Gypsum industry news

France: Knauf France aims to use 35% recycled gypsum at its Fos-sur-Mer gypsum wallboard plant in Bouches-du-Rhône, with an interim target of 10% by 2025. The company inaugurated the 30Mm²/yr plant in March 2024. It is currently using its own offcuts in production, but has a dedicated silo in which to also store gypsum from other sources in future. The plant’s wallboard requires 15 – 20% less energy than is used at a ‘traditional’ Knauf plant through the use of a vertical mill and high-efficiency driers. Its water use is optimised by drawing it in batches.

Les Cahiers Techniques News has reported that general manager Christine Muscat said "The ramp-up is gradual and we are at a third of production capacity, which we plan to reach fully in the second half of 2025."

Romania: Saint-Gobain Romania has signed a 5-year renewable power purchase agreement (PPA) with OMV PetRom. Under the PPA, OMV PetRom will provide power from wind and solar power plants to Saint-Gobain Romania, beginning in January 2026. Total energy supplied under the contract will be 800GWh. This will cover 100% of the producer’s electricity consumption.

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.

North America: Saint-Gobain has signed a 100MW solar power purchase agreement (PPA), called Danish Fields, with TotalEnergies. The Danish Fields PPA will supply Saint-Gobain North America with solar energy for 15 years, commencing in 2024. Saint-Gobain says that it expects the PPA to eliminate 90,000t/yr of CO₂ emissions across its operations. This is the group’s third deal of its kind.

Saint-Gobain North America CEO Mark Rayfield said “With this agreement, Saint-Gobain North America will further reduce its CO₂ emissions, demonstrating how fast the manufacturing industry can transform when long term solutions are at hand. This renewable energy project is a new milestone on the way to meeting Saint-Gobain’s commitment to reduce Scope 1 and 2 CO₂ emissions by 33% by 2030 compared to 2017, and to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.”

Japan: Chiyoda-Ute will add its Chiba gypsum wallboard plant to its ‘green electricity’ mark scheme from September 2023. The certificate from Japan Natural Energy shows that products have been manufactured at a plant using electricity generated from a renewable source. The switch to using renewably-sourced electricity is expected to reduce CO₂ emissions at the Chiba plant by 3800t/yr.

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.

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."

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.

UK: Etex subsidiary Siniat says that its upcoming second gypsum wallboard plant at its Bristol site will help it to achieve 30% post-consumer gypsum recycling in its UK wallboard production by 2025. The new plant is scheduled for commissioning in 2023. The producer secured its supply of recycled gypsum from local waste management subsidiary Crucible Gypsum Recycling in 2020. The plant will also supply some of its water consumption from rainwater harvesting on-site. Electric charging stations will eventually support a 100% electric forklift fleet at the site.

Siniat will also invest Euro11,900 towards cycle and pedestrian paths to improve access to the Bristol site.

China: BNBM’s operating income grew by 25% to US$3.33bn in 2021 from US$2.66bn in 2020. Its net profit rose by 23% to US$554m from US$451m. Its production and sales volumes of gypsum wallboard increased by 19% to 2.43Bnm² and 18% to 2.38Bnm² respectively. It reported a gypsum wallboard production capacity utilisation rate of 78%. The group added that data from the Gypsum Building Materials Branch of China Building Materials Federation showed that national wallboard production capacity was 4.90Bnm²/yr and that production and sales were 3.51Bnm² in 2021.

Parent company CNBM separately reported that the group raised its average wallboard selling prices by 7%. It said it put up its prices in the reporting period due to high prices of coal, gypsum, paper and other raw materials. Internationally, the group said that a new wallboard plant in Tanzania had started operation in 2021 and that a new plant in Uzbekistan is still being built.