Beton & Mollith and later owners plant at Mol, Antwerp

In April 1929, The J-M Circle, Johns-Manville's employee magazine, announced "the purchase of the controlling interest in the Beton and Mollith asbestos cement works in Belgium," whose factory stood "in the town of Moll, a very industrious place in the province of Antwerp."¹ The sources give different beginnings: the magazine said "The Beton and Mollith organization dates back to 1911," while a 1980 item in Asbestos, the industry's trade journal, said "The plant was established in 1923 and became J-M's first European production unit when it was acquired in 1928."^1,2 In 1929, though, the magazine wrote that this step "has just been taken."^1,7

The Circle said that "the manufacture of the Beton and Mollith products—asbestos shingles, and corrugated and flat asbestos wood—will be continued," and that Johns-Manville planned "to enlarge the plant greatly to take care of European and South American trade."¹ Johns-Manville's announcement, printed in Asbestos in May 1929, added a plan "ultimately to add textiles, insulating materials, brake linings, and other materials to the present lines."⁷

In November 1945, Asbestos reported that before the war Johns-Manville "owned and operated a plant at Moll Donck, Belgium, 35 miles from Antwerp, for the manufacture of Asbestos-cement products."³ During the war, the journal said, word came through "that it was being operated by the German invaders and was only slightly damaged in the Battle of Belgium."³ After the war, it reported, "manufacture of asbestos-cement sheets and other items has been resumed and asbestos fibre is again being used."³

In 1960, J-M News Pictorial, the company's later employee magazine, wrote that the walls and roof of J-M's Hull plant were covered "with asbestos-cement sheets manufactured at the Mol plant."⁴ A 1961 Johns-Manville item in Asbestos listed "an asbestos-cement products plant at Mol, Belgium" among the plants J-M companies operated abroad.⁶ In March 1969 the employee magazine reported that Mol "is currently installing new equipment to expand and improve manufacture of asbestos-cement sheet products sold to European markets."⁵ In 1980, Asbestos reported that the name of "the Beton & Mollith asbestos-cement products plant at Moll, Belgium, was changed to Johns-Manville, S.A."²

Location

What each document says

Every statement about this plant in the documents, in each document's own words.

Other names

Documents call this plant “Beton & Mollith Asbestos Cement Works at Moll, Belgium”, “the Belgium plant”, “plant at Moll Donck, Belgium”, “the J-M Belgium plant”, “the Mol plant”, “Johns-Manville factory at Mol, Belgium”, “asbestos-cement products plant at Mol, Belgium”, “Mol, Belgium”, “Beton & Mollith asbestos-cement products plant at Moll, Belgium”.

See also

• Johns-Manville Corporation: the company's history, documents, people, products and plants

References

1. The J-M Circle, 1929, April 1929 (April 1, 1929), p. 5.
2. Asbestos Magazine, 1980, September 1980 (September 1, 1980), p. 52.
3. Asbestos Magazine, 1945, November 1945 (November 1, 1945), p. 22.
4. J-M News Pictorial, 1960, June 1960 (June 1, 1960), p. 6.
5. J-M News Pictorial, 1969, March 1969 (the scan ends with pages repeated from April 1969) (March 1, 1969), p. 4.
6. Asbestos Magazine, 1961, March 1961 (March 1, 1961), p. 22.
7. Asbestos Magazine, 1929, May 1929 (May 1, 1929), p. 56.