In an announcement Wednesday, Dura-Bond said it has acquired equipment in U.S. Steel’s idled McKeesport, Pa., tube works and has leased the building from its owner, the Regional Industrial Development Corp. Dura-Bond hopes to begin producing smaller diameter pipe for the oil and gas industry within six to nine months. 

Family-owned Dura-Bond makes large-diameter pipe at a former Bethlehem Steel facility in eastern Pennsylvania. It also has coating and fabrications operations there and in western Pennsylvania, close to the McKeesport facility. 

“While the challenge will be great, Dura-Bond believes that there is an opportunity for success in McKeesport. We turned around the former Bethlehem Steel pipe mill in Steelton, Pa., and are ready to do it again,” said Dura-Bond president Jason Norris.

“Our family is firm believer of manufacturing in America and hope more companies building pipeline infrastructure in the USA will buy domestically made pipe. More than 50 percent of the oil and gas pipe used in the USA comes from overseas and that must change,” Norris said.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper, Dura-Bond will buy flat-rolled steel from U.S. Steel, ArcelorMittal and other domestic producers and will make significant capital investments in the facility.

“Our focus is going to be a domestic mill using domestic feedstock,” Norris told the newspaper. 
 

U. S. Steel idled the facility, the last remaining component of its once sprawling National Tube Works, in 2014. Dura-Bond said it will be making significant capital investments in the facility.