Global Gypsum reviews gypsum wallboard production in Northwest Europe, where two large industries (France and Germany) and two smaller industries (Belgium and the Netherlands) faced down historic fears of a gas shortage in 2022.
France, Germany and the Benelux countries (Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) together make up 40% of the population of the EU (181m people out of a total 447m).1 Economically, they contributed 52% of the bloc’s gross domestic product (GDP) - US$8.9Tn of US$17.2Tn - in 2021.
At the heart of the region - extending in a triangle between Lille in France, Amsterdam in the Netherlands and Germany’s Ruhrgebiet, lies one of the densest population clusters in the world.
Germanic languages are dominant in Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, French in France, and both of the above in Belgium: Flemish in the North and Walloon in the South. Concealed behind the local names lie the Dutch (Flemish) and French (Walloon) of Belgium’s neighbouring countries.
According to the latest Global Gypsum research towards the forthcoming Global Gypsum Directory 2023, France, Germany, and the two gypsum-wallboard producing Benelux countries (the Netherlands and Belgium) command 832Mm2/yr in capacity across a total of 23 gypsum wallboard plants. This corresponds to 41% of an all-EU total of 2022Mm2/yr - roughly in line with their share of the bloc’s population.
France
Builders first developed gypsum plaster in Mediaeval France, from where it spread rapidly across Europe beneath the spires and buttresses of the new French Gothic architecture. Its ubiquity in the French capital installed gypsum plaster in English as ‘plaster of Paris.’
Gypsum factfile: France
GDP, 2021: US$2.96Tn (+12%)
Wallboard capacity: 368Mm2/yr
Population: 67.7m (+0.3%)
Capacity per capita: 5.43m2/yr
Gypsum supply
Continental France is blessed with gypsum reserves belonging to two main geological epochs: Paleocene gypsum in Île-de-France’s Paris Basin, and older Triassic gypsum in the Alpine and Pyrenean foothills of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and southern Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
Throughout 2022, France produced 1.89Mt of gypsum, down by 0.5% year-on-year from 1.9Mt in 2021, and by 19% decade-on-decade from 2.3Mt in 2012 - see Figure 1, below. Production last peaked at 3.3Mt in 2017.
Methods of extraction differ by region. At most sites in Île-de-France, and one in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (Lazer, Hautes-Alpes), mines follow deposits underground. Open-cast quarries occur across the rest of Southern France and at two sites in Île-de-France (Le Pin-Villeparisis and Cormeilles-en-Parisis). Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur boasts Europe’s largest gypsum mine, the 750,000t/yr Mazan quarry. It serves Belgium-based ETEX’s nearby Carpentras gypsum wallboard plant.
Table 1 (below) lists French gypsum-producing regions by number of mines.
Table 1: French regions by number of gypsum mines. Source: Global Gypsum Directory 2023.
| Region | Mines | |
| 1 | Île-de-France | 6 |
| 2 | Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur | 3 |
| 3 | Nouvelle-Aquitaine | 3 |
| 4 | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | 1 |
| TOTAL | 13 |
Saint-Gobain subsidiary Placo concluded a public consultation for its planned opening of a new gypsum quarry at Fort de Vaujours, Île-de-France, on 23 December 2022. Mining will initially span 43 hectares at the former government site, and continue for 30 years. Placo’s quarry development director Gilles Bouchet said that the producer opted for an open-pit approach in order to completely access three layers of gypsum. Within 10 years, it plans to open a second pit at the site.
The new Fort de Vaujours quarry will join the 600,000t/yr Le Pin-Villeparisis quarry and 350,000t/yr Cormeilles-en-Parisis quarry in primarily serving Placo’s Vaujours gypsum wallboard plant. It replaces a third site, the 500,000t/yr Bernouille mine, which is due for closure in 2026 due to depletion. Vaujours gypsum wallboard plant consumes 900,000t/yr of gypsum in its operations.
Issues relating to shift patterns, safety and the state of equipment led to strike action at a Placo quarry in Île-de-France in early 2022.
Other sources
Placo is a trailblazer in the area of gypsum recycling. Its Quincy-Voisins, Île-de-France, recycling plant, which it operates in partnership with Serfim Recyclage, produces 50,000t/yr of recycled gypsum from construction waste. It recovers 98% of gypsum content, which it despatches to Placo’s Vaujours plant for use in gypsum wallboard production.
