The global gypsum industry is mainly driven by the construction and renovation sectors as natural gypsum is especially suitable for the manufacture of cement, building plasters, dry mixes, wallboards and other gypsum products. In some of these uses, gypsum has no effective substitutes, for instance, in Portland cement production. On an average basis, an increased use of wallboards and plasters has been a major driver for gypsum production worldwide.
Major players in the gypsum market include National Gypsum, United States Gypsum Corporation, Knauf Gips KG and Lafarge SA among others. Companies operating in the world gypsum market are primarily engaged in manufacturing of gypsum based products such as wallboards, plaster, etc.
However, the construction industry has significant spatial and temporal variability, with strong dependence on macroeconomic situation in each specific country and region. The macroeconomic variability in the construction industry affects the behaviour of the gypsum market, which influences the dynamics of gypsum production volumes.
Gypsum: mine production dynamics in 2009-2014, tonnes/year
Besides macroeconomic factors, there are a range of other influences affecting the construction market and gypsum production. For instances, advances in building design, new trends in construction technologies, environmental regulation and energy-saving requirements – all these elements are instrumental in shaping the face of the construction industry and the future scenarios defining the consumption of construction materials, such as gypsum. It means that these factors favouring the use of gypsum and gypsum products provide a positive impact on the gypsum industry both regionally and globally, while the opposite scenario is also possible when technological advances or construction standards will render bigger support to competing products.
More information on the gypsum market is available in the research report “Gypsum: 2017 World Market Review and Forecast”.