Gypsum
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Strategy

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The gypsum market is very local and highly dependent on the prevailing construction methods in each country. Learn about Lafarge's research and industrial development strategy for its Gypsum Business.

Gypsum: a local market

The gypsum market is concentrated. Seven producers together control about 81% of the global plasterboard market. Lafarge ranks N°3 in this group.

 

The demand for plasterboards is closely linked to the construction methods in each country.

  • Demand is high in the United States, Japan and Australia. United-States represent 50% of the world demand. Construction processes in these countries favor partitions in panels using plasterboard on steel or wood framing.
  • There is less demand in Western Europe due to the prevalence of masonry partitions. Nevertheless, most of these countries have begun to use plasterboard.

 

North America and Western Europe contribute a large share of the sales in this Group's Business. But with the construction of new production facilities, Lafarge hopes to develop market share in fast-growing countries where construction methods are becoming more sophisticated.

  • Gypsum Business profile
  • All about gypsum
  • Excellence 2008
Plasterboard factory, Silver Grove, Kentucky, United States

Research and sustainable development

Lafarge focuses on product innovation and development of its industrial capacity.
The Gypsum Business operates the Technical Development Center (T.D.C.) in Avignon, France, which is dedicated to R&D. The T.D.C. promotes exchanges between marketing and production as well as the transfer of expertise among all the countries where the Group operates. A unique feature of the T.D.C. is that product and system studies take place in a realistic environment, thanks to a highly efficient acoustical measurement laboratory.

The Group's R&D strives to improve gypsum's numerous properties and the qualities of its products:

  • aesthetics (surface, colors, joins, etc.),
  • mechanical strength (solidity, resistance to bending and shocks, fire resistance, etc.),
  • acoustic properties (insulation of floors and partitions against aircraft noise and low frequencies, etc.)

R&D also seeks to reduce the use of nonrenewable natural resources, for example by increasing the use of synthetic gypsum and promoting recycling.

  • Gypsum products
  • Research orientations

Industrial development projects

A number of medium-term development projects are planned:

  • extension of existing plants,
  • construction of plasterboard plants (in Turkey, in India and in China),
  • construction of plants for gypsum-based products (in Australia).
Completed gypsum projects

Last update on 11/06/2008

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Industrial ecology

How to create value from waste

Large amounts of natural resources, particularly minerals and fossil fuels, are used to manufacture cement. For many years the Group has been working to reduce the environmental impact of its activities by finding ways to obtain value from waste products.

Cement and industrial ecology