Gypsum industry news

Azerbaijan: Azerbaijan’s production of construction gypsum increased by 98% year-on-year to 85,000t in 2023, data from the State Statistics Committee has shown. BNI IntelliNews has reported year-on-year growth of 32% in the overall value of building materials produced in Azerbaijan in 2023, to US$694m.

US: National consumption of gypsum wallboard dropped by 4.3% year-on-year to 2.51Mm² in 2023, according to United States Geological Survey (USGS) data. Demand for natural gypsum was 45Mt, up by 3% from 43.7Mt in 2022. The market imported 8.1Mt of gypsum throughout the year, up by 18% year-on-year.

Domestic production of crude gypsum in the US dropped by 1.3% year-on-year in 2023, to 22Mt. Exports grew by 15% to 45,000t.

Oman: Oman exported 11.2Mt of natural gypsum from its Port of Salalah in 2023, up by 11% year-on-year from 9.9Mt in 2022. Zawawi Minerals has reported that the main destination for exports was India, which received 5.3Mt (47%) of Oman’s exported gypsum for the year. Oman is reportedly the source of 90% of India’s gypsum imports.

US: The US Geological Survey reported domestic natural gypsum production volumes of 16.3Mt during the first nine months of 2023, down by 0.3% year-on-year from 16.4Mt during the corresponding part of 2022. Meanwhile, calcined gypsum production volumes grew by 1.2%, to 14Mt from 13.8Mt. Throughout the period, the US imported 5.91Mt of crude gypsum, up by 35% year-on-year. Spain supplied 2.4Mt (41%) of imports, followed by Mexico with 1.7Mt (29 %) and Canada with 1.56Mt (26%).

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.

Colombia: The Agência Nacional de Mineração (ANM) has included gypsum on a list of 17 strategic minerals that it considers key to helping the country develop. In addition to gypsum the list includes: copper; nickel; zinc; platinum; iron; manganese; metallurgical coal; phosphates; magnesium; bauxite; gold; emeralds; construction materials such as sands, gravels and clays; silica; limestone and chromium. It also includes various associated ores, concentrates and derivatives of the minerals on the list.

The Ministry of Mines and Energy originally compiled a list of strategic minerals in 2012 and the ANM has continued this since the start of 2023. By declaring certain minerals as ‘strategic’ the central government will have the power to reserve and delimit special areas with high mining potential that are free, in order to grant them to third parties through selection processes or other allocation schemes.

Philippines: The government has cut the import duty on natural gypsum and anhydrite to zero from 3% previously in a bid to help the local wallboard and cement sectors. It is also expected to support housing and infrastructure projects in the country, according to the Philippines News Agency. Executive Order (EO) No. 46 was signed in early November 2023, approving the change in duty that was due to come into effect a month later in early December 2023.

The EO stated "At present, there are no operating mines of natural gypsum and anhydrite in the country, and there are also no local substitute for said products that are available for domestic producers of plasterboards and cement." The tariff rate is intended to last for five years but it will be reviewed annually at the end of 2024.

Spain: Bulk materials handling equipment supplier Bedeschi says that it has won a contract with fellow Italy-based company Fassa Bortolo to equip a planned gypsum stacking plant in Spain. The plant will homogenise gypsum for storage in an 8000m³ storage pit at a Fassa Bortolo quarry. Bedeschi says that the central part of the order is composed of a 300t/hr metallic apron feeder and stacker car, a 150t/hr excavator belt and a fully enclosed conveyor belt line. The supplier noted that it previously executed a ‘very similar’ order for Fassa Bortolo once before.

Oman: Oman exported 8.75Mt of gypsum in the first nine months of 2023, a rise of 23% year-on-year from 7.09Mt in the same period in 2022. Data from Oman-based Zawawi Minerals shows that 48% of exports were sent to India.

US: Data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) show that the sale of gypsum board products fell by 5% to 1.25Bnm² in the first half of 2023, from 1.31Bnm² in the same period in 2022. The total supply of crude gypsum grew by 9% to 20.4Mt. Notably, supplies of imported and synthetic gypsum increased in the reporting period. However, the USGS noted that on a quarterly basis “...variances are often the result of differences in weather conditions, which can impede or encourage construction activities, coupled with market demands that are often driven by residential and commercial building activity. Use of uncalcined gypsum remained stable, but consumption of calcined gypsum fell by 33% to 7.86Mt, due to reduced utilisation in board products. Spain, Canada and Mexico remained the main sources of import of crude gypsum. However, imports from Türkiye more than doubled to 195,000t.