Gypsum industry news

US: Progress on two new flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) projects in Colorado and Indiana have been announced. Neumann Systems Group has completed 60% of its US$73.5m contract to install an emissions scrubbing system at the Martin Drake Power Plant in Colorado and the first stage of the Indiana-Kentucky Electric Corporation's US$670m pollution-control project at the Clifty Creek plant in Indiana is now operational. Both of these projects will increase the supply of FGD gypsum in the US.

Neumann Systems Group has a 2011 contract worth US$121m to design, build and install an emission-scrubbing system on two of the Martin Drake Power Plant's three power production units. The NeuStream system is designed to remove more than 95% of the sulphur dioxide from the emissions of the two units, as required by US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules that take effect in 2017, and convert it to gypsum that can be sold for fertiliser and building materials.

At the Indiana-Kentucky Electric Corporation's Clifty Creek Power plant in Indiana, plant officials announced that one of its two new flue gas desulphurisation scrubbers has begun feeding exhaust gas to produce cleaner emissions. These scrubbers will remove up to 98% of sulphur dioxide emissions creating synthetic gypsum. The Clifty Creek plant has six 217MW units that will feed to two scrubbers. The second scrubber is scheduled to begin operations in May 2013. The project began in 2007 but was postponed from 2009 to 2011 due to the economic downturn.

China: Beijing New Building Materials Public Co Ltd (BNBM) has announced that it plans to invest US$58m to build three gypsum wallboard projects in China. BNBM, part of the massive state-controlled China National Building Material Co Ltd (CNBM) said that it will construct the plants to expand the domestic market for wallboard. In addition, the company will build a product development centre using a total investment of US$108m.

UK: Saint-Gobain, the French building materials giant, has opened its new innovation centre on Great Portland Street in London, UK to showcase the company's products. Showcasing innovative and sustainable products, the centre contains product libraries and resources for specifiers alongside meeting spaces and conference facilities. The centre will display products from Saint-Gobain's many UK businesses, including Artex, British Gypsum, Ecophon, Saint-Gobain Glass, Isover, Pasquill and Weber.

Models of construction products and solutions provide a better understanding of how systems work in practice, whilst screens showcase products, solutions and other Saint-Gobain initiatives.

Speaking at the launch, Saint-Gobain's CEO Pierre-André de Chalendar said, "With this new Innovation Centre, Saint-Gobain opens up to professionals with a global vision of our market to help develop and stimulate research. This Innovation Centre reflects our ambition to become the reference for sustainable habitat, bringing innovative solutions to meet the main challenges of our time."

US: Holcim (US) Inc., a major cement manufacturer and part of Switzerland's Holcim Ltd., has filed an application with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality for an operating permit to quarry gypsum on 21.4 hectares (53 acres) of private land about 15km southeast of Geyser in Judith Basin County. The gypsum will be used to make cement at the company's Trident Cement Plant near Three Forks, according to Herb Rolfes, supervisor of the Department of Environmental Quality's (DEQ) Operating Permit Section. Gypsum has been mined at the site in the past.

"It should be a relatively benign type of mine," Rolfes said. "There's no real issues as far as chemistry or water quality that will be a problem." DEQ officials are reviewing the application and will write a draft environmental assessment that will be put out for public comment in the second quarter of 2013. About 3.9 hectares (nine acres) would be disturbed over the next five years, with about 21.4 hectares (53 acres) being disturbed over the estimated 18-year life of the mine.

Romania: Siniat Romania has said that construction works on a Euro50m wallboard plant in Turceni in southwestern Romania will start in June 2013. The plant was originally scheduled to start construction in March 2013.

The project is entirely financed by Siniat's parent company, Belgium's Etex group. Production at the new plant is scheduled to start in March 2015. The new plant will have an initial wallboard capacity of 27Mm²/yr. Its capacity may be boosted to 50Mm² depending on market demand. Some 50-60% of its output will be exported to Balkan countries.

Siniat Romania exported some 35% of its wallboard output in 2012. The company turnover rose by 1.5% to Euro22.1m in 2012. Siniat added that its market share in Romania stood at 25% in 2012, when the local wallboard market contracted to 38Mm².

Looking forward the company plans to raise its market share on the local wallboard market, which is predicted to grow by 5% in 2013. Siniat Romania runs a wallboard plant in Bucharest.