James Hardie Selects General Contractor for Grassroot Virginia Fiber Cement Siding Manufacturing Plant

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). New South Wales, Australia-based cement building products manufacturer, James Hardie Industries Limited, is preparing to construct a new plant in Pulaski, Virginia, to help fill the increasing demand for its products to the East Coast market. Hardie, attracted by the area's rail and road access and ample supply of raw materials, will invest $98 million in the project and plans to employ 200 workers within thirty months. Sitework for the new construction is scheduled to begin in April 2005.

The state of Virginia helped to secure the plant for Virginia by offering a $450,000 incentive grant, plus access to a further $900,000 from the Virginia Department of Transportation to improve road and rail access to the plant, as well as worker training provided by the Virginia Department of Business Assistance through its Workforce Services Program. Virginia beat out North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee for the project.

Casey Industrial Incorporated (Broomfield, Colorado) has been selected as the general contractor for the project. Hardie is hoping to get the project construction mobilized by April 18, 2005. Installation of the first of two fiber cement siding production lines to be installed at the new plant should be completed in eleven months. The second production line is scheduled to be up and operating three months later.

Construction of the Virginia plant comes on the heals of completion of the company's ninth U.S. manufacturing plant in Nevada. See related October 20, 2004, news article - James Hardie Nears Construction Completion of New Fiber Cement Product Manufacturing Plant in Nevada. Pulaski, the company's tenth plant, will be the largest of them all. Pulaski will produce 600 million standard feet of product annually. The company's present largest plant, in Cleburne, Texas, produces 500 million standard feet, and its plant in Peru, Illinois, will soon be capable of producing 560 million standard feet. The Pulaski plant will produce external siding and interior backerboard products for new residential construction, repair and remodeling, and manufactured housing markets on two 300-standard-foot lines.

When the first line is completed, it will raise Hardie's North American production capacity to 3.1 million standard feet per year, and the second line, to 3.4 million.

James Hardie Industries Limited (JHIL) has been known since December 2001 as James Hardie Industries NV (JHINV) (NYSE:JHX ), when the company's shareholders agreed to a restructuring of the company and reincorporation in The Netherlands. In the mid-1980s, James Hardie pioneered the development of fiber-cement technology and began designing and manufacturing a wide range of cellulose-reinforced fiber-cement building products for residential and commercial uses. The company employs 2,500 people around the world.

The U.S. accounts for 75% of the company's business. Hardie's U.S. plants are located in Fontana, California; Plant City, Florida; Peru, Illinois, McCarran, Nevada; Blandon, Pennsylvania; Summerville, South Carolina; Cleburne and Waxahatchie, Texas; and Tacoma, Washington. The McCarran and Summerville plants are former CemPlank plants. James Hardie acquired CemPlank's fiber-cement operations in 2002.

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