Part I Johns Manville
From the end of July this year, the Chinese National Waterproofing Association (CNWA) has paid a 12-day visit to Johns Manville (Bobingen) and Vedag (Bamberg and Freising) in Germany.
The visit was invited by both JM and Vedag. The association has visited JM's research center for polyester nonwovens in Bobingen. According to JM, the market share of staple polyester shrinks at 10% each year. The turnover of spunbond polyester carrier for roofing is 600 million square meter, the staple polyester is 200 million, glass mat 500 million and glass cloth(玻璃布？) 120 million. The research center argued that spunbond polyester carrier has a better performance than the staple. Under the same density, the former one has some advantages eg. better strength, better elongation, stability and evenness. Even though staple can increase the density for 20% to compete with the spunbond in terms of strength, the staple one cannot reach an evenness like that of the spunbond. And the thinner spunbond can
make it easier to be impegnated and carry a thicker coating asphalt, which increase the durability of the roofing membrane.
Of course, one should take a grain of salt for these statements. Nevertheless, JM is marketing the spunbond product, especially those produced in Shanghai to the association and Chinese customers.
In Europe, JM said, the glass felt is mainly used for oxidized roofing and protective layer. 99% of SBS and APP membrane have polyester felt inside. Double layer waterproofing system is widely accepted in Europe, with a oxidized membrane as the basic layer and polyester roofing as a surface layer.
Laminated products made from fiberglass and polyester are more and more popular for high-end products. JM produces 180g laminated from glass grid and nonwovens, and 280g laminated from glass mat and polyester felt. The market for these laminated products for high-end roofing is 5 million square meter in Europe. However, this once widely used laminated felt is being dropped because of the shinkage problem.
JM also cited that an aluminium laminated product in the market.
Since the price of asphalt keep hiking, PVC, TPO, and EPDM membranes are eating up the market because of the relatively low unit price.
Besides, Manville also specified a aluminium laminated nonwovens in the market.
Part II Vedag
Vedag is an important roofing producer. Probably initiating the green roof, the company invited the CNWA to its headquarters in Bamberg. With production bases in Germany, Poland and Slovakia, Vedag has a annual turnover for roofing of 55 million square meters, selling worldwide. Among them, 24% are oxidized membrane, 34% SBS, 40% self-adhesive and APP, and 2% glass shingles.
Vedag thoroughly introduced the testing method of prEN13948, the root penetration test, to the Chinese delegation. Also, accompanied by Vedag, the delegation visited several projects of green roof.
Part III - BDA
The last stop of the delegation is BDA in Netherlands, which introduces the roofing market in Europe. According to them, 60% membrane in Germany is SBS, 90% membrane in Italy is APP, 80% membrane in France is SBS and in Netherlands, 70% are SBS and APP, the rest are single ply.
The underslating with breathability is required for asphalt roofing and slope roof.
Showing posts with label waterproofing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label waterproofing. Show all posts
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Talking About Waterproofing in China With A Senior Civil Engineer
by Eric Chen
During the national holidays, I stayed home and met one senior engineer who has worked in the field of construction in Guangzhou for more than 20 years. Some information from him is helpful for a few glimspes of waterproofing industry in China, especially in Guangdong.
Is the Chinese waterproofing industry growing? Yes. But not healthily. With the hot investment in real estate and other infrastrutural projects, the demand for waterproofing materials from roofing membrane to geotextile is undoubtfully rising. But only in term of quantity but not revenue.
Why? For example, the price of roofing membrane in China has long been kept in a low level, coupled with the ever lower quality. In the market, you can easily find SBS membrane with a price of less than 20RMB (EUR 2) per square meter. Fierce competition makes them priced to sell. Manufacturers use cheap polyester felt, organic felt or glass felt as substrates to produce the products which probably cannot meet the national standard requirement. On the contrary, the ones meeting the standard are sold at price of more than 30 RMB per square meter. These qualified products are facing difficulty in the market because of the price. The waterproofing industry becomes totally price-oriented because the customers, i.e. the contractors, do not buy the expensive and qualified products but cheap and uneligible ones.
