Gypsum industry news

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.

Philippines/Thailand: The Philippines Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has launched an investigation into imports of Thai gypsum wallboard. The investigation forms the first stage in the process of potentially implementing a tariff on gypsum wallboard entering the Philippines from Thailand. The investigation will seek to establish whether dumping of the product occurred between January and May 2023, and whether the wallboard industry of the Philippines experienced any injury due to imports from Thailand between 2019 and 2022. The Philippine Star newspaper has reported that the DTI accepted an application for an investigation from Knauf Gypsum Philippines on 24 November 2023.

The DTI preliminarily stated that “There was a substantial margin of dumping of gypsum board from Thailand for the period January to December 2022 based on the domestic wholesale and export prices as gathered by the gypsum board industry.” It added “Based on the aforementioned, there is a prima facie evidence that the domestic industry suffered material injury before the acquisition efforts as evidenced by the low market share of the domestic industry ranging from 23% to 40%, operating losses and price suppression from 2019 to 2021 and price undercutting in 2021.”

Spain: Knauf Ibérica is planning to build a 7.5MW biomass unit at its Guixers gypsum wallboard plant in Lleida. The unit will be operational by December 2024 and create around 200 jobs, according to La Vanguardia newspaper. The company intends to source wood biomass locally. Once operational it is expected to reduce the plant’s CO₂ emissions by 35%. The Guixers plant also installed photovoltaic solar panels earlier in 2023.

Alberto De Luca, chief executive officer of Knauf Ibérica, said “The launch of this project is a significant step towards reducing our carbon footprint and achieving zero emissions by 2045."

Spain: Pladur plans to start using green hydrogen at its Valdemoro gypsum wallboard plant from the second half of 2024. The subsidiary of Etex will then roll out the use of hydrogen at its other plants in the country, according to Forbes. It is also considering using biomethane and biogas generated from organic waste in its production processes.

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.