In September 2022, Placo announced the launch of its 50% recycled Infiniti 13 gypsum wallboard. The producer invested US$3.2m in upgrades to its Chambéry, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, gypsum wallboard plant in order to achieve what the company called a ‘global first.’ Property developer Nexity also supported the project.
Placo aims to produce 200,000t/yr of recycled gypsum by 2030. This would enable it to produce its gypsum wallboard with 30% recycled content.
France has the rare honour of having no feasible flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) gypsum supply, having shut down all but one of its coal-fired power plants before the start of 2022. An emergency restart due to the impacts of the war in Ukraine notwithstanding, France is set to complete its exit from coal in 2024.
Gypsum wallboard production
France is the leading gypsum wallboard-producing member state of the EU, with 18% of the bloc’s total production capacity. Table 2 (below) breaks down the national 368Mm2/yr capacity by region.
Table 2: French total gypsum wallboard capacity. Source: Global Gypsum Directory 2023.
| Region | Plants | Capacity (Mm2/yr) | |
| 1 | Île-de-France | 2 | 173 |
| 2 | Nouvelle-Aquitaine | 2 | 55 |
| 3 | Hauts-de-France | 1 | 52 |
| 4 | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | 1 | 40 |
| 5 | Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur | 1 | 30 |
| 6 | Grand Est | 1 | 18 |
| TOTAL | 8 | 368 |
Producers
Three domestic producers contend the national gypsum wallboard market in France.
France-based Saint-Gobain commands a majority in terms of production capacity. It controls 194Mm2/yr (53%) of capacity in France across the three gypsum wallboard plants operated by its subsidiary Placo.
Placo spent almost half a century under foreign ownership as a subsidiary of UK-based British Plasterboard (BPB). This ended when a hostile takeover by Saint-Gobain returned control to Placo’s native Paris in 2005. Saint-Gobain’s imposing Saint-Gobain Tower in the La Défense business district is just 27km away from Placo’s 121Mm2/yr Vaujours gypsum wallboard plant, which is the largest in Europe.
Figure 2 maps all gypsum wallboard plants’ locations across Northwest Europe.
Two fellow Northwest European producers, Belgium-based ETEX and Germany-based Knauf, hold second and third place in France. ETEX holds a 122Mm2/yr (33%) capacity share via its subsidiary Siniat; Knauf 52Mm2/yr (14%) via Knauf Plâtres.
Belgium
Belgium’s economy is classed as highly globalised - unsurprisingly, given the extensive integration of its transport and energy infrastructure with that of neighbouring countries. Germany-based Audi and Sweden-based Volvo operate vehicle assembly plants in northern Belgium, contributing to automobiles’ 7.1% share of total exports in 2020.3 Other major traded goods include pharmaceuticals (7% of exports), oil (4%) and diamonds (2.9%).
Among foodstuffs, Belgium’s star commodities are its celebrated beers (0.7%) and chocolate (0.9%).
Gypsum factfile: Belgium
GDP, 2021: US$594bn (+13%)
Wallboard capacity: 79Mm2/yr
Population: 11.6m (+0.5%)
Capacity per capita: 6.81m2/yr
Gypsum supply
Belgium has no natural gypsum reserves. In March 2016, it became the first EU member state to shut down all of its coal-fired power plants, ending the domestic supply of flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) gypsum.
Phosphogypsum production continues at multiple fertiliser plants, concentrated in the north and west of the country.
Belgium sourced 100% of its US$54.3m/yr-worth of gypsum imports in 2020 from other European countries, including US$27.7m-worth (51%) from France and US$15.7m-worth (29%) from Germany.4
Gypsum wallboard production
Belgium’s is a mid-sized European gypsum wallboard industry. Its 79Mm2/yr capacity, split between two plants, places it seventh in the EU.
Both plants are located in northern Belgium’s Flanders region - the Kallo plant in East Flanders, close the Dutch border and the coast, and the Wielsbeke plant in West Flanders, close to the boundary of Flanders and Wallonia.
