Technology Trends in the North American Gypsum Industry

Presented at MixBuild GypMeet 2013

North America is a mature gypsum market that has been developing since the boom in residential housing construction following the end of World War II in the 1940’s. In 2013, the market generally consisted of 7 gypsum producer companies that operate over 75 plants. Some of the producer companies have operating histories of more than 100 years while others have entered the market more recently due to the availability of byproduct gypsum. Company consolidation continues with the most recent being Temple-Inland’s 4 plants being acquired by Georgia-Pacific in 2012. Aside from these business aspects, technology continues to play an important role in the future of the North American gypsum industry as it relates to efficiency, quality and new opportunities for gypsum products. The most common gypsum product is gypsum board which is sold for a variety of building applications, primarily to line interior walls and ceilings. Gypsum board is produced in a continuous process where North American plant line speeds range from 30 – 200 m/min with the low speeds representing old plants that may only supply a small local region and the high speeds representing newer bigger plants that efficiently produce products that can be sustainably transported to greater distances. Some examples of technology trends in the North American gypsum market include:

• FGD and recycle gypsum use
• Non-paper facers
• Lightweight products – regular
• Lightweight products – fire rated
• Imported contaminated gypsum board
• Renovation market focus

This document is available as a 7 page report and a 35 page slide presentation.