Gypsum industry news

Egypt: Knauf Egypt has entered into a partnership to supply Hassan Allam Construction with building materials for more than 100 upcoming projects. Arab Finance News has reported that Knauf Egypt’s delivery on the contracts will reflect its commitment to the Egypt Vision 2030 national sustainable development strategy.

Knauf Egypt recently invested US$640,000 in a collaboration with the German Society for International Cooperation to train 4000 Egyptian construction sector specialists per year.

Oman: Producers and exporters despatched 9.9Mt of gypsum from Oman in 2022. The figure corresponds to year-on-year growth of 13% from 8.74Mt in 2021. The Oman Daily Observer newspaper has reported that India received 4.84Mt (49%) of Omani gypsum exports during the year. This accounts for 87% of the South Asian nation's total gypsum imports, of 5.54Mt, in 2022. The total figure shows a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17% between 2009 and 2022. The market's forecast CAGR up to 2037 is 5.2%.

The Indian cement industry, which reportedly relies on the dwindling domestic stock of phosphogypsum, is anticipated an anticipated source of continued growth in demand.

Bosnia & Herzegovina: The shareholders assembly of state-owned power company RiTE Ugljevik has approved the signing of contracts for the sale of gypsum and coal with Beijing New Building Materials (BNBM) Ugljevik. The project intends to build a 40Mm²/yr gypsum wallboard plant and it has a budget of Euro50m, according to the Sarajevo Times. RiTE Ugljevik previously agreed to supply 250,000t/yr of flue gas desulfurisation (FGD) to the proposed wallboard plant.

New Zealand: The government has renamed its Plasterboard Taskforce as the Critical Materials Taskforce and extended its remit to other building materials alongside gypsum wallboard. The expanded taskforce's aim will be to prevent product shortages, with a focus on maximising productivity and cushioning the effects of supply-side dangers. The government foresees further materials shortages amid anticipated 'global trade headwinds.'

Minister for Building and Construction Megan Woods said “While we can be optimistic about the opportunities for our economy, we also need to remain cautious. We know we are facing a period of global turmoil." Woods continued “The Critical Materials Taskforce will build on the successes of the Plasterboard Taskforce, and use the valuable lessons learnt to be proactive and forward-looking, so we can identify emerging risks and respond as quickly as possible. Bringing together construction, building consent and supply chain experts into a taskforce earlier this year showed how government and the sector successfully worked together to troubleshoot plasterboard shortages quickly and pragmatically.”

New Zealand's gypsum wallboard imports grew by a factor of five year-on-year to 4.6Mm² during the first 10 months of 2022. Domestic producer GIB said that it will continue to operate at full production capacity through the 2022 Christmas - New Year period in order to rebuild resilience stock levels. The company continues to make deliveries based on an allocation system. It asked customers to contact their retail suppliers if they have any spare pallets for collection, to help with deliveries.

New Zealand: Members of the building sector report that a local shortage in gypsum wallboard has started to ease. Christchurch-based Co-operative Building Supplies chair Carl Taylor told Radio New Zealand News, that since Winstone Wallboards announced a number of corrective measures in June 2022, supply had improved a "fair bit" but it was not back to levels seen before the Covid-19 pandemic started. Rick Herd, the chief executive officer of building company Naylor Love, added that Winstone Wallboards had increased its production but that a reduction in market demand had also helped.

In late September 2022, Winstone Wallboards’ general manager David Thomas thanked his customers for their patience. He added that the company was getting closer to levelling up supply with demand for wallboard across the country. Parent company Fletcher Building Materials previously said that it expected the market to stabilise by October 2022. Winstone Wallboards’ GIB product range is the main brand of wallboard used in New Zealand. The company is reported to hold around a 95% share of the local market.

New Zealand: Winstone Wallboards says that the allocation model it introduced in July 2022 and other measures it has taken are starting to ease a shortage in gypsum wallboard. The company’s general manger David Thomas said that by operating both of its wallboard plants continuously and an upgrade to its Auckland plant in July 2022 had increased its production capacity. It has also been able to resume importing wallboard from Australia. The company is currently despatching around 3.25Mm²/month of gypsum wallboard.

