Germany: Johns Manville (JM), a Berkshire Hathaway company, has celebrated the inauguration of a state-of-the-art polyester spunbond production line at its plant in Berlin, Germany.
The new Euro32m line is part of a strategic plan to support the growing demand for high-end polyester filtration media. The new line utilises newly-developed proprietary spinning technology and will increase the Berlin plant's spunbond lightweight capacity by more than 40%.
"The new capacity at our Berlin plant will benefit Johns Manville's global customer base," said Mary Rhinehart, president and CEO. "Customers will have even greater access to our high-quality filtration products and to a new generation of spunbond filter media for cabin air, air pollution control and liquid filtration applications. This new lines also puts Johns Manville in a prime position to handle continued growth and customer demand in the many global markets we serve."
The Berlin site was founded in 1919 as 'Spinnstofffabrik Zehlendorf AG.' In 1960, Hoechst acquired the plant and in 1967 changed the production from Perlon (artificial silk) to spunbond and filaments polyester. In 1999, JM acquired the Berlin plant from Hoechst Trevira. Plant employees produce and market Evalith™ polyester spunbond nonwovens mainly for the filtration, roofing and geotextile industry.
