01.01.05
Location: Denver, CO
Sales: $525 million
Description: Key Personnel
Dion Persson, senior vice president, Engineered Products Group; Fred Stephan, VP/GM for High Performance Nonwovens; Zain Mahmood, VP/GM for Construction Materials and Systems; Jack Leunig, VP for Operations
Plants
Waterville, OH; Defiance, OH; Richland, MS, Spartanburg, SC, Etowah, TN; Bobingen, Berlin, Wertheim, Karlstein and Steinach, Germany; Shanghai, China; Trnava, Slovakia
ISO Status
Spartanburg, SC and Defiance, OH ISO 9002 certified; Bobingen and Berlin, Germany ISO 9001 certified; Waterville, OH ISO 9002 certified; Etowah, TN ISO 9002 certified
Processes
Airlaid (glass and synthetic), wetlaid, calendered, melt blown, spunbonded, needlepunched, thermal bonded
Brand Names
Microlith, DuraGlass, Delta-Aire, DynaWick, DynaWeb, DynaTech, Micro-Aire, MicroLith, Ecomat, Duraglass, and Combimat
Major Markets
Roofing substrates, air and liquid filtration, sorbents, battery separators, geotextiles, flooring substrates and facers for building products
Good times for its customers have meant good times for Johns Manville. The Denver, CO-based construction materials company and Berkshire Hathaway-owned company is set to add more than 900 million square meters of glass nonwovens capacity at its Etowah, TN facility in response to expansion of its North American roofing and wallboard customers.
Zain Mahmood, vice president and general manager for construction materials and systems, said the glass nonwovens market has grown nicely in North America for several reasons. For one, the market’s conversion to laminated shingle roofing materials, containing glass nonwovens, continues to be strong, a trend that has been ongoing for five years in the reconstruction markets. Also, natural disasters, particularly the hurricanes that hit Florida in 2004, have provided a boost.
The success of the roofing and construction markets as well as favorable conditions in other markets allowed Johns Manville to continue its streak of double-digit sales growth in 2004. Privately owned, the company does not release sales figures but industry estimates put JM’s nonwovens sales at close to $525 million.
JM operates through three groups—Engineered Products, Building and Insulation and Roofing Systems. JM’s nonwovens operations are contained within the Engineered Products division and are divided into four global segments—Reinforcement Fibers, Glass Textiles, Construction Materials and Systems and High Performance Nonwovens, a combination of glass fiber and synthetic mats and filtration media.
The Construction Materials and Systems and the High Performance Nonwovens segments are set to receive a boost from the expansion in Tennessee, which will make the facility an extremely cost-efficient operation with two large furnaces and a large portion of its customers nearby, according to Mr. Mahmood. JM operates two similar lines in Ohio as well as four European operations. This new investment will make JM the largest producer of nonwoven glass mats in the world. Beyond roofing, glass mat nonwovens have been boosted by the material’s replacement of paper in wallboards, which has been caused by concern about mold and mildew.
“Glass mat demand has been extremely robust,” Mr. Mahmood said. “We see these conditions continuing in the near term. We do no expect a slowdown.”
Meanwhile, JM’s European operation continues to benefit from growth in Central and Eastern Europe, where significant restructuring is underway in the insfrastructure side. To fuel this growth, JM has already started the construction of a new polyester spunbond line in Bobingen, Germany. The new line, which should come onstream in summer 2006, will be focused on serving the fast developing Central and Eastern European market. The European roofing market, with a predominant flat/low slope roofing framework, is demanding joint polyester and glass-based roofing systems.
“As economies in Central and Eastern Europe improve, they are more interested in how specification grade materials can improve their living standards,” Mr. Mahmood said. In short, the economic boom leads to new construction and infrastructure improvements, which lead to a need for higher end nonwoven media. “These markets are following the lead of their Western European counterparts and standardizing around the Western European codes and specifications,” Mr. Mahmood said.
Currently, this region’s polyester spunbond needs are served mainly from Germany, but JM does operate a fiberglass operation in the region, in Slovakia, at a site acquired from Skloplast in 2001. In announcing an $85 million investment in a glass fiber furnace at the site last year, executives hinted that plans for a nonwovens operation in the region could be forthcoming but so far no such plans have been announced.
In addition to regional expansion, JM has been focused on new product development to increase its business. Because of nonwovens’ ability to respond to several consumer demands including flame retardancy, strength, moisture management and sound absorption, JM invests heavily in product development centers around its nonwovens business.
And, while JM has not made any major new product announcements in nonwoven roofing markets recently, Mr. Mahmood said they could be expected within the next six months. “We have recently announced several new applications in other nonwoven areas, e.g. flooring and filtration,” said Mr. Mahmood. Areas that will be under the spotlight include new generation shingle mats featuring never-before-seen capabilities, roof underlayment products that replace felt and paper systems and new wallboard applications. “We have a great pipeline of new products that should begin to benefit our business at the beginning of next year,” Mr. Mahmood predicted.
