Gypsum industry news

US: Continental Building Products' Palatka wallboard plant in Florida has endured Hurricane Irma without any serious damage to the facility. The site is about 30 miles inland of St Augustine and it employs over 125 workers. It closed for the storm to allow employees to prepare themselves and their families. However, it didn't lose power and 'sustained essentially no known damage'. Continental Building Products has announced it will donate US$25,000 to the American Red Cross to support the relief effort.

Turkey: Hamburger Turkey, part of Austria's Prinzhorn Group, has signed a land purchasing agreement to set up a third paper mill at Kütahya.

The new paper machine will have state-of-the-art technology, a width of 7.80m and an annual production capacity of 480,000t containerboard, mainly light-weight Testliner and Fluting. The Euro300m investment will create 500 new jobs and is planned to be finalised in 2020.

"Turkey is an important market for us and this investment shows our strong commitment to this fast growing region. If all relevant factors, such as governmental permissions and political stability, show a green light we are happy to proceed with the next project steps." said Cord Prinzhorn, chief executive officer (CEO) of Prinzhorn Group.

Hamburger Turkey is part of the Hamburger Containerboard Division of Prinzhorn Group with a total of seven paper mills in four countries and 2Mt/yr of produced containerboard. The two existing paper mills in Turkey are based in Corlu and Denizli.

India: Thomas Paul, the operations director of USG Boral, has met with the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, N, Chandrababu Naidu, to discuss building a plant in the state, according to the Hindu newspaper. Earlier in 2017 the wallboard producer said that it was building a 30Mm2/yr wallboard plant near Chennai in Tamil Nadu.

Australia: After a construction period of just 11 months, the US$55m Knauf gypsum wallboard factory at Bundaberg, Queensland has produced its first wallboard. The plant received its first delivery of gypsum at the plant in late July 2017.

Canada: Georgia-Pacific spokesperson Rick Kimble has confirmed that the mothballed wallboard liner plant at Thorold, Ontario will be dismantled. The plant was idled in January 2014 due to excess capacity. Kimble said the company has acquired a demolition permit from the city and Georgia-Pacific has contracted Canadian firm Delsan AIM, headquartered in Montreal, to decommission the plant.

Delsan said on its website that it plans to carry out the demolition in an environmentally-sound and sensitive manner. "Delsan AIM recognises the historical significance that this paper mill once represented to the community and we are eager to do our part in helping this beautiful area 'prepare for the future,' " the company said.

Australia: The Port of Bundaberg has received its first shipment of gypsum for the new Knauf Plasterboard wallboard plant that has been built there. The US$55m plant has recently been constructed at the port, according to Australian Government News. The port expects to receive a gypsum shipment every two to three months from now on. The wallboard plant is expected to officially open in August 2017.

Germany: Rigips has inaugurated its first gypsum recycling plant at Gelsenkirchen in North Rhine-Westphalia. The subsidiary of Saint-Gobain will recycle gypsum with New West Gypsum Recycling Germany. Waste material from buildings from the Rhine-Ruhr region and the northern part of Rhineland-Palatinate will be sent to a reprocessing site operated by New West Gypsum first before being despatched to the Rigips plant where it will be returned to the production process. Rigips intends to open more gypsum recycling plants following the start-up process of its new unit.

"With the start of the plant, Rigips assumes a pioneering role for the entire drywall construction industry. As the first manufacturer, we in North Rhine-Westphalia are now able to implement the idea 'from gypsum to gypsum'. Thus we cover the complete product service life cycle, from the raw material extraction via the production and installation to the demolition and the recycling," said Werner Hansmann, chairman of the management at Rigips.

US: National Gypsum is upgrading its paper plant in Oxford, Alabama. The work includes replacing a boiler at the site first installed in 1950s, according to the Anniston Star newspaper. The investment is intended to reduce operational costs and increase energy efficiency. Paper produced at the plant is used in the manufacture of gypsum wallboard at the company's other plants. No value for the upgrade has been disclosed.

India: Gyproc India is preparing to open a 30Mm² gypsum wallboard plant in Gujarat by the end of August 2017. The US$62m plant has taken about two years to build, according to the Hindu newspaper. The subsidiary of France's Saint-Gobain currently operates three wallboard plants at Haryana, Maharashtra and Karnataka with a total production capacity of 55Mm².

Tanzania: Knauf plans to invest an additional US$5m in a production site in Mkuranga district. The German company has already invested US$10m into the unit, according to the Citizen newspaper. The company started operations in the country in 2014 and it employs over 150 people. It is its first unit in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Zachopoulos Georgios, the managing director for East Africa, said that the subsidiary sources most of its raw materials locally and that it mines gypsum in the south of the country. He added that the company is focusing on promoting regular gypsum boards of 9mm and 12mm and boards of 12.5mm for moisture-resistance and fire resistance for the East African region. It will also offer other products from its portfolio, including related powder, steel sections, screws and tape offerings. The company exports 8% of its production at present and it hopes to increase this to 20 – 30% in the coming years.