Egyptian vs Spanish Gypsum — Purity, Ports, Markets & Terms (2026)
Egyptian and Spanish natural gypsum compared for cement mills and plasterboard lines: purity limits, loading ports, 2024 exports by destination, order terms.
Verdict in sixty seconds
Spain and Egypt are the two Mediterranean gypsum exporters, and in 2024 they were the second- and fifth-largest in the world. They sell the same mineral, Miocene evaporite gypsum, against the same specifications. What separates them is where the rock loads and where it therefore lands cheapest.
| Buy Egyptian gypsum when | Buy Spanish gypsum when |
|---|---|
| The mill is in the Gulf, India, Bangladesh or East Africa: Sinai gypsum loads at Ain Sokhna on the Red Sea with no Suez Canal transit | The plant is in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium or France, the markets that took most of Spain's 9.64 million tonnes in 2024 |
| The buyer needs raw rock and calcined plaster of Paris from one desk, or gypsum alongside cement and limestone on one vessel | The buyer wants gypsum from a plasterboard group's own quarry: Saint-Gobain Placo, Knauf and Etex all extract in Almería |
| The contract requires a per-lot Certificate of Analysis for purity, combined water and SO₃ issued before the Bill of Lading, with the lot rejected at the port if it falls below the floor | Volume certainty at the largest scale matters: the Sorbas quarry alone produces more than 4 million tonnes a year |
| The destination is West Africa and the buyer is comparing landed cost: Nigeria and Ghana are Egypt's two largest gypsum markets and Spain's third and ninth | The destination is West Africa and a Spanish framework contract is already in place |
Egypt Globe Group sells Egyptian gypsum; it does not sell Spanish gypsum. The Spanish and trade figures below come from the sources listed at the end.
Same mineral, same standards
Both origins are natural gypsum, calcium sulphate dihydrate, quarried by open-cast bench mining from Miocene evaporite beds: in Spain around Sorbas in Almería, in Egypt in Sinai and along the Red Sea and Gulf of Suez coasts. Both are sold to cement mills as set retarder, to plasterboard lines as calcining feed and to farmers as a sulphur and calcium amendment, and both are specified against EN 13279 for gypsum binders and ASTM C22 for gypsum rock.
The buying difference is the certificate. For a cement mill, purity governs SO₃ dosing and therefore the setting time of the finished cement; for a plasterboard line it governs slurry water demand and board strength. A lot that drifts from 88 % to 78 % dihydrate changes both. Egypt Globe Group samples every lot at the quarry face and again at the port, determines purity by combined-water and sulphate analysis per ASTM C471M and EN 13279-2, and releases the cargo on a Certificate of Analysis before the Bill of Lading; a lot below the contractual floor is rejected at the loading port. A Spanish producer's certificate covers its quarry; ask for the lot analysis and the retained sample.
Specification side by side
| Property | Egyptian raw gypsum rock | Egyptian calcined plaster of Paris | What to request from a Spanish producer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purity | CaSO₄·2H₂O ≥ 85 % guaranteed floor, typically 90–97 %; ≥ 80 % agricultural grade | Hemihydrate CaSO₄·½H₂O ≥ 90 % | Dihydrate or hemihydrate content on the lot certificate |
| Combined water | ≥ 17.8 % at 85 % purity; pure dihydrate 20.9 % | 5–7 % | Combined water per EN 13279-2 |
| SO₃ | ≥ 39.5 % | Per plaster class | SO₃ by XRF or gravimetric BaSO₄ |
| Chloride | ≤ 0.10 % | Per plaster class | Chloride, relevant for reinforced concrete and board corrosion |
| MgO and acid insolubles | MgO ≤ 1.0 %; SiO₂ plus acid insolubles ≤ 5.0 % | Residue on 150 µm sieve ≤ 5 % | Insolubles and MgO |
| Free moisture | ≤ 3.0 % | Not applicable | Moisture at loading |
| Sizing | 0–50 mm cement retarder; 0–150 mm plasterboard feed; 0–3 mm agricultural | 80–200 mesh | Lump or crushed fraction |
| Setting | Not applicable | Initial set ≥ 8 min moulding, ≥ 20 min building plaster; water to plaster ratio 0.60–0.70 | Vicat per EN 13279-2 |
| Test methods | ASTM C471M, EN 13279-2, EN 933-1, XRF | EN 13279-2, Vicat | EN 13279-2 or ASTM C471M |
Export scale and where each origin ships
The World Bank's WITS trade tables for HS 252010, gypsum and anhydrite, put the two origins side by side for 2024.
