Gypsum industry news

Canada/UK: Canada-based Solex Thermal Science has purchased UK-based Econotherm for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition is intended to expand Solex’s capacity to help its customers reduce the primary energy consumed to produce industrial goods
Lowy Gunnewiek, the chief executive officer at Solex, said “We at Solex are passionate about working with customers to understand their operational needs. Today’s announcement broadens our overall business portfolio to provide our global client base with an even deeper suite of best-in-class, sustainable solutions that align with their respective environmental, social and governance strategies.”

Solex Thermal Science sells indirect heat exchange products for the heating, cooling and drying of free-flowing granular materials such as solid granules, pellets, beans, seeds and particles. Since 1989 the company has installed more than 900 heat exchangers in more than 50 countries worldwide with applications such as fertiliser, oilseeds and industrial materials such as minerals, sands, chemicals and polymers. More recently it has expanded into the energy-transition sector with collaborations on decarbonisation applications such as industrial waste heat recovery, concentrated solar power and carbon capture.

Econotherm manufactures heat pipe waste heat recuperators, economisers, pre-heaters, steam generators and steam condensers. The company’s patented super conductor heat pipe technology is used in a wide range of applications across many industrial sectors. Its references include supplying a gas to air heat pre-heater on a gypsum kettle exhaust to British Gypsum.

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."

UK/Ireland: Knauf UK and Ireland’s haulage contractor Nicholls has switched to using renewably generated liquefied natural gas (LNG) to power its trucks. The transition should reduce Knauf’s Scope 3 emissions generated by transporting its raw materials and products. Knauf’s emissions from deliveries represent roughly 23% of all Scope 3 emissions for the UK business.

Nicholls started trialling LNG powered trucks in 2018 and then built a local refuelling site. It currently uses 29 trucks that run on LNG. The haulage company still uses diesel power vehicles for some routes depending on distance and infrastructure.

UK: Knauf UK and Ireland has appointed Paul Campbell as its Commercial Director. He will be responsible for the strategic development of supply chains, customer support, marketing and technical functions. Campbell previously worked for British Gypsum for over 10 years in product management and marketing roles before becoming the Marketing & Technical Director, UK & Ireland at BMI Group in 2019.

UK: British Gypsum has started converting its heavy-good vehicle fleet fuel source to the biofuel Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) from diesel. The subsidiary of France-based Saint-Gobain expects to use 75,000l/week of HVO. This means that around 40% of its UK fleet will now operate on HVO fuel, with a further 10% using Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). The use of multi-fuelled vehicles at this scale is expected to reduce its carbon emissions by approximately 70% year-on-year.

To support the implementation of HVO vehicles, the company has made several upgrades to site infrastructure that include a HVO refuelling point at its Robertsbridge plant and a new fuel island capable of delivering 110,000l/week at its distribution centre in Gotham.

UK: The European Space Agency, University of Glasgow and others are using France-based Saint-Gobain's Bantycock, Nottinghamshire, quarry to test new drill bit designs for their Drill for Extensive Exploration of Planetary Environments Using Robots (DEEPER) project. The project aims to develop tens-of-metres-long spoolable drill 'strings' to help in the search for water on Mars. Researchers will use their prototypes to drill directly into the mine's gypsum deposits. Saint-Gobain said that the hydrated mineral gypsum provides a similar geological profile to that of Mars.

Gypsum wallboard production by Saint-Gobain subsidiary British Gypsum at its nearby Barrow upon Soar, Leicestershire, and East Leake, Nottinghamshire, gypsum wallboard plants relies on Bantycock gypsum.

UK: Knauf UK has announced a collaboration with Modulous, a company that supplies technology products to support offsite construction. The light building materials producer has become a supply chain partner with Modulous. It also gave Modulous space at its Sittingbourne headquarters site to build a demonstration module, which was completed at the end of 2021.

Liam Poole, the head of marketing at Knauf UK, said, “We came on board as an early supply-chain partner because Modulous has built an inspired solution to some of the biggest pain points in construction and development.”

Modulous is marketing a set of digital products that connect manufacturers, designers and clients in the construction sector. It claims it is an efficient way to develop residential buildings at speed and scale. The company offers a virtual design for any building, complete with product selections and assembly instructions, which contractors can then use to build modules and assemble them on site. Modulous uses a so-called ‘kit of parts’ to help contractors assemble the modules. Knauf’s contribution towards this includes products such as floors, external walls, interior partitioning systems and spray finishes.

