Pipemaker suspends US operations

 

Tenaris, which manufactures steel pipe for the oil industry and is headquartered in Luxembourg is suspending operations at four U.S. plants, including Baytown, Texas and plans to layoff workers at others as demand for its products falls during the oil crash.

The company said it has temporarily closed plants in Koppel and Ambridge, Pa.; Brookfield, Ohio, until market conditions improve.

The Luxembourg-based company said it would temporarily suspend operations at the Baytown facility just weeks after it announced the layoffs of 223 workers at the facility as it restructures its US-based operations.

The move comes less than a month after Tenaris announced it would idle its 600,000 st/yr electric arc furnace (EAF) billet mill in Koppel, Pennsylvania, and its 496,000 st/yr seamless pipe mill in Ambridge, Pennsylvania.

Tenaris is among many steel companies serving the North American oil and gas industry that have been hammered by the downturn in the energy industry, with WTI fob Houston falling by about two-thirds since the beginning of the year.

US Steel idled its pipe mills in Texas and Ohio due to the oil downturn, curtailing a combined 780,000 st/yr of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) production.

Source: Argus