The company said that is going to reduce merchant lead time between order placement and delivery from October 2022 in order to improve the effectiveness of its allocation system. It hopes that doing this will provide more flexibility along the supply chain for end-users to secure product when it is needed for installation. It also asked tradespeople to continue communicating with merchants about requirements and timings in order for the wallboard producer to understand real demand levels.

Thomas said, “The team and I recognise the responsibility Winstone Wallboards has in supplying plasterboard to the New Zealand market and want to assure you we are committed to living up to that responsibility. That we have retained such a role is not just an outcome of what we do but, a result of the high level of support the market has provided us over decades.”

New Zealand: Fletcher Building Materials recorded consolidated sales of US$5.37bn during its 2022 financial year, up by 4.7% year-on-year from US$5.13bn in the previous year. Its net earnings also rose by 42%, to US$273m from US$193m.

The group's building materials division, which includes Winstone Wallboards, contributed US$1.02bn-worth (17%) of group sales. The business delivered 'strong' volumes, with pricing initiatives effectively offsetting cost inflation. The latter particularly impacted imports of raw materials. The business made capital expenditure investments of US$129m, of which US$98.4m went towards the construction of Winstone Wallboards' upcoming Tauriko gypsum wallboard plant in the Bay of Plenty region. The plant's commissioning in 2023 will increase the company's production capacity by 30% and reduce its CO₂ emissions and waste generation.

Fletcher Building Materials chief executive officer Ross Taylor said "The 2022 financial year has not been without its challenges. Global and national supply chain disruptions have continued into the third year of the Covid-19 pandemic. In New Zealand, surging plasterboard orders following the first quarter lockdown outstripped our ability to supply, despite our manufacturing facilities running at record levels. In recognition of our key role as a local manufacturer in keeping the market supplied, we carried out a range of measures to address the shortage including operating production lines 24/7, running down inventory, importing additional product, and establishing an emergency supply pool." Taylor added "The New Zealand Commerce Commission recently published its interim market study report into residential building supplies. The final report and recommendations will be published in December 2022 and in the meantime we will continue to work collaboratively with both the commission and the government."

New Zealand: The Commerce Commission has said that builders have found it difficult to substitute alternative brands of gypsum wallboard because the building material is commonly specified by brand in building plans. Differences in consenting decisions by local government authorities and quantity-forcing rebates for wallboard have also been identified as making it harder for builders to source supplies. The regulator has been investigating general residential building supplies since November 2021 and made the comments as part of a draft report.
Commission chair Anna Rawlings said “Our preliminary view is that competition for the supply of key building supplies is not working as well as it could, and would be improved if it was easier for building products to be introduced and for competing suppliers to expand their business.”

The draft report has found certain brands of product have become ‘embedded’ in home-building practice in New Zealand and has recommended that the building regulatory system should include competition as a deliberate objective. It added that, in some circumstances, some types of rebates paid by established suppliers to merchants appeared to be reinforcing difficulties faced by competing products. The commission will now take comment on its draft report until September 2022. The final report will be published in December 2022.

Winstone Wallboards’ GIB product range is the main brand of wallboard used in the country. The company is reported to hold around a 95% share of the local market. Wallboard shortages have been reported since mid-2021.

Germany: The German Gypsum Association (GIPS) has welcomed the publication of a government report that took an inventory of natural gypsum deposits. It supports the work as it allows its members to make qualified decisions about future planning. The Federal Commission on Geosciences (BLA-GEO) has created a register of gypsum supplies in the country. The association added that it believes there will be no large-scale alternatives to natural gypsum supplies in the foreseeable future. This is due to low volumes of gypsum recycling and falling production of flue gas desulfurisation (FGD) Gypsum as coal power plants are shut down.

New Zealand: The government has established a taskforce to tackle the on-going national gypsum wallboard shortage. Scoop News has reported that the taskforce consists of industry experts. The body says that it will renew the focus on competition in the building materials sector. Minister for Building and Construction Megan Woods has written a letter to Winstone Wallboards' parent company Fletcher Building regarding trademark protections, specifically urging it not to take action on its product colour trademarks. The taskforce also plans to explore new distribution models and investigate the potential of new products in the New Zealand market.

Megan Woods said "The taskforce has a very clear aim: to increase sector productivity as quickly as possible, and to remove any unnecessary barriers, including around certification, to facilitate the use of different types of plasterboard."