Producers
As in neighbouring France, Saint-Gobain holds pole position in Belgium’s domestic gypsum wallboard market. Its control of the 49Mm2/yr Kallo plant, via its subsidiary Gyproc, gives it a 62% capacity share nationally.
The remaining 38% of Belgian gypsum wallboard capacity belongs to Germany-based Knauf, via Belgian subsidiary Isolava, which operates the 30Mm2/yr Wielsebeke plant.
A third gypsum wallboard producer currently operates no lines in Belgium, but bears mention for its headquarters there, located in Zaventem, outside Brussels. From here, Etex operates a gypsum wallboard plant network spanning France, the Netherlands, Germany and 12 other countries across three continents.
Etex launched its Road to Sustainability 2030 strategy in September 2022. The strategy sets out the company’s sustainable growth strategy under five headings, namely Health, Safety and Wellbeing, Customer Engagement, Diversity, Equality and Inclusion, Decarbonisation and Circularity. 2030 targets include 20% circular inputs and a 20% packaging reduction compared to 2018, and the establishment of product take-back services across 80% of its European markets.
Etex responded to ‘significant’ growth in the cost of its raw materials and energy during the first half of 2022 by raising its gypsum wallboard prices on 5 September 2022.
Another important gypsum wallboard body based in Belgium is Eurogypsum, the European gypsum wallboard association. It marked the 60th anniversary of its association with a congress in Brussels in late April 2022, following a 12-month postponement due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Eurogypsum welcomed planned changes to the EU’s Construction Products Regulation (CPR), calling the proposals an ‘ambitious’ basis upon which ‘to speed up the uptake of sustainable and circular practices in the construction product manufacturing industry.’ It also called for clear life-cycle assessment (LCA) and environmental product declaration (EPD) labelling in an electronic format.
Eurogypsum’s board of directors elected Etex’s head of corporate social responsibility (CSR), Jörg Ertle, as its new president on 29 April 2022.
The Netherlands
The history of the Dutch nation begins among the warring cities and duchies of the Low Countries in the Mediaeval Holy Roman Empire, which progressively came under Burgundian control during the 14th and 15th centuries. In time, dynastic marriages placed the Burgundian Netherlands under possession of the Spanish crown. The modern boundaries of the Netherlands were laid down in the decades-long religious rebellion which finally rent the Protestant Dutch Republic from the Catholic Southern Netherlands (modern Belgium) in 1579.
A constructive cycle of cosmopolitanism, commerce and intellectual freedom drove the development of the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Gypsum factfile: The Netherlands
GDP, 2021: US$1.01tn (+11%)
Wallboard capacity: 37Mm2/yr
Population: 17.5m (+0.5%)
Capacity per capita: 2.11m2/yr
Gypsum supply
Geologically, most of the Netherlands is scarcely older than the reclaimed land which constitutes 17% of the country’s area. Late Permian rock protrudes across a swathe of the central-northern Netherlands, bearing anhydrite deposits down to depths of 100m. While halite and magnesium chloride extraction from this formation have a century-long history in the North and East Netherlands, the anhydrite deposits remain unproductive.
Historically, Dutch phosphoric acid plants discharged their 1.8Mt/yr of phosphogypsum into the North Sea. The presence of dangerous radium has made purification necessary, and turned phosphogypsum into an economical source of gypsum for wallboard producers.
International trade presents a typically Dutch solution to shortfalls in gypsum supply: the nation imported US$35.8m-worth of gypsum in 2020. This corresponds to year-on-year growth of 19%, making the country the third fastest-growing market globally, behind the UK and the US.
Gypsum wallboard production
The Netherlands’ two small gypsum wallboard plants are situated over 200km apart - the Delfzijl plant on the coast in the North Netherlands and the Housteiln Utrecht plant on the canals of Utrecht in the West Netherlands.
Companies from neighbouring Belgium and Germany hold all gypsum wallboard production capacity in the Netherlands: Etex subsidiary Siniat controls 21Mm2/yr-worth of capacity at the Delfzijl plant, while Knauf operates the 16Mm2/yr Utrecht plant.
Figure 2 (top) breaks down Netherlands wallboard capacity by ownership, alongside that of each of the other countries under review here.
