Gypsum industry news

Russia: Turkey's Kastamonu Entegre plans to start construction of a gypsum wallboard plant in Kaluga, Russia. The plant will be located in the Lyudinovo Special Economic Zone (SEZ). Kastamonu Entegre signed an agreement with the regional authorities in 2014.

Egypt: The German-Arab Chamber of Industry and Commerce (GACIC) has announced the opening of a new US$50m Knauf Egypt plant. The plant has a capacity of 15Mm²/yr of gypsum wallboard, 90,000t/yr of other gypsum products and 25Mm/yr of metal cutters. Construction in the Ataqa Suez industrial zone began in 2010. Suez was selected as the plant site because of its strategic location between raw materials sites, local markets and major export markets.

Uzbekistan: Knauf has started a new US$52.5m investment project at two of its plants in Bukhara. The move follows the signing of a new agreement in 2014 by Knauf and Uzstroymateriali JSC to boost economic cooperation between Uzbekistan and Germany.

Knauf has already invested US$51m in Uzbekistan. It has two plants in Bukhara: JV JSC Bukharagips, which produces dry building mixes and Knauf Gips Bukhara, which produces gypsum wallboard. The 60,000t/yr capacity Bukharagips plant started operations in August 2009, while the 20Mm³/yr capacity Knauf Gips Bukhara plant was built in 2011.

US: Wallboard recycler USA Gypsum has opened its US$3m wallboard recycling plant and corporate headquarters in the West Cocalico Township, Pennsylvania. The company said that the new buildings and equipment will produce better quality products more efficiently and will help USA Gypsum to divert even more wallboard waste from landfills.

The recycling plant also includes renovated buildings for packaging, storage and offices. In the past 10 years, USA Gypsum has diverted more than 225,000t of wallboard from landfills, converting it to beneficial use by farmers in the form of gypsum fertiliser, soil conditioners and amendments and gypsum animal bedding. In spite of this growth, USA Gypsum has estimated that less than 10% of wallboard scraps generated in Pennsylvania are recycled. USA Gypsum ships its gypsum products across the US and Canada.

Oman: USG Zawawi Drywall SFZ 's US$37m state-of-the-art gypsum plant in Oman's Salalah Free Zone (SFZ) was inaugurated on 6 May 2015 marking the formal start of commercial production of a range of Sheetrock brand gypsum wallboard products earmarked primarily for export across the Middle East and Indian subcontinent. USG Zawawi Drywall SFZ is a 50:50 partnership between USG Corporation, Boral and Zawawi Minerals.

"We are pleased to see the opening of this successful US-Omani venture. Building relations between the US and Oman is a top priority of the US Embassy and this work is a shining example of the strategic coordination that benefits both our countries," said Ann Mason, economic-commercial officer from the US Embassy. "We applaud USG Boral and Zawawi Minerals for taking full advantage of the potential of Salalah Port and Free Zone and the US Oman Free Trade Agreement."

Commissioning of the Salalah plant, which has 8Mm²/yr of gypsum wallboard production capacity, began in March 2015. It was designed to enable future expansion to double wallboard production capacity or add new products like construction plaster. The plant will produce a wide range of Sheetrock gypsum boards, including products resistant to water, fire, sound, impact and mould. According to Curt Loring, general manager of USG Zawawi Drywall SFZ, it will produce products with special certifications not currently manufactured or available in the GCC. These products are specially engineered for custom wall systems in demand by architects for commercial construction.

The products will be marketed across the Gulf and Indian Subcontinent. Uptake is expected to be robust around the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), where a commercial construction boom is already underway. The raw gypsum is sourced entirely from a major gypsum quarry located in the Thamrait area of Dhofar Governorate. The quarry is operated by Zawawi Gypsum and is jointly-owned by USG-Boral and Zawawi Minerals.

"USG Zawawi Drywall's investment is in keeping with the Omani government's economic policies advocating the sustainable commercialisation of natural resources to diversify the economy, create employment for Omanis and facilitate inflows of investment and know-how. The Salalah facility operates to the same stringent safety and environmental standards applied by USG at its facilities in the US," said Alawi Al Zawawi, chairman of USG Zawawi Drywall SFZ.

Awadh Al Shanfari, CEO of Salalah Free Zone explained that the project is a re-enforcement of the Free Zone's commitment to maximise the Sultanate's mineral wealth through national and foreign partnership. "In the past, we have been focusing on projects that can create new industries linked to the available raw materials in the Sultanate. As a result of our endeavours, we will be announcing more investments during 2015," said Al Shanfari.

Europe: The GtoG project (The perfect loop - the path to a circular economy: A European collaborative approach between the recycling industry, the demolition sector and the gypsum industry) has developed a film that presents in detail the project objectives and results.

Gypsum products like wallboard and blocks are among the very few construction materials where closed-loop recycling is possible. The recycling process separates gypsum from paper and both materials can be re-used to repeatedly produce the same products. The overall aim of GtoG is to transform the gypsum demolition waste market to achieve higher recycling rates of gypsum waste, thereby helping to achieve a resource-efficient economy.