One may wonder whether the national standard works or not? The answer is only partly yes. Contractors use roofing membrane, but in most case they do not use qualified one. As the engineer told me, the civil engineers in fact will prefer a reinforced concrete layer working as a real waterproofing layer to a problematice membrane waterproofing layer. In practice, the membrane can hardly prevent leakage, he said. The buliding depends the concrete layer to resist water penetration. And the roof with concrete would prevent water penetration well even if there were not any roofing membrane on the top of it. They use roofing membrane only because the designer has identified the usage according to the national standard. In many projects people use the cheapest roofing membrane from the market and lay them on top of the real waterproofing concreate layer. His narration coincides the roofing manufactures' claim that they are difficult in operating products that meet the national standard.
With the increasing raw materials prices, especially those of alsphalt and polyester, the roofing membrane producers are facing tightening profit margin. And since most of the membrane producers in China are small and medium size companies, they are weak in negotiation power with the buy-side and in the mean time have to face fierce competition with the sell-side.
Statistics of 1H06 reveals that contrary to most sectors in building materials industry, waterproofing industry suffered from plunge in profit.
Nevertheless, the above described phenomenon does not necessarily mean that the waterproofing industry in China is dying. Forgetting about the standard and keeping the price as low as possible, one can sell. Who can accompany this? Those who illegitametly escape tax and use unqualified cheap substrates such as organic felt or cheap polyester felts. Most of the market players fall in this group. The rest are waterproofing materials for large and important national projects such as olympic projects. They should meet the standard and use qualified roofing felt. But the market amount is limited.
One may conclude that the lack of execution of regulations and codes lead to the wide spread of low quality products. Corruption is one reason, but engineering requirement is another important reason. If the contractors and the final customers, the residents do not urge the use of qualified and relatively higher price roofing membrane, the situation that unqualified products dominate the market will last.
During the national holidays, I stayed home and met one senior engineer who has worked in the field of construction in Guangzhou for more than 20 years. Some information from him is helpful for a few glimspes of waterproofing industry in China, especially in Guangdong.
Is the Chinese waterproofing industry growing? Yes. But not healthily. With the hot investment in real estate and other infrastrutural projects, the demand for waterproofing materials from roofing membrane to geotextile is undoubtfully rising. But only in term of quantity but not revenue.
Why? For example, the price of roofing membrane in China has long been kept in a low level, coupled with the ever lower quality. In the market, you can easily find SBS membrane with a price of less than 20RMB (EUR 2) per square meter. Fierce competition makes them priced to sell. Manufacturers use cheap polyester felt, organic felt or glass felt as substrates to produce the products which probably cannot meet the national standard requirement. On the contrary, the ones meeting the standard are sold at price of more than 30 RMB per square meter. These qualified products are facing difficulty in the market because of the price. The waterproofing industry becomes totally price-oriented because the customers, i.e. the contractors, do not buy the expensive and qualified products but cheap and uneligible ones.
One may wonder whether the national standard works or not? The answer is only partly yes. Contractors use roofing membrane, but in most case they do not use qualified one. As the engineer told me, the civil engineers in fact will prefer a reinforced concrete layer working as a real waterproofing layer to a problematice membrane waterproofing layer. In practice, the membrane can hardly prevent leakage, he said. The buliding depends the concrete layer to resist water penetration. And the roof with concrete would prevent water penetration well even if there were not any roofing membrane on the top of it. They use roofing membrane only because the designer has identified the usage according to the national standard. In many projects people use the cheapest roofing membrane from the market and lay them on top of the real waterproofing concreate layer. His narration coincides the roofing manufactures' claim that they are difficult in operating products that meet the national standard.
With the increasing raw materials prices, especially those of alsphalt and polyester, the roofing membrane producers are facing tightening profit margin. And since most of the membrane producers in China are small and medium size companies, they are weak in negotiation power with the buy-side and in the mean time have to face fierce competition with the sell-side.
Statistics of 1H06 reveals that contrary to most sectors in building materials industry, waterproofing industry suffered from plunge in profit.
Nevertheless, the above described phenomenon does not necessarily mean that the waterproofing industry in China is dying. Forgetting about the standard and keeping the price as low as possible, one can sell. Who can accompany this? Those who illegitametly escape tax and use unqualified cheap substrates such as organic felt or cheap polyester felts. Most of the market players fall in this group. The rest are waterproofing materials for large and important national projects such as olympic projects. They should meet the standard and use qualified roofing felt. But the market amount is limited.
