James Hardie has entered into a contract to acquire the land upon which its existing Carole Park, Brisbane manufacturing facility is located, together with the buildings on the site. In addition, the company will construct new manufacturing capacity on the site. Capital expenditure for the purchase of the property and the construction of new manufacturing capacity is estimated to be A$89 million.

The company expects to incur these capital expenditures over a two year period, with construction of the new manufacturing capacity commencing at the end of the first quarter of calendar year 2014, with production facilities projected to be fully operational in the first half of calendar year 2015.

The decision to invest in additional Australian fibre cement manufacturing capacity is in response to a long term trend in the Australian residential and commercial construction industries towards greater usage of composite building materials, of which James Hardie is a major beneficiary. The company expects that this capital expenditure will allow it to service expected increases in demand for its products and also enable further incremental capacity expansions in the Asia Pacific business at low capital costs in the medium term if required to meet future market demand.

The Carole Park facility was chosen as the preferred location for expansion as south-east Queensland delivers freight advantages, particularly as James Hardie enjoys strong market penetration in Queensland. Other expected benefits of the investment in the Carole Park facility include enhanced product differentiation and increased operating efficiencies, which are expected to result in manufacturing cost savings.

Production of building materials at our Rosehill plant in Sydney and of pipes at our Meeandah, Brisbane site will continue.

Scyon™ Axon™ cladding -  Grained

• A new grained texture sheet with a 133mm groove spacing
• Available in 3 sheet sizes

Scyon™ Stria™ cladding -  Splayed Profile

• A new 255mm wide and 16mm thick board with a splayed horizontal edge
• It includes a new 16mm Aluminum Trim Corner to suit

Made from Scyon™, these two new products ingeniously combine workability with artful simplicity and continue to challenge conventional building methods. their addition to the range further enhances the diversity of the 'Looks that can be achieved with Scyon™.

The NEW 'HardieBreak™ Thermal Strip' by James Hardie complies with the Building Code of Australia’s mandatory thermal break requirement for residential and commercial steel frame construction -

• A 12mm thick unique hard dual layer density closed cell polyolefin strip giving excellent compression resistance and strength
• Research shows that using no thermal break on a steel framed clad wall can reduce the wall’s R Value by up to 30%
• Features a peel away adhesive tape on the rear for quick installation

For more information visit  the Thermal Strip Page

As Building Designers Australia (BDA) platinum partner, and principal sponsor of the BDA Annual National Conference and Design Awards, James Hardie will be centre stage at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney’s Darling Harbour on April 19-21.

Our BDA partnership cements the James Hardie brand as a top-of-the-mind supplier to an industry that is responsible for product specification to more than 85 per cent of the nation’s residential construction projects and a rapidly growing segment of innovative commercial and industrial developments across the country.

Delegates to the peak industry body’s 2012 national conference will surf a wave of fast, informative, action-packed design charette sessions chaired by charismatic moderator Tone Wheeler, supplemented by keynote presentations from some of the country’s foremost architectural minds, including the mastermind behind the iconic conference venue, Philip Cox.

The conference theme, Design for the Times … Past, Present and Future, will materialise as two parallel initiatives, and delegates and sponsors will encounter many twists. The format revolves around lecture sessions providing delegates with conceptual design insight and focusing on the thought processes behind the case studies presented. Following each of these talks will be a unique charette environment in which delegates will focus their innate design skills on a conceptual design brief – with the help of some newly-acquired insight.

The conference will feature many respected industry experts including Brett Blacklow. Brett is recognised as one of Australia’s leading authorities on affordable housing, sustainable building techniques, low toxic housing and rapid construction technologies. In 2009 he saw the release of the “Smarter Small Home” an affordable and sustainable small lot home which clearly demonstrated Brett’s extensive construction knowledge and design ability. He will draw on his experience to present on Construction Technology for Adaptive Reuse. Brett aims to bring to designers an understanding of the process and materials behind the emerging rapid construction technologies that can deliver enormous benefits to you and your clients.  Brett will present an overview of the concepts and applications that enable him to consistently build houses in mere weeks.  

The conference is open to all professional designers. If you are interested in attending please look up www.bdaconference.com.au.

New Regulations - Warranties against defects  

As you are hopefully already aware, from 1 January 2012, all warranties against defects that are supplied with goods or services must comply with the Australian Consumer Law (“ACL”) and Competition and Consumer Regulations 2010 (“Regulations”).

Please note the change impacts the warranty included in James Hardie and Scyon™ installation manuals and action by you may be required – see below. Our other information and product brochures can continue to be made available to customers without further action.

James Hardie is taking the following steps to comply with the Regulations and the provisions of the ACL:

1.     Updating its product warranties to comply with the Regulations and the ACL.

2.     Updating its installation manuals to include the updated product warranty.

3.    Sending out email circulars to ACCEL™ members and those on our electronic database to notify them of the changes to our product warranty.

4.     Suggesting two options (see below) that may assist you meet your obligations under the ACL and Regulations in relation to any existing James Hardie installation manuals you wish to make available to your customers.

We trust these steps will assist in minimising any disruption caused and ensuring that as from 1 January 2012, all new James Hardie documentation provided will comply with the Regulations and ACL.

As per step 4 above, if you are currently displaying or providing copies of James Hardie or Scyon™ installation manuals to your customers, to help ensure your compliance with the ACL and Regulations from 1 January 2012, we suggest you take one of the following two courses of action:

Either:

·         Remove all existing copies of James Hardie installation manuals from display and refer customers to the James Hardie website for installation and warranty details;

Or:

·         Update any of your existing stock of installation manuals which you intend to display or make available to your customers by:

(i)     sticking one of the stickers provided by James Hardie to the front of each manual; and

(ii)    inserting or stapling a copy of the “Important Notice – Australian Consumer Law” provided by James Hardie inside each manual.

Stickers and copies of the Important Notice are being sent to all customers. If you require more stickers, please contact your James Hardie sales representative or contact Ask James Hardie™ on 13 11 03. If you require more copies of the Important Notice, we suggest you take copies of the notice sent to you or download and print further copies from this link. 

More information on the relevant provisions of the ACL about “warranties against defects” is available at http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/996742. However, if you have any questions in relation to the steps James Hardie is taking as set out above; please do not hesitate to contact your sales representative or our Ask James Hardie™ team on 13 11 03.