Gypsum industry news

Peru: France-based Saint-Gobain has submitted a technical report for a proposed upgrade to its Huachipa facility. The project aims to optimise production and secure compliance with environmental regulations. Noticias Financieras News has reported that the work will cost US$259,000 and take up to eight weeks complete.

Australia: Saint-Gobain subsidiary CSR plans to expand its Welshpool gypsum wallboard plant in Western Australia. The producer plans to upgrade the plant’s production line and expand warehouses that serve it and the neighbouring Bradford building materials plant. CSR said that the upgrade to the Welshpool wallboard plant will reduce its consumption of natural gas and electricity and facilitate its transition to alternative fuels or electricity.

CEO Paul Dalton said "This significant investment will make Welshpool safer and more sustainable, increase capacity and improve productivity and cost efficiency, all while removing risk from our supply chain.”

UAE: The wallboard recycling unit at Saint-Gobain Gyproc’s Abu Dhabi gypsum wallboard plant has processed 22,000t of gypsum since 2014, the L'Usine Nouvelle newspaper has reported. The producer said that the Abu Dhabi plant can incorporate 10 – 12% recycled materials in its gypsum wallboard production. It runs on a diversified energy supply, which in its most recent recorded month included 55% nuclear, 38% natural gas and 7% solar energy.

In 2023, Saint-Gobain reduced its non-recycled waste by 78% year-on-year and its water footprint by 14% from 2017 levels in the UAE.

Securing sustainable energy sources has been the priority for some of Spain’s gypsum wallboard producers in recent weeks.

In late November 2023 Pladur revealed that it plans to use green hydrogen at its production plants from the second half of 2024 onwards. It will start at its Valdemoro plant near Madrid before rolling usage out elsewhere afterwards. The subsidiary of Belgium-based Etex is also considering trials with biomethane and biogas. Then a few weeks later in early December 2023 Knauf Ibérica announced that it is planning to build a 7.5MW biomass unit at its Guixers plant in Lleida. Commissioning is currently scheduled for late 2024. This follows the installation of solar panels at the site earlier in 2023. Along similar lines, Saint-Gobain Placo signed an 11-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with electricity company Endesa at the end of 2022 to supply 150GWh/yr of renewable energy. Together with a previous renewable energy deal this was expected to cover up to 65% of the group’s electricity requirements in Spain.

Wallboard plants all over the world have been embarking on sustainable energy drives in recent years but the particular drivers in Spain are worth mentioning. The country’s high electricity prices have frequently been raised by large-scale industrial users in the past, often in terms of competitiveness of exports. However, the situation worsened following the start of the war in Ukraine in early 2022 as the wholesale price of coal and gas jumped. The high price of gas in particular pushed the electricity prices up in Spain and wallboard plants typically use both sources of energy. The government eventually capped the price of gas and coal for power generation. It then offered an aid scheme for large-scale gas users but missed the gypsum sector out, much to the chagrin of the Asociación Técnica y Empresarial del Yeso (ATEDY), which complained about it at the end of 2022. The gypsum industry was later included in July 2023 when a funding scheme was announced. It’s unknown how much this initiative has helped wallboard manufacturers but the shift to renewables by the three main companies mentioned above tells its own story.

Despite the energy supply problems a new entrant to the wallboard market in Spain announced itself in March 2023. Italy-based Fassa Bortolo said it was going to spend Euro90m on building a wallboard plant at Tarancón in Cuenca. No commissioning date or main supplier name has been disclosed, but Italy-based Bedeschi did say in late November 2023 that it was providing raw bulk material handling equipment including an apron feeder, stacker, excavator and conveyor belt line. There has also been no word on how the new plant will power itself.