Germany
Germany extends from the North Sea island of Sylt, off the coast of Denmark, down to the Alps. Culturally, the country sits at the junction of Northern, Western and Central Europe, with considerable diversity from region to region. Population centres include Hamburg in the North and Munich in the far south of Bavaria, the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolis near the border with the Netherlands, and, 400km across the country to the east, the famously free-spirited capital, Berlin.
Germans make up 19% of the total population of the EU, more than France and Belgium combined, across a land area 36% smaller than France.
Gypsum factfile: Germany
GDP, 2021: US$4.26tn (+9.5%)
Wallboard capacity: 348Mm2/yr
Population: 83.2m (+<0.1%)
Capacity per capita: 4.18m2/yr
Gypsum supply
The history of construction-quality gypsum production extends over a millenium in Central Germany’s Harz mountains. Left below sea level 280m years ago, sludge and sediments pooled in the Harz, eventually rising as karsts, replete with copper, lead, silver and zinc. Once a mainstay in the region’s economy, the mineral wealth of the Harz was largely abandoned due to changing economic conditions in the later 14th century. Today, forests have returned to most of the Harz, but Remondis subsidiary CASEA continues to mine gypsum among the abandoned water mills and winding towers at Ellrich, Thuringia, and Osterode am Harz, Lower Saxony. The gypsum supplier operates a third mine 200km south of the Harz at Sulzheim, Bavaria. CASEA ordered a new palletiser from Beumer in April 2022. A second company, Gipsbergbau Engel, mines gypsum on the Luxembourg border at Ralingen, Rhineland-Palatinate.
The German Gypsum Association (GIPS) commissioned an inventory of German gypsum reserves in August 2022. In registering the country’s natural supply, the association hopes to better secure Germany against the eventual loss of flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) gypsum after Germany eventually quits fossil fuel use, some time before 2035. Currently, CASEA operates an FGD system at Trianel’s coal-fired power plant in Lünen, North Rhine-Westphalia.
GIPS reported that gypsum recycling rates remained ‘low’ in mid-2022. As such, it surmised that there will be ‘no large scale alternative to natural gypsum’ in the medium-term future.
Gypsum wallboard production
Table 3: German total gypsum wallboard capacity. Source: Global Gypsum Directory 2023.
| Region | Plants | Capacity (Mm2/yr) | |
| 1 | Brandenburg | 3 | 112 |
| 2 | Bavaria | 2 | 87 |
| 3 | Lower Saxony | 2 | 46 |
| 4 | NRW | 1 | 43 |
| 5 | Saxony-Anhalt | 1 | 20 |
| 6 | Baden-Württemberg | 1 | 20 |
| 7 | Saxony | 1 | 20 |
| TOTAL | 11 | 348 |
Germany has more gypsum wallboard plants than any other EU member state. They are spread over seven of the country’s 16 federal states. Sparsely-populated Brandenburg’s three plants serve the Berlin market, and give the state a per-capita capacity of 44.3m2/yr. Meanwhile, the single plant of the most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) gives it a per-capita capacity of 2.4m2/yr. Table 3 (above) lists states in order of capacity.
Producers
Each of the European big three gypsum wallboard producers is represented in the German gypsum wallboard industry - Knauf, Saint-Gobain and Etex.
The first of these, Knauf, is a German home-grown classic. It began producing plaster in Perl an der Mosel in 1933 and, after its native Saarland became a French protectorate in 1946, relocated to Iphofen, Bavaria. The start of gypsum wallboard production followed in 1958, and the company’s wallboard operations now span five continents and comprise over 20% of global gypsum wallboard capacity. The producer remains family-owned.
Number two producer, Saint-Gobain, said that it had prepared contingency plans for an anticipated gas shortage in Germany and other Central European countries in April 2022. It and fellow producers can draw some assurance from the fact that, despite price rises, the gas taps remained on all winter.
References
1. World Bank, Population, total - EU etc., data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?locations=EU-BE-LU-NL-FR-DE
2. Global Gypsum, ‘Global Gypsum Directory 2022,’ www.proids-online.com/products/directories
3. OEC, ‘Belgium,’ www.oec.world/en/profile/country/bel
4. OEC, ‘Gypsum,’ www.oec.world/en/profile/hs/gypsum
