Johns Manville continues to expand in polymeric, single-ply commercial roofing with the latest hike due at it Scottsboro, Ala., factory.
JM said Dec. 1 that will add a second production line in Scottsboro to make thermoplastic polyolefin sheet roofing membranes. The project follows a capacity expansion of its current TPO sheet line that was completed in May 2015.
“The plant expansion [in May] was a huge success and made our Scottsboro facility what is, in our view, the most productive and efficient TPO facility in the United States, enabling us to meet our customers' needs for the foreseeable future,” noted Jennifer Ford-Smith, JM's director of marketing and single ply, in a news release.
JM said the new TPO sheet line will hike the firm's total investment in commercial roofing over the past eight years to about $200 million. JM started up the TPO line in October 2008. In 2012 it opened a new ethylene-propylene diene monomer single-ply roofing sheet plant in Milan, Ohio. The programs in total added 175 jobs, JM said.
TPO sheet demand is increasing in commercial roofing due to its ability to withstand UV light and weathering. Major suppliers in North America are Denver-based JM, GAF Materials Corp. of Parsippany, N.J., and Firestone Building Products of Indianapolis. Major ingredients of TPO sheet typically include polyethylene, polypropylene and block copolymer PP, rubber or other elastomer, and fillers/ reinforcements such as fiberglass, talc or carbon fiber. Major TPO roofing producers also carry roofing products made of traditional materials such as asphalt and PVC.
“We're proud to be part of the commercial roofing industry, and we believe our 157-year history demonstrates that we are here to stay,” said JM vice president and general manager Robert Wamboldt in a news release.
Johns Manville, owned by Berkshire Hathaway Inc., has total annual sales of about $2.6 billion in building and specialty products.