| Indicator | Spain | Egypt | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| World rank by export value, 2024 | Second, after Oman | Fifth | WITS, HS 252010, 2024 |
| Export value, 2024 | 136.7 million dollars | 64.3 million dollars | WITS |
| Export tonnage, 2024 | 9.64 million tonnes | Not reported in the WITS table | WITS |
| Largest markets, 2024 | United States 3.04 million t, United Kingdom 1.35 million t, Nigeria 1.17 million t, Canada 856,000 t, Brazil 427,000 t, Ghana 342,000 t | Nigeria 34.0 million dollars, Ghana 14.0 million dollars, India 3.4 million, China 1.8 million, Côte d'Ivoire 1.5 million, Senegal 1.4 million, Libya 1.4 million, Bangladesh 1.2 million, Tanzania, Togo | WITS |
| Extraction | 13 million tonnes in 2021, 70 % from Almería; 9.2 million tonnes exported that year | Sinai, Red Sea and Gulf of Suez evaporite beds; Western Desert | Global Gypsum, December 2023 |
| Producers | Saint-Gobain Placo at Sorbas, reportedly the second-largest gypsum quarry in the world at more than 4 million tonnes a year; Knauf Ibérica; Pladur (Etex); Fassa Bortolo | Multiple Egyptian quarries consolidated at the loading port by Egypt Globe Group | Global Gypsum, December 2023 |
Two readings. First, Spain's book is Atlantic: the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Brazil took the majority of its tonnage, markets that are a long way from any Egyptian port. Second, the two origins meet in West Africa. Spain's Nigerian cargoes averaged about 10.6 dollars a tonne on the WITS figures, so a West African buyer is choosing between a longer voyage from Egypt's Mediterranean coast and a shorter one from Almería, against purity consistency and the certificate set. That is the lane where the per-lot CoA matters most, because it is the lane where the price difference is smallest.
Loading ports and voyage geography
| Spain | Egypt | |
|---|---|---|
| Loading | Garrucha in Almería, the busiest gypsum port in Europe by volume, fed by truck from Sorbas | Sinai gypsum at Ain Sokhna, within 100 km of the deposits, plus Adabiya and Suez; Western Desert gypsum at Damietta, Alexandria and El Dekheila |
| Atlantic and northern Europe | Short voyage through Gibraltar | Longer voyage through Gibraltar |
| Gulf, India, Bangladesh, East Africa | Suez Canal transit | No canal transit from Ain Sokhna |
| West Africa | Gibraltar then south | Gibraltar then south, from the Mediterranean ports |
| Parcel sizes | Bulk vessels from Garrucha | 1,000 MT to 100,000 MT bulk; 25 MT FCL with stillage for samples and small plaster orders |
Order terms with Egypt Globe Group
| Product | Grade | Minimum order | Lead time | Loading ports |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raw gypsum rock | CaSO₄·2H₂O ≥ 85 % floor, typically 90–97 %; lump, crushed, granulated or powder | 1,000 MT; contracts to 100,000 MT | 2–4 weeks | Ain Sokhna, Damietta, Alexandria, El Dekheila |
| Calcined gypsum plaster of Paris | ≥ 90 % hemihydrate, 80–200 mesh | 200 MT FCL; to 20,000 MT | 2–4 weeks | Damietta, Alexandria, El Dekheila, Ain Sokhna |
Packing is bulk vessel, 1 MT FIBC or 50 kg PP woven bags, with 25 kg and 40 kg paper sacks for plaster. Incoterms are FOB for raw rock, FOB or CIF for plaster, CFR or DAP on request. SGS, TÜV Austria or Intertek provide increment sampling, draft survey and a witnessed purity and moisture test per shipment. HS codes are 2520.10 for raw gypsum and 2520.20 for plasters; see the gypsum catalogue, the Egyptian gypsum market brief and the HS 2520 export reference. Gypsum is often shipped with sulphur for soil programmes and with cement for retarder supply.
Sources
- Gypsum and anhydrite exports by country, HS 252010, 2024, World Bank WITS
- Spain gypsum and anhydrite exports by destination, 2024, World Bank WITS
- Egypt gypsum and anhydrite exports by destination, 2024, World Bank WITS
- Update on Spain, December 2023, Global Gypsum, 12 December 2023
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Frequently asked questions
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