TMK IPSCO expands pipe threading line at Ohio facility

Saturday, Mar05, 2011

Downers Grove, Illinois-based steel energy pipe manufacturer TMK IPSCO announced Friday that its Premium pipe threading facility in Brookfield, Ohio has begun a two-week commissioning phase for its second thread line, which will allow the facility to thread more and larger pipe products.

The second thread line will allow the Brookfield plant to thread pipes up to 13 5/8" in diameter, up from the previous size range of 4"-7 5/8" under the first thread line.

"What this means for the industry is that we are now able to provide an even quicker response to the growing needs of the Marcellus drilling region," said Piotr Galitzine, chairman of TMK IPSCO. "Marcellus will play a major role going forward as natural gas finds new uses in electricity generation and municipal transportation."

Sumitomo Metals receives prize for its blast furnace evaluation technologies

Friday, 04 March 2011

On March 3, Japanese steelmaker Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd. (Sumitomo Metals), a member of the diversified Sumitomo Corporation, has received the 57th Okochi Memorial Foundation Production Prize for its "development of technologies that extend the campaign life of blast furnaces."

Pointing out that the inner conditions of a blast furnace used to be a "black box", Sumitomo Metals stated that it has developed simulation technologies which enable inner conditions to be quantitatively evaluated. "Thanks to operational and repair technologies based on such evaluation, the Wakayama Steel Works' No. 4 blast furnace was commended for achieving the world's longest continuous operation of 10,001 days with 27 years and four months," the company said.

The award on this occasion has resulted in Sumitomo Metals receiving the Okochi Memorial Foundation Prize for all the processes (i.e., blast furnace, steelmaking, manufacturing mill, and products) that are related to manufacturing of seamless pipes.

The Okochi Memorial Foundation Prize recognizes notable contributions in the areas of production engineering, production technology research and development, and the implementation of high-level production methods in Japan.

Tags : production , steelmaking , East Asia and Pacific

Northwest Pipe expands Houston, Texas facility

Wednesday, 09 February 2011 02:49:18 (GMT+2)
Vancouver, Washington-based welded pipe manufacturer Northwest Pipe announced Tuesday plans to expand its Houston, Texas mill in response to growing customer demand for greater product offerings.

The Houston mill has traditionally produced only mechanical tubing products, but began producing green tube for OCTG in 2010. The mill upgrade will build upon the OCTG green tube line and other products being produced on site by adding production of 2 and 3/8" and 2 and 7/8" tubing.

Northwest Pipe's announcement comes less than a week after announcing a product expansion investment at its Atchison, Kansas pipe manufacturing plant.
Tags: pipe , tubing , longs , tubular , USA , North America , steelmaking , production , investments

OMK’s ATZ sees 34 percent rise in steel pipe output in January

Monday, 07 February 2011 11:51:33 (GMT+2)
The Russian pipe producing company United Metallurgical Company (OMK) has announced that in January 2011 the steel pipe output of its Tatarstan-based subsidiary Almetyevsk Pipe Plant (ATZ) increased by 34 percent year on year from 9,635 mt to 12,900 mt. Meanwhile, ATZ's shipments of steel pipes of its own production rose in the first month of this year by 35 percent compared to the same period last year, increasing to 15,008 mt.
Tags: pipe , tubular , Russia , CIS , manufacturing , production , OMK sourced:steelorbis