Gypsum industry news

Azerbaijan: Gypsum producers achieved a total output of 13,000t of gypsum in the first eight months of 2020, up by 1.3% year-on-year from 12,800t over the corresponding period of 2019. Total building materials production fell by 1.8% in value to US$293m from US$298m.

Oman: Oman’s gypsum exports fell by 4% year-on-year to 4.99Mt in the first seven months of 2020 from 5.20Mt in the same period in 2019. However, data from Zawawi Minerals shows that exports picked up by 28.7% year-on-year to 1.14Mt in July 2020 from 0.89Mt in July 2019. The government allowed industry to reopen in late June 2020 following a coronavirus-related lockdown.

Germany: Currax and Siemens have announced their collaboration on a mill operations digitisation pilot project involving the Simotics Connect 400 motor data collector and transmitter. They hope that analysis of data processed via the Simotics 400 will better enable the remote operating of mills ‘to increase efficiency and component life’ and speeding the shift towards automation and production that is resilient to crises such as the coronavirus outbreak.

Oman: Gypsum exports from Oman rose by 28% year-on-year to 9.47Mt in 2018 from 7.4Mt in 2017. Major destinations of gypsum included Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, Japan and Indonesia. The country’s gypsum producers exported 3Mt to Vietnam, 2.9Mt to India and 1.25Mt to Bangladesh in 2018.

US: Data from the US Geological Survey (USGS) shows that consumption of calcined gypsum rose by 2.95% year-on-year to 8.38Mt in the first half of 2018 from 8.14Mt in the same period in 2017. Production rose by 3.05% to 8.44Mt from 8.19Mt. However, consumption of all gypsum fell by 1.47% to 20.1Mt from 20.1Mt with a decrease in mined gypsum and an increase in imported gypsum. Calcined gypsum used for board products rose by 2.94% to 10.5Mt and the total supply of board products rose by 3.11% to 1.17Bnm².

US: United States Geoogical Survey (USGS) data reports production of gypsum-based board products rose by 2.4% year-on-year to 2.35Mm² in 2017 from 2.29Mm² in 2016. Mined gypsum production increased by 7% year-on-year to 18.2Mt in 2017 from 16.7Mt in 2016. Synthetic gypsum supply rose by 4% to 16.7Mt from 16Mt. Imports of crude gypsum rose by 12.7% to 4.89Mt from 4.34Mt. The major importing countries remained Mexico, Canada and Spain. Exports of gypsum board products fell by 30% to 0.71Mt from 1.01Mt. The mjaority of these products were exported to Canada.