Gypsum industry news

UK: Fairport Engineering has appointed Jeff Buxton as the Sales Manager for Heavy Industries. Buxton holds over 35 years of experience working in the bulk materials processing and handling industries and is a fully-qualified mechanical and electrical engineer. His industry knowledge includes the technologies and systems used in the cement, gypsum, aggregates and alternative fuels sectors, amongst others. Previously Buxton has worked for a number of the leading suppliers of proprietary equipment to these markets.

Canada: The NuGyp Corporation is entering into discussions with major equipment suppliers, plasterboard manufacturers and other plaster product manufacturers in the gypsum industry in order to commercialise its patented technology for gypsum, 'The NuGyp Process,' which enables major savings in water consumption and operating costs in plaster production.

The technology, which was voted Best New Product at the Global Gypsum Conference & Exhibition in 2010, has now been proven at full commercial scale and the company's directors believe that it will best be exploited by and benefit a major organisation with established resources, expertise and international distribution networks.

The company has been approached during the development process by a number of interested parties and has now decided formally to offer the technology for sale or possible joint venture.

Russia: Saint-Gobain has started production at its first wallboard plant in Russia. Pierre-André de Chalendar, chairman and CEO of Saint-Gobain, officially opened the plant, located near Gomzovo in the Nizhny Novgorod region, on 10 July 2013. The new Euro70m plant, which also contains a gypsum quarry, has a workforce of 87 employees.

"The start-up of this new plant is an important step in the group's development within the Russian habitat and construction markets," said de Chalendar. "With its unique portfolio of products and solutions, Saint-Gobain serves rapidly-growing construction markets worldwide. Russia's climate, its rising purchasing power and pressing need for housing means that it's a country with great potential for the group."

Russia: Matanat-A, the Azerbaijani building materials producer, has re-registered land in Uspensk district of Krasnodar region of the Russian Federation intended for a industrial complex including a gypsum wallboard plant. Company president Elkhan Bashirov said that they Matanat-A is continuing negotiations with the district administration about the start of construction.

"The point is that the purchased land is registered as agricultural land. In this respect we submitted the documents for re-registration of land for industrial work," said Bashirov.

The agreement to build the complex has originally signed on 16 September 2011 at the Jubilee X Investment Forum in Sochi. The plans consist of five plants, including a gypsum wallboard plant, built on a 37 hectares plot. Matanat-A has also purchased a 78 hectare site to mine gypsum at Otradnensky in Krasnodar region. The plant build will be funded by a Euro30m investment, of which 30% comes from Matanat-A and the remaining 70% from a loan.

US: Mined gypsum supply in the US has risen by 43% to 3.41Mt in the first quarter of 2013 from 2.38Mt in the same quarter of 2012, according to a report from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Imported gypsum production rose in the quarter year-on-year to 0.85Mt and synthetic gypsum production fell year-on-year to 1.79Mt. The overall total supply of gypsum rose by 21% year-on-year to 6.05Mt from 5.01Mt.

Total supply of board products stood at 327MM² for the first quarter of 2013, a slight decline compared to 334MM² for the first quarter of 2012 and a 19% fall to 403MM² in the fourth quarter of 2012. Major crude gypsum importers in the first quarter of 2013 included Mexico (0.34Mt), Canada (0.27Mt) and Spain (0.24Mt).