United Spiral Pipe Breaks Ground for New Facility
03/03/2008 - United Spiral Pipe—a joint venture of United States Steel, Posco, and SeAH Steel—breaks ground for a new state-of-the-art spiral welded pipe manufacturing facility in Pittsburg, Calif.
United Spiral Pipe, LLC—a joint venture of United States Steel, Posco, and SeAH Steel—has broken ground for a new state-of-the-art spiral welded pipe manufacturing facility.
Equipped with world-class pipe making and coating facilities, the new plant will be capable of producing 300,000 net tons of API-specification line pipe per year in outside diameters ranging from 24 to 64 inches. The facility will also feature an advanced and automated two-step welding process that will help the company differentiate its product from its competitors.
U. S. Steel and Posco each own 35% of the joint venture, with SeAH Steel owning the remaining 30%. The new spiral welded pipe facility will be located on land owned by USS-Posco Industries (UPI) in Pittsburg, Calif., a more-than-20-year partnership between U. S. Steel and Posco. SeAH Steel, a manufacturer of tubular products in the Republic of Korea, brings broad expertise in manufacturing spiral welded pipe to the new company.
"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,” commented U.S. Steel Chairman and CEO John P. Surma during the groundbreaking ceremony. “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."
United Spiral Pipe President M. S. 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."
The new plant is expected to come on line in May 2009.
