Johns Manville Europe Starts Up New Fine Spunbond Production Line More than 100% Capacity Increase :

Berlin, Germany (September 28, 2001) --- Johns Manville Europe today announced the start up its new Spunbond production line at the Johns Manville GmbH Berlin location. To meet the increasing demand for polyester spunbonds, Johns Manville invested in excess of 30 million DM in the new line thus increasing the production capacity for thermal bonded spunbonds by more than 100%.

The Berlin-Zehlendorf facility, which Johns Manville acquired from Hoechst Trevira in 1999, has a long and interesting textile tradition. 1886 founded as "Fockendorfer paper mill" in the early 20th century the company has the name of the "Spinnstofffabrik Zehlendorf", various textile products were produced during its long-standing history. In the beginning, it focused on the production of rayon; cellulose and Perlon enhanced the product range in the 1920s and 1950s. In the '60s, Hoechst AG took an interest in the facility and invested in the production of Trevira fibers and filaments. Polyester Spunbonds were not produced until the early '90s. The Spunbond lines are the sole surviving production units at the Berlin site. As a result of its acquisition by Johns Manville the Berlin facility has an optimistic outlook for the future.

The heart of the new line, which has a production width of 2.50 m, is a new generation of spinnerets whose innovative technology allows JM to significantly increase the product properties of spunbonds. The filament counts between 1,2 dtex and 12dtex improve tensiles while maintaining and even increasing product uniformity. Products with an area weight lower than 15 g/m² now complement Johns Manville's polyester spunbond product range. Johns Manville's versatile cutting, rewinding and finishing service is able to meet customer requirements for individual product lengths and widths. Initial orders for the production of roofing underslatings, secondary backings for flooring as well as for filtration media are already on hand.

This investment also provides 18 new jobs at the Berlin facility. At first glance, this may appear to be a relatively low number, however job determination was based on the high productivity levels of the production lines and the cost-intensive nature of the business. This large capital expenditure once again documents the efforts continuously exercised by Johns Manville to respond to ever-changing technologies and the demand for improved quality and productivity.

Johns Manville, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is a leading manufacturer and marketer of premium-quality building and specialty products. In business since 1858, the Denver-based company has sales in excess of $2 billion and holds leadership positions in all of the key markets that it serves. Johns Manville employs approximately 9,500 people and operates 52 manufacturing facilities in North America, Europe and Asia. Johns Manville Europe is the European operations for one of Johns Manville's three strategic business units, and has 11 manufacturing locations in Germany, Sweden, the U.K., Poland, Slovakia and China. Additional information can be found at www.jm.com.

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