Gypsum industry news

Australia/UK: Richard Cousins the former chief executive of UK-based wallboard producer BPB has died in a plane accident in Australia. He worked for six years as the chief executive officer for BPB following a number of previous roles at the company. Following its takeover by Saint-Gobain he subsequently joined the board of Compass group in the food services sector and became its group chief executive in 2006.

Belarus: Knauf Gips plans to invest around Euro70m in a gypsum wallboard plant at Gatovo near Minsk. The decision follows the announcement that Knauf has acquired a 50% share in the charter capital of Volma’s operations in Belarus, according to the Belarusian Telegraph Agency. Knauf arranged to become a joint-owner of Belgips with Russia’s Volma in early 2017

Construction of Belgips’ new plant started in late 2015. Once completed the unit plans to produce 30Mm²/yr of gypsum wallboard, 0.5m²/yr of gypsum partition blocks and 0.1Mt/yr of dry building mixtures. Products made at the plant will be used domestically and for export.

Australia: Clean TeQ plans to build a 2Ml/day DeSALx mine water treatment plant for Fosterville Gold Mine for its mine near Bendigo in Victoria. The US$2.7m unit will use an integrated precipitation and continuous ionic filtration process (DeSALx) that will produce a gypsum-based by-product. This by-product will be compatible with Fosterville’s existing lime treatment plant. Equipment supply, installation and commissioning of the water treatment plant are scheduled for 2018.

The precipitation process removes arsenic and antimony from the mine water as a co-precipitate. The water is then treated by the DeSALx process to remove hardness, sulphate and other dissolved metals. Clean TeQ is also in talks with other mining companies to test its continuous ion-exchange systems for the treatment of process water treatment for recycling or environmental discharge.

Peru: Volcan Peru and Eternit hold more than 90% of the gypsum wallboard market. Jaime Coronel Zegarra, a product manager for Eternit, said that since opening plants in 2013 and 2015 local production has driven off imports,
according to the El Comercio newspaper. He added that per capita consumption of wallboard rose to 0.39m² in 2017 from 0.20m² in 2010. Coronel Zegarra expects the market to grow by 8 – 9% in coming years.

Vietnam: USG Boral plans to invest US$20m towards upgrading its gypsum wallboard plant at the Hiep Phuoc Industrial Zone in Ho Chi Minh City. The project will increase the plant’s production capacity by 17Mm² to 47Mm² when it starts operation in September 2019.

"We have witnessed strong growth from this region so our decision to invest in the plant is a strategic one. We remain committed to building USG Boral's presence in Southeast Asia. This expansion will see USG Boral utilising our latest Sheetrock technology to provide superior building solutions for the Vietnam market," said Frederic de Rougemont, CEO of USG Boral.

USG Boral started wallboard production in Vietnam in 2006. It produces the Sheetrock, FireBloc, Durock and Firerock brands.