Gypsum industry news

China: BNBM has held a high level discussion and information exchange with the China Construction Eighth Engineering Division Corporation (CSCEC 8). Senior representatives of both companies attended the event. Dong Zhanbo, assistant general manager and chief engineer at BNBM, commented that both companies have a good relationship and they share ambitions for low-carbon future. He hoped that further high-level communication between the companies and future meetings could lead to more extensive and in-depth cooperation. Zhang Guangtao, general manager of the Procurement Management Department of CSCEC 8, expressed the hope that the two companies could work together more closely.

CSCEC 8 is a subsidiary of the China State Construction Engineering, one of the world’s largest construction companies, both within China and worldwide.

Grenzebach said earlier this month that it is going to invest around Euro2m on growing its presence in Pune. The current sales and service branch will be merged with a new production site in the city in Maharashtra. The site will be used for the assembly of conveyor equipment and welding work for dryers and lehr ovens for the glass industry. Production at the new unit is expected to start in October 2023 and it will create around 30 new jobs.

The decision by the Germany-based equipment supplier to expand in India follows Saint-Gobain’s expansion plans in India. It said in late 2022 that it was planning to spend US$215m towards capacity expansion plans in 2023 as part of a larger investment in the region, of US$970m between 2022 and 2025. Its stated aim for the new investment is to grow its revenue to US$4.4bn in 2032 from US$1.5bn in 2022. To break this down, half of the group’s turnover in India comes at present from glass-related businesses, 30% from gypsum and construction chemicals and the rest from abrasives, ceramics and life sciences. Some examples of this planned investment include the acquisition by Saint-Gobain of Rockwool India, a stone wool manufacturer, in February 2023 and an agreement to buy UP Twiga Fiberglass, a glass wool producer. Saint-Gobain is the biggest gypsum wallboard producer by capacity in India with four plants, followed by USGKnauf, which runs two plants, and various independent producers.

Growing the wallboard market in India has long seemed like an enticing prospect given the country’s demographics, low production capacity per capita compared to Europe and North America, and sustainability trends. However, despite all of this, it is taking a long time to get there. One commentator on LinkedIn has suggested that this may be down to reticence from the construction sector to adopt the product. In his view wallboard in India has mainly been used for ceilings and for commercial and industrial applications but not for residential projects. Producers, such as Saint-Gobain are likely to be well aware of this. So it is interesting to note that two projects in India picked up awards in Saint-Gobain’s International Gypsum Trophy in 2023.

On the crude gypsum side, data from the Indian Bureau of Mines and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) show that India produced an estimated 4.3Mt of gypsum from its mines from reserves of 37Mt. These reserves are far smaller than other countries with large populations such as China, the US, Brazil or Türkiye. The country also produced an estimated 2.1Mt of flue gas desulfurisation (FGD) gypsum in the 2023 – 2023 financial year. However, the Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA) estimates that its sector used 13 – 17Mt in 2020 – 2021 when cement production was 331Mt and that this is forecast to rise to 20 – 25Mt in 2024 – 2025 when cement production reaches 491Mt. This corresponds to the 4 – 5% of gypsum that it is added to clinker when grinding it to manufacture ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and other cement types.

In acknowledgment of this gap between mining and usage, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) started promoting recycling gypsum from fertiliser production and power plants in May 2023. So far, its main focus has been on improving access to phosphogypsum stockpiles, although the target for FGD production is an ambitious 9.9Mt by 2025 – 2026. Unsurprisingly, gypsum exporters have benefitted from this situation. Oman, reportedly, exported nearly 5Mt of gypsum to India in 2022. Historically, Thailand and Iran have also supplied the Indian market with gypsum.

India remains the great maybe for wallboard adoption outside of North America and Europe. The latest round of investment by Saint-Gobain and Grenzebach may yet deliver on this. Both companies are looking at a range of light materials including glass and insulation not just wallboard. So far though, the main merger and acquisition activity by Saint-Gobain has been targeted on insulation companies. Once or if Saint-Gobain or anyone else starts buying gypsum companies or building new plants then we will have a sense that something is changing. Alongside this, the DPIIT’s plans to recycle more gypsum may help bring further attention to the local gypsum sector.

France: Saint-Gobain’s sales rose by 1.6% on a like-for-like basis to Euro25bn in the first half of 2023. This was driven by the group’s High Performance Solutions division, sales in Asia-Pacific and improved business in North America. Sales grew in all regions apart from Northern Europe. However, in real terms, sales fell by 2% year-on-year from Euro25.5bn in the same period 2022. The group’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 1.5% to Euro3.74bn from Euro3.68bn.

Benoit Bazin, Chief Executive Officer of Saint-Gobain, said that there had been a “moderate slowdown in its markets in the short-term.” He added “Over 60% of our earnings are now generated in North America, Asia and emerging countries, where trends are improving and the growth outlook is supported by demographics and rapid urbanisation. In Western Europe, renovation - our biggest market - continues to show good resilience as expected, with stimulus measures and regulations aimed at accelerating the path to carbon neutrality; structural demand for new construction is growing, even though additional financing costs are temporarily impacting the sector.”

Austria: The European Commission has approved the formation of a joint venture between Saint-Gobain Austria (Rigips), demolition company Porr Umwelttechnik and waste management company Saubermacher. The project plans to build and operate a gypsum recycling plant in Stockerau.

Canada: Gypsum industry veteran Bob Bruce has died at the age of 72.

Bob Bruce worked in the gypsum sector for over 40 years. He obtained a PhD in chemistry from McMaster University in the 1970s and then worked for various gypsum companies, including BPB, in North America and Europe. He later became a consultant in the late 1990s when he founded Innogyps, before setting up NuGyp Corp in 2008. Bob Bruce was well-known as an author, speaker and mentor. He attended and spoke at many Global Gypsum Conferences over the years, and had many contacts and friends around the world. He was the Global Gypsum Personality of the Year in 2007.

Bruce's family will hold a celebration of his life in Toronto, Ontario on 28 July 2023, and have invited donations to the Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation, the CAMH Foundation and the Canadian Cancer Society in lieu of flowers. Online condolences can be made here.