One may conclude that the lack of execution of regulations and codes lead to the wide spread of low quality products. Corruption is one reason, but engineering requirement is another important reason. If the contractors and the final customers, the residents do not urge the use of qualified and relatively higher price roofing membrane, the situation that unqualified products dominate the market will last.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
An Unexpected Trap - About an Waterproofing Exhibition in Nanjing, China
by Eric Chen, sep. 19, 2006
Noticed that a waterproofing exhibition called Nanjing Waterproofing Exhibtion 2006 will be held in these days in Nanjing, I contacted an organizer for more detail information. The location of this organzer, which is in Wuxi instead of in Nanjing, looks a little bit weird. But anyway, a person of the company sent me a fax with a layout of the stands of all the exhibitors in this waterproofing exhibition.
Taking no doubt on this fax and the layout on it, I took the high speed train from Shanghai to Nanjing, spent more than two hours on the way, and arrived at the city quite on time. Without any difficulty, I hailed a taxi and got to the Nanjing Exhibition Center, in which the waterproofing exhibition should locate.
But actullay, all is a trap to me. The organizer cheated me with forged information. To my surprise, in the exhibition hall, I found no one of the companies listed on the fax the organizer provided. So I went up to the service desk and checked what hell the problem was. Frustrating again, the staffs of the exhibition center were absolutely not professional and accountable. Mading up my mind to kick the whole things out, I finally found the person who was willing to explain the operation of this exhibition to me. The chief organizer, Nanjing Exhibition Center, outsourced and subcontracted the marketing and sales to three exhibition services companies, one of them Wuxi. Some of these companies split the whole exhibition into several exhibitions for specialized industries, such as building materials industry, digital media industry, and machinery industry, making each of them sound like a whole and independent trade show with some important companies or organizations on the list.
Clearly, this kind of subcontracting undermines the reputation and liability of Nanjing Expo Center and even the city Nanjing. Visitors, some of which could be potential exhibitors in the future will definetely lose interest. The lack of control taken by the head organizer to its service providers does halm the whole business in the future.
Ironically, the person who tried to round up his explanation and story obviously know the problem and could address it to prevent such kind of loss. Unfortunetely, he didn't.
This is an vivid example about how the economy misses the chances to improve the productivity. At least, the Wuxi company benefits from this deal, whereas majority of the economy and society lose.
Admittedly, this exhibition is still something. You can still see visitors surrounding the products they have interest in and asking details and prices. However, without the qualified manage team, the trade show will quite certainly remain a local one and lose in the competition with those in Shanghai. Maybe you can see government touting its investment parks and incentives in front of their international counterpart, but without an efficient and prosperous local economy, most of the people will continue to be kept working and gain little.
Noticed that a waterproofing exhibition called Nanjing Waterproofing Exhibtion 2006 will be held in these days in Nanjing, I contacted an organizer for more detail information. The location of this organzer, which is in Wuxi instead of in Nanjing, looks a little bit weird. But anyway, a person of the company sent me a fax with a layout of the stands of all the exhibitors in this waterproofing exhibition.
Taking no doubt on this fax and the layout on it, I took the high speed train from Shanghai to Nanjing, spent more than two hours on the way, and arrived at the city quite on time. Without any difficulty, I hailed a taxi and got to the Nanjing Exhibition Center, in which the waterproofing exhibition should locate.
But actullay, all is a trap to me. The organizer cheated me with forged information. To my surprise, in the exhibition hall, I found no one of the companies listed on the fax the organizer provided. So I went up to the service desk and checked what hell the problem was. Frustrating again, the staffs of the exhibition center were absolutely not professional and accountable. Mading up my mind to kick the whole things out, I finally found the person who was willing to explain the operation of this exhibition to me. The chief organizer, Nanjing Exhibition Center, outsourced and subcontracted the marketing and sales to three exhibition services companies, one of them Wuxi. Some of these companies split the whole exhibition into several exhibitions for specialized industries, such as building materials industry, digital media industry, and machinery industry, making each of them sound like a whole and independent trade show with some important companies or organizations on the list.
