Gypsum industry news

Spain: Saint-Gobain Placo has launched Longips Premium plaster for interior coatings. The product offers an ‘enhanced formula’ with more consistent mixing, easier smoothing and optimised setting. It is available in 17kg bags with a new ‘modern, dynamic design.’

Saint-Gobain Placo said "The new Longips Premium solution reflects Placo's commitment to building better for people and the planet, always guided by Saint-Gobain Group's common purpose of making the world a better home."

Turkmenistan: Ak Bulut has inaugurated its 4Mm²/yr Dostluk gypsum wallboard plant in the Koytendag District of Lebap Region. Trend News has reported that the plant partly runs on solar power, and also produces 50,000t/yr of dry building mixes. Ak Bulut says that it sources the plant's natural gypsum from Koytendag District, and markets its products domestically and in Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Uzbekistan.

Australia/New Zealand: Belgium-based Etex has signed an agreement with building materials company BGC to acquire the latter’s gypsum and fibre cement businesses. The gypsum business consists of wallboard, plasters, compounds and cornice production units, and includes the Perth gypsum wallboard plant in Western Australia. BGC also operates nine warehouses across Australia and New Zealand. Etex says that the deal expands its activities in the ‘attractive’ local market, with significant growth opportunities. Finalisation is expected in early 2024.

Etex CEO Bernard Delvaux said “This deal is a strategic opportunity for Etex to complement our footprint in Australia and further increase the accessibility of our products and services for customers. This will both reinforce our gypsum wallboard offering and position us well in the growing fibre cement activities through a broad product range and good channel access.”

Ukraine: IF-GIPS has begun building its upcoming new 300,000t/yr plaster plant in Ukraine. IF-GIPS sells its gypsum products under the KRUMIX brand.

IF-GIPS says that it subsequently plans to build a new gypsum wallboard plant, also in Ukraine.

Kazakhstan: Russia-based Volma is preparing to finalise the purchase of a gypsum plant in Kazakhstan. The unnamed target of the acquisition has a production capacity of 120,000t/yr of building gypsum and other products, according to the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. The transaction also includes a gypsum deposit. Discussions for the acquisition first started in February 2023. The plant is expected to become part of Volma in the third quarter of 2023.

US: Albér Gypsum has developed an adhesive gypsum-based plaster ‘board’ product that can be used in place of traditional gypsum wallboard. Using the new process gypsum powder is first mixed with water into a mixture lightweight cement sprayer. The company has also designed a special spray gun for this purpose. The plaster is then sprayed onto the wall construction or/and insulation, evened out and left to dry for up to six hours. A patent is currently pending for the new method.

The developer says that the gypsum-based plaster product eliminates air pockets in a wall, covers electrical wires and tubes thereby reducing fire risk and is stronger than traditional wallboard. It takes half the installation time of regular wallboard and does not require fittings such as bolts or nails. The company says that the sprayable plaster creates less waste, is easily recyclable and does not use paper. Not using paper also prevents any cases of black mould. The gypsum mix used can be modified to create a harder or softer surface depending on the desired room acoustics.

Georgia: Knauf inaugurated a new Euro30m plaster plant in Georgia on 13 October 2022, Sarke News has reported.

Georgian Minister of Economy Levan Davitashvili said that Georgia's current 'high economic growth' is partly due to Knauf's continued investment in its gypsum activities in the country. Davitashvili noted that Knauf has trained 1000 people at its construction industry training centre since 2018.

The minister said that Knauf continually raises the Georgian building materials industry to 'new standards.' He added "The professional knowledge brought by the company and the technologies introduced by it are also very important."

France: Alphaplatre's gypsum wallboard and plaster line engineering subsidiary RBL-REI has acquired calcination equipment supplier Gupsos.

RBL-REI general manager Lionel Landreau and Gupsos founder Michel Dairay said "The integration of Gupsos now allows RBL-REI to offer new technologies for its production lines, thanks in particular to the indirect cooking process using a Beau type kiln."

Germany: Gypsum products manufacturer CASEA has ordered a Robotpac type robotic palletiser from Beumer due to increased demand for its products. The new palletiser will be equipped with a fork gripper and a pallet gripping device will be used for handling special product mixtures. Delivery of the order is planned for the third quarter of 2022. CASEA already uses a Beumer palletiser at its Dorste plant in Osterode am Harz, which was installed in 2017.

Turkey: France-based Saint-Gobain and building materials producer Dalsan have signed a joint-venture agreement, pursuant to which they will merge their gypsum wallboard operations in Turkey. The merge will give the new joint venture a gypsum wallboard production capacity of over 100Mm²/yr. It will also see the companies’ plaster production consolidated under their new subsidiary.

The partners said “This partnership will offer Turkish customers access to the most innovative and complete portfolio of light and sustainable solutions for the construction and renovation of the building envelope, as well as internal partitioning.”