Mar 3 2008
United Spiral Pipe, LLC, a joint venture of United States Steel Corporation, POSCO and SeAH Steel Corporation today broke ground for a state-of-the-art spiral welded pipe manufacturing facility. The new plant will have world-class pipe making and coating facilities and be capable of producing 300,000 net tons of API specification line pipe per year in outside diameters ranging from 24 inches to 64 inches. The facility will also benefit from an advanced and automated two-step welding process that will differentiate United Spiral Pipe from its competitors.
The plant is expected to come on line in May 2009, and approximately 120 new full time manufacturing jobs will be created. Approximately 300,000 hours of local building and construction trade labor will be required to construct the facility.
Attending the ground breaking ceremony were Will Casey, mayor of the City of Pittsburg; B.W. Koo, Korean Consul General; John P. Surma, Chairman and CEO of U. S. Steel; Eun Yeon Hwang, Senior Vice President of Marketing for POSCO; W.I. Gong, President and Chief Executive Officer of SeAH; M. S. Lee, President of United Spiral Pipe; and John J. Connelly, Senior Vice President-Strategic Planning & Business Development at U. S. Steel.
Speaking at the event, Surma said, "North America is experiencing strong demand for spiral welded pipe due to a number of construction projects for new natural gas and oil transmission infrastructure. Both the capacity and location of the spiral welded facility will favorably position the joint venture to build a presence in the rapidly growing North American large- diameter line pipe market."
Lee added, "The strengths and expertise of our partners position United Spiral Pipe to be very competitive in the North American market. POSCO and U. S. Steel will provide high quality hot rolled coils and SeAH is a highly experienced spiral pipe producer."
U. S. Steel and POSCO each own 35 percent of the joint venture. They have been partners in USS-POSCO Industries (UPI) in Pittsburg, Calif., for more than 20 years. The new spiral welded pipe facility is located on land owned by UPI. SeAH Steel Corporation (SeAH), a manufacturer of tubular products in the Republic of Korea, will own the remaining 30 percent of the joint venture and brings broad expertise in manufacturing spiral welded pipe to the new company.