Clearly, this kind of subcontracting undermines the reputation and liability of Nanjing Expo Center and even the city Nanjing. Visitors, some of which could be potential exhibitors in the future will definetely lose interest. The lack of control taken by the head organizer to its service providers does halm the whole business in the future.
Ironically, the person who tried to round up his explanation and story obviously know the problem and could address it to prevent such kind of loss. Unfortunetely, he didn't.
This is an vivid example about how the economy misses the chances to improve the productivity. At least, the Wuxi company benefits from this deal, whereas majority of the economy and society lose.
Admittedly, this exhibition is still something. You can still see visitors surrounding the products they have interest in and asking details and prices. However, without the qualified manage team, the trade show will quite certainly remain a local one and lose in the competition with those in Shanghai. Maybe you can see government touting its investment parks and incentives in front of their international counterpart, but without an efficient and prosperous local economy, most of the people will continue to be kept working and gain little.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Waterproofing Situation in Yunnan Province - China Waterproofing Highlights
Waterproofing Situation in Yunnan Province
Aug. 2006, Kunming
(compiled and composed by Eric J. Chen)
The Waterproofing Association of Yunnan (south-west province of China) carried out a general study, from January 2005 to July 2005, on the status of waterproofing in construction in the province. The survey covered seven major cities of Yunnan. The subjects of the investigation are the waterproofing projects finished from 2000 to 2004. Two main parts of the investigation lie in the quality of project and the materials used. Waterproofing quality of roofing system, basement, bathroom and kitchen, and external wall are main concerns during the investigation. In the first time, such a general and relatively entire look-into of the waterproofing projects in Yunnan was conducted.
Waterproofing quality of roofing system is improving in the province. Among the total 435 projects, the leakage rate, when calculated in area, is 0.85%, and is 15.4% when calculated in number of projects. The leakage rate of Kunming, the capital city, is still high with a rate of 14.7%, the report said. On the roofs, calculated in area, over 61% of the projects used roofing membrane, compared to 32% of those used coating and 7% powders or other materials.
In the aspect of basement waterproofing quality, some 35 projects were studied in the surveying, with a leakage rate of 22.9%. Among these projects, calculated in area, some 62% used roofing membrane, some 38% used coating materials, and the rest took no waterproofing measure.
Among bathroom and kitchen waterproofing projects, the leakage rate is 2.1%. Some 26% of the projects used roofing membrane and some 74% used coating materials. Concerning the tight space in bathroom and kitchen, the use of coating materials, most acrylic acid or polymer modified cementitious waterproofing coating, is more popular.
External wall waterproofing has not been introduced in most among those surveyed in the study. Most of the construction used ceramic tiles or other wall-covering bricks, leading to a considerable leakage situation in this rainy region. Among the few projects having waterproofing, coating materials were used, some imported.
The major part roofing membranes projects used is SBS roofing membrane and PVC roofing membrane
The report said that the quality of the waterproofing had been increased in the last 15 years. The leakage rate decreased from over 50% to about 15% or even 1% after remediation.
As a common phenomenon, lack of regulation effort of the market and the fierce competition among manufacturers lead to low price of the waterproofing materials, whereas the raw materials price keeps growing ranged from asphalt to resin. The market full of counterfeit goods and the contractors without sufficient skilled waterproofing workers are the other two pullbacks of the industry.
Firestone Holds Semilar in Beijing for its Roofing System - China Waterproofing Highlights
Firestone Holds Semilar in Beijing for its Roofing System
2006.8, Beijing
(compiled and translated by Eric J. Chen)
Philip Moors, Firestone's manager from its Asia contraction products division, held a semilar in Beijing in August, introducing Firestone's EPDM roofing system and padding system. Firestone's TPO roofing application, case stud in China and globe, waterproofing system and Firestone's technical service were also parts of the seminar. Obviously, this is part of the Firestone's marketing effort in China.
2006.8, Beijing
(compiled and translated by Eric J. Chen)
Philip Moors, Firestone's manager from its Asia contraction products division, held a semilar in Beijing in August, introducing Firestone's EPDM roofing system and padding system. Firestone's TPO roofing application, case stud in China and globe, waterproofing system and Firestone's technical service were also parts of the seminar. Obviously, this is part of the Firestone's marketing effort in China.
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