Natural gypsum is the most common form of gypsum used around the world but a new report from Roskill says that since the late 1990s consumption of synthetic material has started to rise sharply, especially in European and North America. The Economics of Gypsum & Anhydrite (9th edition, 2004) says that this rise is expected to continue. It was caused by two main factors affecting electricity companies: the introduction of environmental legislation in the 1980s, and the rising cost of disposal of coal combustion products.
The most commonly used type of synthetic gypsum is produced by flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) equipment at coal-fired power stations. Other forms of synthetic gypsum, such as titanogypsum, fluorogypsum and phosphogypsum can be used, but levels of impurities and the local availability of natural gypsum affect demand.
Potential world production of synthetic gypsum almost certainly exceeds current output of natural gypsum, but the amount used commercially is much smaller. The majority of production is phosphogypsum, possibly up to 100Mtpy, followed by FGD gypsum (40-50 Mtpy), titanogypsum (6-7Mtpy) and other sources (1-3Mtpy). The most important form in terms of the amount used commercially, an estimated 20Mtpy, is probably FGD gypsum.
FGD gypsum demand will rise faster
Global consumption of gypsum in all its forms was estimated at 149Mt in 2003. The main market for natural gypsum is as a retarder in Portland cement, especially in industrialising economies where production of calcined gypsum products is much smaller than the developed economies. In 2003, cement production consumed an estimated 76Mt of gypsum. Plasterboard and plaster production was estimated to have accounted for 58.5Mt, and the other main market for gypsum was in agriculture, where an estimated 6.5Mt was used in 2003.
Cement will continue to be the main market for gypsum, despite the recent increases in plasterboard capacity in North America, Europe and Asia. Over the next five years consumption of FGD gypsum will rise at a faster rate than most other forms of gypsum.
Hydraulic cement output in Asia rose from 831Mt in 1996 to 1,057Mt in 2003, an average annual increase of 3.5%. The largest rise in Asian cement production took place in China, where output grew from 490Mt to 750Mt. The Chinese supply of natural gypsum appears insufficient to meet demand, and it is likely that large amounts of phosphogypsum and other synthetic gypsum are also used.
The Eastern European and Asian plasterboard markets have seen much investment in new plasterboard capacity and have the potential to become important markets because of their large populations and current low per capita consumption.
Supply boost from recycled gypsum waste
The supply of gypsum in developed economies is also growing as the recycling of gypsum waste becomes more common. As estimated 4Mtpy of waste in the USA is recycled, and increasing amounts are starting to be recovered in the EU and Japan.
Consumption of natural gypsum will show a lower rate of growth over the next 5 years because of competition with synthetic material in plasterboard. The use of other forms of synthetic gypsum will probably grow only slightly, by around 1-2%py, although the rate could be significantly higher in China, given the expected high construction rates over the next decade.
