Can the Gypsum Materials Industry Launch a Sustainability Rebound After 2020 Covid Declines?

Industries in sectors ranging from minerals processing and rare earth metals, to concrete and aggregates, to gypsum materials are all initiating or following through in 2021 on strategic moves to cash in on sustainability trends. These tactics are being deployed to overcome the significant 2020 declines triggered by rampant covid 19 shutdowns.

Green-sensitive companies are prioritizing more sustainable construction materials and some are even taking it a step further by embracing sustainable energy sources for their own manufacturing power supplies as well as making the switch to “greener” raw materials and increased recycling of byproducts.

Would you believe an overseas business deal where gypsum, fly ash, and bottom ash is as good as cash? How about a gypsum wallboard plant converting to agricultural gypsum?

Saint Gobain Group Counting on Strategic Sustainability Deals After 2020 Declines

The Saint-Gobain Group claims for itself a worldwide leadership role in sustainable construction and innovative materials that can help achieve ambitious carbon-neutral benchmarks in sectors such as aerospace and energy. Companies under the St. Gobain Group umbrella also produce an impressive portfolio of popular high-performance construction brands including Certain Teed, CarboTherm, and many more leading material brands for the global habitat and construction markets.

But even that broad global diversity couldn’t insulate the group from the universal economic jabs of covid 19 in 2020. According to a March 2021 report at Global Gypsum , Saint Gobain’s sales fell by 10% to Euro38.1bn in 2020 and recent data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) showed that national natural gypsum production was 20.5Mt in the US in 2020, down by 5% year-on-year from 21.5Mt in 2019. Other companies in the gypsum materials European sector felt similar impact, such as Belgium’s Etex where consolidated net sales fell by 11% year-on-year from Euro2.94bn in 2020.

But one of leading brand name companies knows that Saint Gobain North America’s gypsum is a valuable resource for more than sheetrock for construction.

Certain Teed Moves to Agri-Gypsum in Wyoming

assuming control over their decommissioned wallboard plant in Cody, Wyoming. The Las Vegas-based company specializes in gypsum mining for milled bulk and bagged products supporting agriculture and cement production.

Employees of the former wallboard plant will be part of the new agri-gypsum team in Cody, Wyoming, according to US mining operations manager Roberto Margutti. The company has set the bar high for projected team growth generated by the move to agricultural gypsum, and that’s great news for the local Cody workforce.

“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. 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.”- Robert Margutti in Global Gypsum News Report

Is Fly Ash Better Than Cash in Indonesia?

“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.”

Cement producer Semen Baturaja has “entered into an understanding” in collaboration with power company Huadian Buket Asam Power in a unique 2-year bartering arrangement to exchange limestone for gypsum, fly ash, and bottom ash. The power company won’t need cash to acquire the limestone required for its flue gas desulfurization (FGD) process. Semen Baturaja’s cement production director Sumsal Saifudin told Global Gypsum;

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Originally published at https://resource-erectors.com on April 27, 2021.