Sales: $525 million
Description: Key Personnel
Dion Persson, senior vice president, Engineered Products Group; Fred Stephan, VP/GM for High Performance Nonwovens; Zain Mahmood, VP/GM for Construction Materials and Systems; Jack Leunig, VP for Operations
Plants
Waterville, OH; Defiance, OH; Richland, MS, Spartanburg, SC, Etowah, TN; Bobingen, Berlin, Wertheim, Karlstein and Steinach, Germany; Shanghai, China; Trnava, Slovakia
ISO Status
Spartanburg, SC and Defiance, OH ISO 9002 certified; Bobingen and Berlin, Germany ISO 9001 certified; Waterville, OH ISO 9002 certified; Etowah, TN ISO 9002 certified
Processes
Airlaid (glass and synthetic), wetlaid, calendered, melt blown, spunbonded, needlepunched, thermal bonded
Brand Names
Microlith, DuraGlass, Delta-Aire, DynaWick, DynaWeb, DynaTech, Micro-Aire, MicroLith, Ecomat, Duraglass, and Combimat
Major Markets
Roofing substrates, air and liquid filtration, sorbents, battery separators, geotextiles, flooring substrates and facers for building products
Good times for its customers have meant good times for Johns Manville. The Denver, CO-based construction materials company and Berkshire Hathaway-owned company is set to add more than 900 million square meters of glass nonwovens capacity at its Etowah, TN facility in response to expansion of its North American roofing and wallboard customers.
Zain Mahmood, vice president and general manager for construction materials and systems, said the glass nonwovens market has grown nicely in North America for several reasons. For one, the market’s conversion to laminated shingle roofing materials, containing glass nonwovens, continues to be strong, a trend that has been ongoing for five years in the reconstruction markets. Also, natural disasters, particularly the hurricanes that hit Florida in 2004, have provided a boost.
The success of the roofing and construction markets as well as favorable conditions in other markets allowed Johns Manville to continue its streak of double-digit sales growth in 2004. Privately owned, the company does not release sales figures but industry estimates put JM’s nonwovens sales at close to $525 million.
JM operates through three groups—Engineered Products, Building and Insulation and Roofing Systems. JM’s nonwovens operations are contained within the Engineered Products division and are divided into four global segments—Reinforcement Fibers, Glass Textiles, Construction Materials and Systems and High Performance Nonwovens, a combination of glass fiber and synthetic mats and filtration media.
The Construction Materials and Systems and the High Performance Nonwovens segments are set to receive a boost from the expansion in Tennessee, which will make the facility an extremely cost-efficient operation with two large furnaces and a large portion of its customers nearby, according to Mr. Mahmood. JM operates two similar lines in Ohio as well as four European operations. This new investment will make JM the largest producer of nonwoven glass mats in the world. Beyond roofing, glass mat nonwovens have been boosted by the material’s replacement of paper in wallboards, which has been caused by concern about mold and mildew.
“Glass mat demand has been extremely robust,” Mr. Mahmood said. “We see these conditions continuing in the near term. We do no expect a slowdown.”
Meanwhile, JM’s European operation continues to benefit from growth in Central and Eastern Europe, where significant restructuring is underway in the insfrastructure side. To fuel this growth, JM has already started the construction of a new polyester spunbond line in Bobingen, Germany. The new line, which should come onstream in summer 2006, will be focused on serving the fast developing Central and Eastern European market. The European roofing market, with a predominant flat/low slope roofing framework, is demanding joint polyester and glass-based roofing systems.
“As economies in Central and Eastern Europe improve, they are more interested in how specification grade materials can improve their living standards,” Mr. Mahmood said. In short, the economic boom leads to new construction and infrastructure improvements, which lead to a need for higher end nonwoven media. “These markets are following the lead of their Western European counterparts and standardizing around the Western European codes and specifications,” Mr. Mahmood said.
Currently, this region’s polyester spunbond needs are served mainly from Germany, but JM does operate a fiberglass operation in the region, in Slovakia, at a site acquired from Skloplast in 2001. In announcing an $85 million investment in a glass fiber furnace at the site last year, executives hinted that plans for a nonwovens operation in the region could be forthcoming but so far no such plans have been announced.
In addition to regional expansion, JM has been focused on new product development to increase its business. Because of nonwovens’ ability to respond to several consumer demands including flame retardancy, strength, moisture management and sound absorption, JM invests heavily in product development centers around its nonwovens business.
And, while JM has not made any major new product announcements in nonwoven roofing markets recently, Mr. Mahmood said they could be expected within the next six months. “We have recently announced several new applications in other nonwoven areas, e.g. flooring and filtration,” said Mr. Mahmood. Areas that will be under the spotlight include new generation shingle mats featuring never-before-seen capabilities, roof underlayment products that replace felt and paper systems and new wallboard applications. “We have a great pipeline of new products that should begin to benefit our business at the beginning of next year,” Mr. Mahmood predicted.