Benteler Steel/Tube, a manufacturer of seamless hot-rolled steel tubes and seamless cold-drawn precision steel tubes, announced last week that it will build a new hot rolling tube mill in Caddo, Louisiana.
The company will invest $900 million in its first U.S. production facility and will create more than 1,000 construction jobs, an estimated 675 full time jobs when at full capacity, and numerous indirect jobs with suppliers and service providers to the plant.
The company said locating in the U.S was part of its global business growth strategy, since currently more than 25 % of the company’s products flow into North America.
“With the growing demand for high-quality steel tubes for exploratory drilling in the U.S., and Louisiana’s proximity and access to energy customers, Benteler Steel/Tube’s Caddo Parish plant is poised to play an important role in meeting U.S. domestic energy needs,” said Matthias Jaeger, CEO of Benteler Steel/Tube GmbH.
Exploratory drilling requires high-quality steel tubes that can withstand immense stresses and Benteler’s product portfolio includes a range of steel tubes that meet the extreme requirements in energy exploration.
Groundbreaking on the new facility is scheduled for the spring of 2013 and completion is planned for the second half of 2015. In the initial phase, Benteler will build a hot rolling tube mill with new and sophisticated manufacturing technology along with several finishing lines for the production of seamless tube solutions.
Benteler Steel/Tube is a business unit of the global Benteler Group, which is headquartered in Salzburg, Austria serves the automotive, OCTG/line pipe, heat transfer, hydraulics/precision engineering, and construction sectors.