UK: XPO Logistics, a leading global provider of freight transportation services, has been awarded a multi-year contract renewal by Etex. XPO distributes several hundred thousand tonnes of products for Etex each year in the UK. It uses a dedicated fleet to deliver gypsum wallboard to builders’ merchants and building sites from Etex's manufacturing plants in Bristol and Ferrybridge. It also supports distribution centres in Basildon and Grangemouth. The customised network is managed by XPO teams on-site, and draws on XPO’s wider resources for transport and storage as needed to supplement seasonal fluctuations in demand. Under the new agreement, XPO will remain a single-source provider for transport and on-site logistics management, and will collaborate with Etex to prepare for higher distribution volumes. Etex’s planned significant investment in the Bristol site will increase production and warehousing capacity to support the company’s expansion in the UK.

UK: Knauf has maintained its 'Excellent' rating for BES 6001 Responsible Sourcing of its wallboard, laminated plasterboard and gypsum powder products, a rating that it has held since 2019.

The BES 6001 standard is a means of securing certification to demonstrate through independent, third-party certification, that raw materials for products certified against the scheme have been responsibly sourced and that Knauf manufactures these products in a way that minimises the impact on the environment and natural resources. Knauf said that this was a 'significant achievement,' requiring input from all areas of its business, from procurement and manufacturing activities to distribution to customers.

Earlier this month the German Gypsum Association (GIPS) gave its approval for an inventory of natural gypsum deposits in Germany that was presented at the Conference of Economics Ministers that took place in early July 2022. The Federal Commission on Geosciences (BLA-GEO) had previously been given the job of taking an inventory of deposits and this was then put in front of the policy makers. The association’s stance was all about securing future supplies. In its view there will be no large-scale alternatives to natural gypsum supplies in the foreseeable future due to low recycling rates and falling production of flue gas desulfurisation (FGD) gypsum as coal power plants are shut down. So a list of where natural gypsum might be found is the start of conversations about which ones might be mined. Readers who are interested can download the inventory of German gypsum deposits here.

Security of supply of raw materials has been in the air since the end of the coronavirus lockdowns started to cause supply chain disruption around the world and the Russian invasion of Ukraine further exacerbated this and rocked energy markets. Part of the reaction to this new reality could be seen in a conference that the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) and the German Resource Research Institute (GERRI) ran, also in early July 2022. The state of German gypsum supplies was presented at this event too. The BGR-GERRI conference came up with a ten-point plan to strengthen the supply of raw material. Some of these recommendations were to grow domestic raw material extraction, expand recycling and the circular economy and keep supply chains closer internationally, ideally within Germany and Europe.

A focus on gypsum supplies isn’t restricted to Germany though. The issue arose in late July 2022 during an earnings call for US-based Eagle Materials’ first quarter results. These kinds of questions from analysts about supply of raw materials are common for a public company but it reinforces the general declining trend around the world of synthetic gypsum supplies. Craig Kessler, the chief financial officer of Eagle Materials, mentioned that a scarcity of synthetic gypsum might be creating cost pressures for other gypsum wallboard producers. Although he was quick to describe his company as a “natural gas or natural gypsum oriented business.” The wider picture in the US is that the ratio of natural to synthetic gypsum production has grown over the last decade. United States Geological Survey (USGS) data shows that it was 37% / 49% in 2011 compared to 53% / 32% in 2021, with the remainder imported in each year.

One more point to make here is that many of the new gypsum wallboard plant projects announced in the over the last few months have involved recycling in one form or another. For example, Siniat’s forthcoming wallboard plant in Bristol in the UK aims to achieve 30% post-consumer gypsum recycling. CertainTeed’s current upgrade plans for its Palatka plant in Florida are also recycling-based. Similarly, the subsidiary of Saint-Gobain also completed an upgrade in June 2022 to allow more recycling at its Nashville plant in Arkansas.

Finally, some of the thinking in Germany and elsewhere has been influenced by the current geopolitical situation in Ukraine. However, one potential consequence of prolonged disruption to European energy markets could be a delay to the decline of coal power plants as plant lifespans are elongated or even new ones built. This in turn could mean more synthetic gypsum supplies in Europe in the short to medium term. How all of this plays out in the placement of new gypsum wallboard plants in Europe over the next few years will be interesting to observe.