Gypsum industry news

US: Saint-Gobain in the US has entered into a 12-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Invenergy, a leading privately held global developer and operator of sustainable energy solutions, for 120MW of the 250MW Blooming Grove Wind Farm capacity in McLean County, Illinois, which recently began operations.

This agreement is the largest renewable energy deal to date for Saint-Gobain and is a key milestone in supporting the group's target to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The associated Renewable Energy Certificate System (RECS) represents 40% of the Group's CO₂ emissions from electricity in the US, resulting in a 21% reduction of Saint-Gobain's overall carbon footprint (scope 1 and 2) in the US.

With this agreement and other ongoing projects, the share of renewable electricity within Saint- Gobain's worldwide electricity consumption, will double in 2021, from 18.9% in 2020.

US: CertainTeed soil conditioner and soil amendment subsidiary Western Mining and Minerals has taken over management of the former CertainTeed gypsum wallboard plant site in Cody, Wyoming. The Cody Enterprise newspaper has reported that the plant will produce gypsum for agricultural purposes. The producer decommissioned the former wallboard plant in December 2020 after it ceased production in January 2020.

US mining operations manager Roberto Margutti said, “With the agri-gypsum business (and other business opportunities generated with the mine operation), we expect to grow the team from 30% to 50% in the next three to five years.” He added, “We are pleased to be building our new operation with support from many of the same employees who have worked in our drywall plant previously, who will now help operate and manage the agricultural gypsum business.”

Indonesia: Semen Baturaja has signed a memorandum of understanding with Huadian Buket Asam Power. Under the agreement, Semen Baturaja will supply the power company with limestone for its flue gas desulfurisation (FGD) process in exchange for gypsum, fly ash and bottom ash. The agreement will last for two years until March 2023.

The cement producer’s managing director Sumsal Saifudin said “This collaboration is a form of synergy between the two companies to improve competitiveness, which is much-needed in facing an increasingly competitive industrial environment, by taking advantage of opportunities for the creation of new revenue streams and cost transformation.”

US: Data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) shows that national natural gypsum production was 20.5Mt in the US in 2020, down by 5% year-on-year from 21.5Mt in 2019. Synthetic gypsum production remained constant at 14.4Mt and calcined gypsum production fell by 2% to 17.2Mt from 17.5Mt. Crude gypsum exports fell by 13% to 32,200t from 37,000t and calcined gypsum exports fell by 21% to 89,400t from 113,000t.

Domestic calcined gypsum consumption totalled 17.2Mt, down by 1% from 17.4Mt. Calcined gypsum imports rose by 8% to 29,000Mt from 26,900Mt. Crude gypsum consumption also fell, by 3% to 40.9Mt from 42.0Mt. Crude gypsum imports fell by 2% to 6.03Mt from 6.14Mt. Mexico overtook Spain as the leading exporter of crude gypsum to the US in 2020.

US: GMS recorded consolidated net sales of US$2.47bn in the first nine months of its 2021 financial year that ended on 31 January 2021, up by 4% year-on-year from US$2.37bn in the corresponding period of 2019. Costs of sales fell by 4% to US$1.60bn from US$1.66bn. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell slightly in the third quarter of the 2021 financial year to US$62.6m from US$62.7m in the third quarter of the 2020 financial year. Third-quarter wallboard volumes grew by under 1% and wallboard prices fell by 2%, resulting in a 1% sales decline.

President and chief executive officer John Turner said, “As a result of our team’s ability to seize opportunities and address challenges in dynamic market conditions, we delivered better than expected sales, higher net income and an improved adjusted EBITDA margin in the third quarter of the 2021 financial year. We continued to realise benefits from our on-going commitment to our strategic priorities: expanding share in core products, growing our complementary other products offering, platform expansion and improved productivity and profitability. During the quarter, we generated higher volume in wallboard, increased sales of complementary products and opened our Waco, Texas greenfield location.” He added, “We are excited to be celebrating GMS’s 50th anniversary in 2021, and I am confident that our focus on our strategic priorities and our team’s continued drive to execute will position us to generate value for our shareholders well into the future.”