US glass fibre and insulation producer Johns Manville (JM, Denver, Colorado; www.jm.com) has rebuilt and re-started one of its two existing furnaces for glass fibre production in Waterville, Ohio / USA with increased capacity. The Waterville-produced glass fibres are intended for processing, among other things, reinforcement materials for composites and compounds (PA, PBT and PP), for which the US market has seen rising demand, says the company.

Johns Manville is traditionally covert regarding its capacities. However, capacity of the renewed furnace in Waterville is likely to be between 50,000-80,000 t/y, as is typical in the industry. Of the 12 production and processing plants responsible for its Engineered Products business, five are located in the US, along with one each in Germany, Slovakia and China. The company's combined capacities could then be on the order of 400,000 t/y.

In total, the company operates 43 plants and sales offices in North America, Europe and China, with a workforce of 7,000 employees. Annual sales of its Engineered Products, Insulation Systems and Roofing Systems businesses is around USD 3 bn (EUR 2.5 bn).