The newly-launched film enables the audience to gain insight on the project developments and is part of the consortium's willingness to enhance the quality and availability of information to all industry professionals and to its stakeholders. The film includes contributions from professionals covering not only the entire gypsum supply chain (demolition, recycling and production), but also the full range of organisations represented in the project (universities, consulting agencies and demolition, recycling and manufacturing companies).

US: For the second consecutive day on 17 February 2015, fire-fighters responded to Georgia-Pacific Gypsum's plant in Newington, North Hampshire, for a partial roof collapse at a large storage area used to house gypsum for making wallboard, said assistant fire chief Jeffrey LeDuc. Fire-fighters were called to the plant just before 7am, when a structural engineer reported that the roof had collapsed under the heavy weight of deep snow, LeDuc said. Fortunately, the building had been evacuated on 16 February 2015 when a worker heard some kind of sound from the roof. LeDuc said that after the initial evacuation, utilities had been shut off to avoid further possible damage to the building.

US: Paul Johnson Drywall of Phoenix, Arizona has bought a 6500ft² office building for a Las Vegas, Nevada location, with plans to hire up to 100 office and field staff members by the end of the first quarter of 2015. Growing demand in local residential construction spurred the branch.

Paul Johnson Drywall's clients include Pulte Homes and Ryland Homes. Both are involved in two master-planned communities set to break ground on their first homes in 2015. Pulte will build at Skye Canyon, an Olympia Companies master plan in northwest Las Vegas. Ryland will build 179 homes on 76,890m2 in the first phase of Cadence, a revived master plan in Henderson that will have 13,250 homes.

Ron 'Chip' Brown, a 32-year veteran of Nevada's wallboard sector, is the company's local general superintendent in charge of construction services, hiring and sales. Lou Eltringham is executive project manager, assisting in opening the new office and managing payroll.

"The uptick in construction employment in Nevada is another signal that it is an opportune time for Paul Johnson Drywall to expand into the market," said president Cole Johnson. "We look forward to providing the Las Vegas area single-family and multi-family builders with reliable, professional wallboard services."

Saudi Arabia: Mada Gypsum Co, part if Al Rajhi Building Solutions Group and a Saudi producer of gypsum wallboard and related gypsum products, plans to build a new environmentally-friendly gypsum plant in Saudi Arabia. It will meet the increasing demand for gypsum and modern building materials and systems in the GCC and the Middle East.

The new US$67m investment will provide work for around 200 employees. It will have a production capacity of approximately 30Mm²/yr of gypsum wallboard and related gypsum based products and systems.

"We see promising growth in the building solutions market across the GCC region, driven by the strong fundamentals of the construction industry," said D Khalid S Al-Rajhi, chairman of Al-Rajhi Building Solutions Group. "Setting up this new plant in Saudi Arabia also confirms the strategic importance of Saudi Arabia as a platform to serve markets in Africa and Europe in addition to the GCC. The investment confirms our commitment to maintain leadership in the industry."

"The new plant will be equipped the with latest state-of-the-art manufacturing machines and production technology," said Ahmed Ibrahim Al-Bassam, CEO of Al Rajhi Building Solutions Group. "The plant will have a capacity of 30Mm²/yr and is scheduled to commence operation in the third quarter of 2016. Mada Gypsum Co is also proud of the environmental benefits associated with the new plant: This is a genuinely green project. The gypsum on site will be processed and removed, returning the site to its natural state."

UK: A waste company has been ordered to pay Euro18,968 in fines and costs for illegally handling, storing and depositing wallboard. The case was brought by the Environment Agency.

In October 2012 approximately 60t of broken wallboard from Tawmix Timber Products Ltd was found tipped on a site known as Poppy's Field beside an old airfield at Winkleigh, Devon. The material was contaminated with construction and demolition waste. A special permit is needed to treat and store this type of waste. In July 2013 similar wallboard was illegally used to construct a new fence at Tawmix Timber Products' business premises at Unit 2, Winkleigh Airfield.

North Devon Magistrates' Court heard that Tawmix Timber Products was permitted to store, sort, separate, screen or crush waste wood at its site in Winkleigh. However, it did not have permission to accept gypsum based construction material such as wallboard, which requires specialist handling, treatment and disposal. The company had received advice and guidance from the Environment Agency on plasterboard and was aware it needed a 'variation' to its permit before it could accept this material.

"Wallboard should only be recycled and recovered by specialist companies," said Environment Agency spokesman Sue Smillie. "Tawmix Timber Products did not hold the necessary permits to store, shred and deposit this material. By accepting wallboard on Poppy's Field and depositing wallboard at its main site, the company was in breach of its permit."

Tawmix Timber Products Ltd was fined a total of Euro15,167 and ordered to pay Euro3713 costs for two offences under the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2010, including the illegal storage and use of chipped wallboard at Poppy's Field and Unit 2, Winkleigh. The company pleaded guilty to both charges at an earlier hearing.