Gypsum industry news

Russia: Knauf is seeking to transfer its ‘entire business in Russia’ to its local management, pending the approval of Russian authorities. The Kyiv Independent newspaper has reported that Knauf elected for the transfer in order to protect the jobs of 4000 employees in the country.

Turkmenistan: Ak Bulut has inaugurated its 4Mm²/yr Dostluk gypsum wallboard plant in the Koytendag District of Lebap Region. Trend News has reported that the plant partly runs on solar power, and also produces 50,000t/yr of dry building mixes. Ak Bulut says that it sources the plant's natural gypsum from Koytendag District, and markets its products domestically and in Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Uzbekistan.

Ukraine: The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has added Germany-based Knauf to its list of “international sponsors of war” due to the company’s continued business in Russia. The government agency alleges that Knauf paid around US$117m in taxes to the Russian government in 2022. It noted that the company operates 10 subsidiaries, 20 production plants and nearly 30 resource centres in the country. It added that Nikolaus Wilhelm Knauf, a partner in Knauf Gips, had been a longstanding Honorary Consul of the Russian Federation until the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war in early 2022.

In March 2022 Jörg Schanow, a member of the management board of Knauf, told a German newspaper that the company had no plans to leave the Russian market.

Kazakhstan: Russia-based Volma has completed its acquisition of a gypsum plant in Inderborsky, Atyrau Region and a nearby quarry. No value for the transaction has been disclosed. The company noted that the stone extracted from the quarry has a gypsum content of 94%. The plant has started recruiting employees and will supply the local market with products under the Volma brand. Reports in the Russia-based media in August 2023 indicated that Volma was preparing to buy a plant in Kazakhstan with a production capacity of 120,000t/yr of building gypsum and other products.

Belgium: Etex’s Building Performance division drove revenue in the first half of 2023 through price rises despite a softening in gypsum wallboard sales volumes. The group’s total revenue grew by 4% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis to Euro2.02bn in the first half of 2023 from Euro1.79bn in the same period 2022. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 14% to Euro363m from Euro319m in real terms.

Bernard Delvaux, the chief executive officer of Etex, said “In the first half of 2023, Etex coped with an overall slowdown of the construction sector - both in new build and renovation - triggered by several elements leading to high volatility and uncertainty such as inflation that puts pressure on consumers’ buying power, higher interest rates and more restricted loan policies by banks. However, Etex managed to record improved sales compared to the first half of 2022 through swift adaptations to challenging market contexts and cost-to-price monitoring. While our volumes are slightly impacted, margins remain strong.”

Notable events so far in 2023 include Etex’s acquisition of UK-based Superglass Insulation in June 2023. It divested its two Russia-based units under its Ursa subsidiary in August 2023. It also acquired Betacon, a Romania-based company to secure raw material supply for wallboard activities in the country.

Ukraine: Knauf says that it hopes to rebuild its Donbass gypsum wallboard plant “as soon as conditions allow.” According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, the company has been supplying the local market from its Kiev plant. This unit was previously shut down but re-opened in mid-2022. Knauf also aspires to play a part in the reconstruction of social facilities for the country by assisting in the building of nurseries, schools and hospitals.

The company’s Donbass plant is located near to Bakhmut on the front line between the Russian and Ukrainian armed forces. The site was reportedly bombed directly in May 2022 during a Russian airstrike.

Kazakhstan: Russia-based Volma is preparing to finalise the purchase of a gypsum plant in Kazakhstan. The unnamed target of the acquisition has a production capacity of 120,000t/yr of building gypsum and other products, according to the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. The transaction also includes a gypsum deposit. Discussions for the acquisition first started in February 2023. The plant is expected to become part of Volma in the third quarter of 2023.

Ukraine: A US White House official has accused the Wagner Group of conducting military operations near Bakhmut with the objective of seizing raw gypsum and salt deposits in the area. The official said that there were indications that monetary motives were driving the mercenary group and Russia’s "obsession" with the city, according to Reuters. The US government has previously accused Russian mercenaries of exploiting natural resources in the Central African Republic, Mali and Sudan to help fund Moscow's war in Ukraine. The Russian government has rejected the allegations.

Russia claims that its army took control of Soledar, a town near Bakhmut, on 13 January 2023. However, western European news sources have been unable to independently verify this. Etex’s local subsidiary Siniat Ukraine operated a gypsum wallboard plant on the outskirts of Bakhmut before Russia invaded the country in February 2022. The current status of the plant is unknown.

Belgium: Etex’s revenue rose by 16% year-on-year to Euro1.79bn in the first half of 2022 from Euro1.46bn in the same period in 2021 on a like-for-like basis. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 20% to Euro319m from Euro266m.

Bernard Delvaux, the chief executive officer of Etex said, “In the first half of 2022, like many other industrial players, Etex had to cope with significant raw material and energy price inflation in the context of post-Covid-19 disruptions, volatility and the war between Russia and Ukraine. To face this situation, we had to implement a number of price increases. Our volumes and margins have been impacted, but these measures allowed us to achieve a positive evolution of both top line and bottom line.”

The company’s Building Performance division reported slightly lower gypsum wallboard sales volumes despite delivering a 16% increase in revenue to Euro1.23bn. The group also created an Insulation division in May 2022 following the completion of its acquisition of URSA.

Ukraine: The Russian military has reportedly damaged Knauf’s Donbass gypsum wallboard plant in an airstrike. Ukrainian Donetsk regional military administration chief Pavlo Kyrylenko posted on social media on 17 May 2022 that firefighters were working to contain and quell the blaze at the plant in Donetsk Region. Nobody was injured in the attack.

Knauf sent home the Knauf Gips Donbass plant’s 589 employees ‘as a precaution’ at the outbreak of war on 24 February 2022.

Knauf maintains 14 facilities with a total of 3900 employees in Russia.