Natural Gypsum Rock

Cement plants normally buy 85–92% CaSO₄·2H₂O because the gypsum is a 3–5% additive and the mill can adjust the dose. Board plants need 92–95% because they calcine the whole rock and every impurity ends up in the board. If you are a cement buyer paying for a 95% spec you are paying for purity you do not use; if you are a board buyer accepting 88% you will see it in calcining rate and board strength.

West African grinding complexes (such as Dangote in Nigeria and Ghana, BUA, Lafarge Africa / Holcim, CIMAF, and Ghacem) intergrind 4–5% raw natural gypsum with clinker to prevent tricalcium aluminate (C3A) flash setting. Dihydrate gypsum dissolves rapidly in the initial mix water, releasing calcium and sulphate ions to precipitate an ettringite needle coating around C3A crystals that delays setting. Sinai dihydrate rock (quarried at Ras Malaab and loaded at Abu Zenima, Damietta, or El Arish) delivers 90–93% CaSO4·2H2O with SO3 above 41.5%, free moisture strictly below 1.5% (eliminating feed chute bridging in ball mills), and chlorides guaranteed under 0.030% to protect structural rebar from pitting corrosion. Shipments are moved in geared Handysize (28,000–32,000 MT) and Supramax bulkers suited for draft-restricted berths in Lagos (Apapa/Tin Can), Onne, Tema, Takoradi, and Abidjan.

Chlorides in cement attack reinforcing steel, causing premature pitting and structural concrete failure; in plasterboard, they migrate to the paper face and cause staining and delamination. Major cement standards cap Cl⁻ strictly at ≤ 0.030–0.050%. Coastal salt-affected deposits or stockpiles wetted with seawater during loading will fail chloride testing, which is why CBIL sources from dry inland concessions (such as Sinai and southern Oman) with verified load-port laboratory assays.

By Oman's own 2025 export declarations: India 6.92 million MT, Vietnam 1.89 million MT, Bangladesh 1.47 million MT, Indonesia 1.10 million MT, Kenya 593k MT, Japan 513k MT, at USD 13–14/MT FOB. If you are buying into any of those lanes there is established tonnage and established terms to benchmark against.

India is the largest import market at about 7.6 million MT in 2025, 93% of it from Oman at a landed value near USD 19 per tonne, bought by cement plants on both coasts as a set retarder. China imported about 577,000 MT at an average of about USD 68 per tonne, more than twice the world median: Thailand supplied 46% and Egypt 19% at USD 37 to 39, and smaller high-purity lots from Morocco and Spain lifted the average. Belgium imported about 803,000 MT at about USD 49 per tonne, from Spain (41%), Germany (28%) and France (26%), for plasterboard and cement. CBIL quotes Omani, Egyptian and Moroccan rock into each for a named plant.

Only if your berth has no cranes and no shore hopper, or if discharge speed is the binding constraint on a term contract. Most spot cargoes move on geared Supramaxes into ports with limited infrastructure and on gearless tonnage into equipped cement terminals. Tell us the berth and we match the ship; that is the point of running a chartering desk alongside the cargo book.