Lafarge North America Sees Silver Lining in Silver Groves’ $120 Million Gypsum Plant Expansion

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The United States is in a housing slump, but Lafarge North America’s (Herndon, Virginia) plant in Silver Grove, Kentucky, is not feeling the effects. Instead, it might be a shining example of what technology and innovation can do to reduce costs to stay viable during a downward swing in the industry. The company recently completed a $120 million expansion in June. The slowdown in home-buying has, of course, resulted in a slowdown of new home construction, reducing the amount of wallboard that builders need. The reasons that allow this plant to stay on top of its game in an obvious market slump are based on a number of interesting factors.

Gypsum, considered to be a common mineral, is easily mined and found throughout the United States; it’s currently being mined in about 17 states. Some of the top producing states for Gypsum are California, Texas and Michigan. As a main component in the making of wallboard, it’s easy to understand why so many wallboard plants are located near gypsum mines. The difference between the Silver Grove plant and most other wallboard plants can be found in the detail that it uses synthetic gypsum — a byproduct that comes in the form of ash from coal-burning power plants. This byproduct is then used as the primary raw material in wallboard manufacturing. For the Silver Grove location, the need for quarries or gypsum-mining operations is eliminated. Being able to utilize an otherwise unusable byproduct of the power plants is an added benefit and becomes one of the reasons that their overall operating costs are lowered. The power plants are able to reduce their landfill material, thus saving money. This can be seen as a win-win circumstance for power plants and wallboard plants, as well as for the local community, (less landfill).

Keeping energy costs down is another way that Lafarge has been able to reduce overall expenses. Duke Energy Generation Services (DEGS) (Cincinnati, Ohio) entered into an agreement with Lafarge to provide 5.2 megawatts of power to the plant, using a combined heat and power system. The project, designed by DEGS, was completed in early 2001. As part of the venture, the gas turbine’s hot exhaust air is used in the drying process at the wallboard plant. The resulting rewards are seen in the reduction of costs and improved overall effectiveness when compared to conventional cogeneration systems. The design reduces the amount of fuel consumed to produce heat and power on-site, when it’s compared to purchasing electricity directly from the grid. Another reward can be seen in the reduction of fuel use that translates into reduced environmental pollutants. This long-standing partnership with Duke Energy has helped to keep overall costs down.

Silver Grove opened about seven years ago and now has the capacity to produce 1.75 billion square feet of wallboard per year, making it the largest plant in the world (based on production capacity). It was in early 1999 that Industrial Info first reported on the grassroot plant that would boost a production level of 900 million square foot a year synthetic gypsum wallboard and would be housed in a new 600,000 square foot building. In 2005 the plant announced that it was ready to install a $7 million third impact mill, which was completed in mid-2006. For more details, view related August 3, 2006, article - Lafarge Breaking Ground Into a More Prosperous Future for Silver Grove, Kentucky. In late 2005, the company sought approval from Campbell County planners for a 435,000-square-foot addition to its plant. The company expected to increase the overall employee count by about 100 once the expansion had been completed.

Silver Grove is currently “beating the odds” as other wallboard manufactures are feeling the heat of the new home construction slowdowns. Having avoided layoffs, it has instead added to the overall employee roster as promised when the expansion was being developed, and no production cutbacks have taken place at this time. But, what remains to be seen is whether this “beating the odds” is due to the plant’s many atypical components or whether Lafarge has cut capacity at other plants to bolster this plant’s standing and to continue normal operations here.

Lafarge North America supplies construction materials to the United States and Canada. It employs about 15,000 people at more than 1,000 locations across the U.S. and Canada. Lafarge produces and sells cement, ready-mixed concrete, gypsum wallboard, aggregates and asphalt. In the U.S, Lafarge operates four gypsum wallboard plants in Buchanan, New York; Newark, New Jersey; Silver Grove, Kentucky; and Palatka, Florida.

View Plant Profile – 1038302
View Project Report – 23001921

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) provides marketing communication services ranging from industrial database solutions to market forecasting, custom analytics, and specialty promotions that support high-level image campaigns.