On the topic of exports, Spain has long been one of the world’s larger shippers of natural gypsum. Data from the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (IGME) shows that the country exported 9.2Mt of gypsum in 2021 with a value of Euro60m. Whether this changed in 2022 when the energy prices increased is unknown at the time of writing. In 2021 Almería was the epicentre of the country, accounting for 70% of the 13Mt total volume of gypsum extracted that year with a quarry at Sorbas, operated by Saint-Gobain Placo, reportedly being the second largest in the world. Most of the gypsum extracted at Sorbas was then driven by truck to the Port of Garrucha, making it the busiest gypsum port in Europe by volume.

Eurogypsum, the European federation of national associations of producers of gypsum products, launched its industry roadmap to net-zero by 2050 on 9 November 2023 at the Global Gypsum Conference 2023, which took place in Chicago, US. Various actions and technologies were unveiled as part of the plan including some of the approaches being taken in Spain such as using ‘green’ electricity, biomass and green hydrogen. All of these suggestions were split into short, mid and final term feasibility categories. So, for example, using renewable sourced electricity is dependent on it being affordable and available. It was placed in the immediate category. Yet, using biofuels or green hydrogen is flagged as requiring investment, so deemed as short-to-mid term.

Spain presents a case where the cost of energy for industrial users may be aligning with sustainability goals. How this translates onto balance sheets remains to be seen though. These kinds of sustainable energy projects may only be slowing the inevitable as raw material and energy costs mount anyway leading to tighter margins, increased competition and potential consolidation. The gypsum sector in Spain may well be testing out slightly earlier than elsewhere how much a more sustainable world will actually cost.

Spain: Knauf Ibérica is planning to build a 7.5MW biomass unit at its Guixers gypsum wallboard plant in Lleida. The unit will be operational by December 2024 and create around 200 jobs, according to La Vanguardia newspaper. The company intends to source wood biomass locally. Once operational it is expected to reduce the plant’s CO₂ emissions by 35%. The Guixers plant also installed photovoltaic solar panels earlier in 2023.

Alberto De Luca, chief executive officer of Knauf Ibérica, said “The launch of this project is a significant step towards reducing our carbon footprint and achieving zero emissions by 2045."

Germany: Knauf Gips has started an upgrade at its Iphofen gypsum wallboard plant to switch its use of synthetic gypsum to natural gypsum. The project is taking place to prepare the unit for the local phase out of coal-fired power plants by 2038 at the latest. Early work at the site has involved using a 700t crane to lift material over the Würzburg-Nuremberg railway line, during planned renovation to the transport link in late July 2023. The company described the cost of the upgrade as a “mid-double-digit million sum.”

US: CertainTeed plans to invest US$235m in an expansion to its 84Mm²/yr Palatka gypsum wallboard plant in Florida. The La Tribune newspaper has reported that the Saint-Gobain subsidiary will install a second production line to double the plant’s capacity. The company will also carry out work to increase the plant’s energy efficiency.

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.

US: Gold Bond Building Products plans to spend US$90m on an upgrade to its Mount Holly gypsum wallboard plant in North Carolina. The project will include installing a railway line and related infrastructure to aid logistics, according to the Gaston Gazette newspaper. It is expected to create 11 new jobs at the site. Construction on the project is expected to be completed in 2024. The affiliate company of National Gypsum has operated a plant at Mount Holly since 2007.

Norway: Saint-Gobain has started producing net zero CO₂ gypsum wallboard at its Fredrikstad plant. This was made possible by switching the power supply for the unit to hydroelectric power from natural gas previously. It worked with state-owned sustainable energy agency Enova on the Euro25m upgrade project. Following the completion of work at the site it will now avoid emitting 23,000t/yr of CO₂. Improved heat recovery and process efficiency will reduce energy consumption by 30%. Plus, the company says that the plant’s production capacity has been increased by 40%.

The group says that this is the world's first carbon-neutral wallboard plant and it will enable it to launch a range of products with the lowest carbon footprint on the market in 2023. It added that the this initiative was a clear indication of the company’s commitment to reduce its scope one and two CO₂ emissions by 33% by 2030 compared to 2017, with a commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2050