Gypsum industry news

France: Saint-Gobain has appointed Christian Bako as Vice-President Marketing & Development at Saint-Gobain. He joins the company’s executive committee and will report to Anne Hardy, the Chief Innovation Officer. He succeeds Cordula Gudduschat, who has been appointed as the general manager of Isover and Rigips Germany.

Bako studied International Business Administration in Germany and Spain, and started his career at Roto Frank, where he held sales and general management roles in Germany, Spain and France. He joined Saint-Gobain in 2017 as Chief Digital Officer of the glass business in Germany, where he subsequently became general manager of Glassolutions. In 2020, he was appointed general manager of a High Performance Solutions business for Germany & Austria before becoming, in 2021, General Manager for Central Europe.

UK: British Gypsum’s Robertsbridge plant has celebrated the 150th anniversary of the discovery of gypsum at the site in East Sussex. To mark the event the company held a family day with a range of activities, according to the Sussex Express newspaper. Tanya Young, the plant manager, said "Our legacy is grounded in this discovery, and it's incredible to see how gypsum remains an essential component in modern construction, proving its enduring value over the years." She added “The majority of our employees are locals, and we're proud to have generations of families who have been a part of the British Gypsum family for decades."

Belgium: Etex’s Building Performance division drove revenue in the first half of 2023 through price rises despite a softening in gypsum wallboard sales volumes. The group’s total revenue grew by 4% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis to Euro2.02bn in the first half of 2023 from Euro1.79bn in the same period 2022. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 14% to Euro363m from Euro319m in real terms.

Bernard Delvaux, the chief executive officer of Etex, said “In the first half of 2023, Etex coped with an overall slowdown of the construction sector - both in new build and renovation - triggered by several elements leading to high volatility and uncertainty such as inflation that puts pressure on consumers’ buying power, higher interest rates and more restricted loan policies by banks. However, Etex managed to record improved sales compared to the first half of 2022 through swift adaptations to challenging market contexts and cost-to-price monitoring. While our volumes are slightly impacted, margins remain strong.”

Notable events so far in 2023 include Etex’s acquisition of UK-based Superglass Insulation in June 2023. It divested its two Russia-based units under its Ursa subsidiary in August 2023. It also acquired Betacon, a Romania-based company to secure raw material supply for wallboard activities in the country.

One can tell that gypsum wallboard is a popular product because companies keep trying to devise alternatives to it. A recent one is Breathaboard. The company making it, Adaptavate, announced in August 2023 that it had generated around Euro2.3m in its latest investment round. It is building a pilot production line in Bristol in the UK and attempting to licence its Breathaboard product, amongst other plans. Its take on wallboard is being marketed as a sustainable substitute that is made from crop waste, that sequesters CO₂ and that then can be composted at the end of its life. It is also promoting the product’s breathability and moisture buffering capabilities, hence the name.

Another new contender hoping to steal some of the gypsum wallboard market is Xeriant’s Nexaboard product. This one uses plastic waste as its alternative to gypsum. Florida-based Xeriant said in July 2023 that it had started to buy equipment and raw materials, was running pilot production and was testing its first samples. It too is working on getting its product used in pilot construction projects.

Both of these examples, and others over the years, have taken a pop at wallboard’s sustainability credentials. Adaptavate is rather quieter about what happens to all of that sequestered CO₂ when its product is composted and Xeriant does not mention the environmental impact of making the plastic it uses in the first place. Yet, it is a valid question to ask how sustainable is gypsum wallboard? This column has covered issues with the supply of raw gypsum from either natural, synthetic or recycled sources previously, so we will stick to the general picture here.

The late-lamented consultant Bob Bruce pulled together data from various studies for the Global Gypsum Conference in 2019 to estimate the CO₂ emissions from wallboard production. He estimated that the global average of CO₂ production by wallboard was around 2.4kg/m², equating to 24Mt/yr of CO₂ for the global wallboard industry. For reference, it is estimated by the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research - Oslo (CICERO) that the process emissions from clinker production alone released around 1.6Gt/yr of CO₂ in 2022. When compared by mass (as opposed to area) to other building materials, wallboard has a lower carbon intensity than many products such as glass, cement (made from clinker), plastics, steel and plywood. Timber, concrete and brick are all better than wallboard though. However, as Bruce pointed out, a lot more concrete is manufactured than wallboard. Bruce came up with a handful of suggestions for how wallboard production could reduce its CO₂ emissions such as the reduction of slurry water, local delivery, co-generation, increasing drying efficiency and so on.

The two big sustainability trends from the sector over the last year have been the drive to support higher recycling rates of gypsum and a move towards ‘greener’ sources of energy. This can be seen in the growing use of electrical energy from renewable sources such as the production of net zero CO₂ gypsum wallboard at Saint-Gobain’s Fredrikstad plant in Norway from April 2023. The group’s Montreal plant looks set to follow in 2024 following an upgrade, potentially making it the first net zero wallboard plant in North America. Chiyoda-Ute in Japan has also started using renewably-sourced electricity at its plants in Japan, but it is uncertain what other energy sources these sites are using. China-based BNBM also claimed in its half-year results that it had built four “nearly zero emission” gypsum board production lines in the reporting period.

Wallboard's market position in North America, Europe and elsewhere seems secure. However, it is in dynamic tension as it is both a potential replacement for more carbon intensive building materials and it could also be susceptible to new emerging products that can improve on its own emissions. The manufacturers of Breathaboard and Nexaboard are clearly hoping for the latter. Yet, as is often pointed out, giving more market share to wallboard from other common building materials could reduce CO₂ emissions from construction massively. The diversification of traditional heavy building materials companies such as Holcim into light building materials in recent years suggests that some businesses are seriously preparing for this possibility. No doubt, if global wallboard usage does start to rise significantly, the pressure will grow to make wallboard more sustainable and to devise even more alternative board products.

US: GMS’ net sales grew by 4% year-on-year to US$1.41bn in the quarter to 31 July 2023 from US$1.40bn in the same period in 2022. Sales of wallboard increased by 10% to US$571m from US$522m. However, the company’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 2% to US$165m from US$169m.

John C. Turner, Jr, president and chief executive officer of GMS, said “We were pleased to deliver a solid start to fiscal 2024 with first quarter results that were in line with our expectations, continuing to demonstrate the resilience of pricing in wallboard, ceilings and complementary products, as well as the strength and stability that our balanced end markets provide.”