Turkey: Onat GYPS has officially opened its new 25,000m²/day capacity gypsum wallboard plant near its gypsum plaster plant in Ankara, Turkey. The machine and automation systems were developed by Grenzebach Maschinenbau GmbH engineers.

Kazakhstan: A new gypsum building mixtures plant will be launched in Zhambyl by the end of 2015, according to the Kazinform International News Agency. The project has been initiated under the state programme, 'Industrialisation Map of Kazakhstan.'

JSC Zhambylgips is modernising the existing plant for US$9.09m. Once complete, the plant will have 270,000t/yr dry compounds and gypsum products capacity and will employ 50 people. It is assumed that the plant will produce about 600t/day of gypsum. The products will be delivered to local and foreign markets, mainly in Russia and central Asia.

Russia: CJSC Knauf Gips Baskunchak, based in the Astrakhan region, plans to start developing the Kashara-Tugai gypsum deposit before the end of 2015, according to company director Sergei Michkov.

"We are commissioning the Kashara-Tugai deposit, located north of Lake Baskunchak. We have received the development license and the documentation has been agreed. The reserves are quite large: it will support production for 100 years," said Michkov in comments reported on by Interfax.

Astrakhan region has reported 67.5Mt of gypsum registered on its state records. Knauf Gips Baskunchak had a total of 111Mt of gypsum reserves recorded at the start of 2015. Knauf Gips Baskunchak, which joined the Knauf group in 1998, produces high-quality dry mixes from gypsum and supplies gypsum to Russian cement plants and other enterprises.

US: The Gypsum Association (GA) has announced the release of the 21st edition of the Fire Resistance Design Manual (FDRM) GA-600-2015.

Revised on a three-year basis, GA-600 has been referenced by the model building codes as a source of fire resistive designs for more than 40 years. The 2015 edition contains nearly 100 new systems that supplement existing assemblies for walls and partitions, floor-ceiling systems, area separation walls and others. Among these are 20 new head-of-wall and base-of-wall systems that expand the options for perimeter relief.

The FRDM is currently referenced by the International Building Code and The National Fire Codes, as well as many state and local jurisdictions in the US and Canada as a source document for fire-resistance and sound-control rated designs that incorporate gypsum board in a variety of building systems. A recently revised ICC-ES Evaluation Report (ESR 1338) incorporates a reference to the 2015 edition of the Fire Resistance Design Manual as an acceptable source of generic fire-resistance and sound-control systems. Over the years, the FRDM has broadened to address sound and other factors of concern for designers, builders, code officials and the public, featuring more than 700 systems.