unsurprisingly, gypsum exporters have benefitted from this situation. Oman, reportedly, exported nearly 5Mt of gypsum to India in 2022. Historically, Thailand and Iran have also supplied the Indian market with gypsum.

India remains the great maybe for wallboard adoption outside of North America and Europe. The latest round of investment by Saint-Gobain and Grenzebach may yet deliver on this. Both companies are looking at a range of light materials including glass and insulation not just wallboard. So far though, the main merger and acquisition activity by Saint-Gobain has been targeted on insulation companies. Once or if Saint-Gobain or anyone else starts buying gypsum companies or building new plants then we will have a sense that something is changing. Alongside this, the DPIIT’s plans to recycle more gypsum may help bring further attention to the local gypsum sector.

Austria: The European Commission has approved the formation of a joint venture between Saint-Gobain Austria (Rigips), demolition company Porr Umwelttechnik and waste management company Saubermacher. The project plans to build and operate a gypsum recycling plant in Stockerau.

US: Xeriant says that it has successfully tested a high-volume production process for its Nexboard alternative wallboard. The wallboard is made of recycled plastic content, and is 100% recyclable.

Recycling Today News has reported that CEO Keith Duffy said “The industry is desperate for a viable green alternative to gypsum board as part of a transition toward greater efficiency, safety and sustainability in building design. Drywall has essentially remained unchanged for over a century and is extremely vulnerable to moisture and mold. Our homebuilder clients are anxious to receive and approve our production samples so we can execute pending contracts and begin our quest to disrupt the building materials industry.”

China: Saint-Gobain has inaugurated a new 37Mm²/yr gypsum wallboard plant in Yuzhou, Henan province. The site will also produce 150,000t/yr of plaster. The plant will also use over 400,000t/yr of industrial by-products to increase its sustainability. Other initiatives include using renewable electricity, installing solar panels, using electric-powered forklift trucks and recycling all of the plant’s gypsum waste.

France-based Saint-Gobain has been present in China since 1985 and it employs more than 8000 people. The Yuzhou plant is the company’s sixth unit in the country. Construction of the site was supported by a green financing loan, implemented with BNP Paribas.

France: Etex subsidiary Siniat plans to install a new boiler, fired by either solid recovered fuel (SRF) or waste wood, at its Auneuil gypsum wallboard plant in Oise Department. The producer expects this to reduce the plant's gas consumption by 20%. The L'Usine Nouvelle newspaper has reported that the project is part of a planned Euro30m sustainability overhaul of equipment at the plant before 2026. Siniat recently brought the Auneuil plant back online following the installation of a new Euro15m dryer in early 2023, which increased wallboard drying times by 10% and reduced gas consumption by 20%. The producer said that this has eliminated 5900t/yr of CO₂ emissions.

From the remaining Euro3m of its allotted budget for sustainability upgrades, Siniat will build a gypsum recycling plant at the Auneuil gypsum wallboard plant. It currently receives its recycled gypsum from Ritleng Revalorisations' gypsum recycling plant in Rohr, Bas-Rhin Department. Currently, natural gypsum from the Le Pin-Villeparisis and Montmorency mines accounts for 40 - 60% of the Auneuil plant' gypsum consumption.