Its woes prompted a cut to earnings guidance after a weaker-than-expected December quarter as the company warned that an "organisational reset" which is now underway could take two or three years to complete. "The reality is it cost us more than we thought," the chief executive Louis Gries said of the efforts to restart production at several of the group's plants which also involved changes to product distribution.

The shares fell 4.6 per cent to $19.88 as investors reacted poorly to the surprise downgrade.

"James Hardie will be a work in progress for more than just a few quarters," Citi told clients following the results, with RBC Capital Markets saying investors "will need to gain comfort that margin issues will not recur in fiscal 2018 and that the growth trajectory will resume from thereon".

In the December quarter, the net profit fell 6 per cent to $US52.6 million, forcing the company to warn that earnings for its financial year ending March would come in at between $US245 million and $US255 million "assuming, among other things, housing conditions in the United States continue to improve". That's below analyst profit forecasts of $US252 million to $US269 million for the year.

"We're posting some numbers we're not proud of," Mr Gries​ told analysts, with earnings squeezed by a series of operational issues, which was exacerbated by an ongoing issue of higher than preferred staff turnover at some plants.

"We're not having as good a year as we want to have," Mr Gries said, "but we're investing for the future. We want to get extra capacity into the system to allow for growth.

"We're expecting a bounce back year next (financial) year in terms of an earnings perspective. We'd be looking to get some runs on the board early next year."

The company outlined plans for a new plant in Tacoma, Washington state, and which is expected to start up in fiscal 2019, costing $US121.5 million. It's planning another plant in either New England in the north-east or the mid-south of the US, where land will be bought in the year ahead, to begin operations in fiscal 2020.

These expansion plans are being pursued as it is bringing back onstream capacity at plants in both Florida and Texas, restarting an  idled plant in South Carolina as well as capacity in Fontana.

The chief executive said the group would look at "basically three new sites" for its near-term expansion plans as it angles to benefit from rising housing starts coupled with ambitions to take market share from rival products. Once the planned round of new plants are operational, the focus will shift to boosting capacity at existing plants, Mr Gries said, while also indicating a plant could be built at Colorado.

This will result in capital spending remaining elevated over the next three years at least, as the group continues to build its market share as it seeks to take sales away from competitor products, he said.

The poor earnings came against the backdrop of declining asbestos claims along with a fall in settlements due to fewer large claims nd lower settlement costs for most cases, it said. The number of claims received in the quarter fell to 143 from 159 a year earlier, with the average cost pre settlement running at $195,000 down from $275,000, which was also well below actuarial estimates.