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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

New $57 Million Pipe Plant Bringing 100 Jobs to Youngstown, Ohio

12/01/2011
VAM USA has announced it will open a finishing plant in Youngstown, Ohio. The $57 million facility will bring 100 jobs to a region still reeling from steel mill job losses. It will operate near a $650 million pipe mill V&M Star is constructing. Both companies are affiliates of the Vallourec Group.

Houston-based VAM USA manufactures premium pipe connections that are in high demand due to ramped-up horizontal drilling operations used to extract natural gas from shale.

"Our products are the industry leader in the natural gas production industry," said Judson Wallace, president of VAM USA Wallace. "Expanding in Youngstown made sense for us as it brings us very close to customers working in both the Marcellus and Utica shales, where business is booming. Our new facility will enable us to improve service to existing customers and connect with new customers."

Wallace said the project entails completely stripping an existing 200,000-sq.-ft. building to the superstructure "then completely renovating that." The first phase is expected to be completed around August 2012; the final phase is expected to be finished by year-end 2013.

Girard Mayor Jim Melfi said it's exciting to see the 100-year-old vacant steel building, formerly the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., now coming back to life. "That doesn't happen very often," he noted.

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