Gypsum industry news

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.

Japan: Daiseki Eco. Solutions subsidiary Green Arrows Kyushu has opened a wallboard recycling plant in the suburbs of Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture. The recycling plant will separate used and dismantled wallboard, collected from construction sites, into plaster powder and paper for sale to wallboard and paper manufacturers, respectively. The plant will begin with 15,000t/yr of processing capacity, which will be raised to 36,000t/yr.

Daiseki entered the wallboard-recycling business in 2009 through a subsidiary named Green Arrows Central, based in Tokai, Aichi Prefecture. Its Tokai plant currently recycles 30,000t/yr of used wallboard from the local area.

Indonesia: Saint-Gobain has announced that it will soon start building a 30Mm2/yr plasterboard plant near Jakarta. The project is estimated at Euro35m and it is the building materials manufacturer's first wallboard plant in Indonesia. It is intended to strengthen Saint-Gobain Gypsum's presence in Southeast Asia, where it currently operates four plants in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

US: The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has released data regarding gypsum production and consumption in the United States during 2012. This shows that a total of 9.9Mt of crude gypsum, 11.8Mt of synthetic gypsum and 12.1Mt of calcined gypsum was produced during the year. In 2011 the totals were 8.9Mt (crude), 11.8Mt (synthetic) and 11.9Mt (crude). Total consumption came to 24.6Mt, a 3.8% rise from 2011 when the country consumed 23.7Mt.

The leading crude gypsum-producing States were, in descending order, Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa, Nevada, and California, which together accounted for 58% of total output. Overall, 47 companies produced gypsum in 34 states and around 90% of all gypsum was used in wallboard and plaster production. Around 12% of the gypsum consumed was imported.

The USGS pointed to increased construction activity as the main driver of the increased demand, consumption (up 4%) and production (up 11%) of gypsum in the US in 2012. The average price of gypsum remained static at ~US$7/t crude (at mine) and ~US$30/t calcined (at plant). The USGS added that the US gypsum wallboard capacity in 2012 was in the region of 33Bn ft² (3.07Bn m²).