TPT May 2010

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Global Marketplace
82 M ay 2010 ›
For further information or
a brochure please contact:
Unit 24, Padgets Lane, South Moons Moat,
Redditch, Worcester B98 0RB, England.
Telephone: (01527) 518520 Fax: (01527) 518526
E-mail:
France: Tel: (1) 39 57 96 00 Germany: Tel: 02150 2500
Netherlands/Belgium: Tel: (04756) 6888 USA: Tel: 708 272 7880
An advanced range of N.C. single
and twin headed machines
• Quick tool change
• High production
capability
• No tube clamping
required
• End form on
or near bends
• Up to 6" ø
• High quality robust
construction
• 12 month warranty.
AV85C
Twin Head.
TUBE END
FORMING
Infinitely adjustable
expansion & reduction
Severstal’s chief executive andmajor shareholder,Alexei Mordashov,
who said, “I am optimistic that we will see a broad improvement in
the industry this year.” (10 March)
In MetalMiner, a blog for purchasing professionals in the metals
industries, Stuart Burns made the observation that Severstal’s
position is typical of most global players now, certainly outside of
China. In this view, steel makers are not interested in significantly
increasing capacity. Rather, they are focused on moving upstream
to more value-added products, in securing raw material supplies
to insulate themselves against iron ore and coking coal price
risk, and in improving their own quality and efficiency. Mr Burns
wrote, “Even Severstal, whose highly competitive Russian plants
are running at 95% capacity utilisation, are earmarking only a
portion of their capital expenditure to expanding mini mill capacity.”
(11 March)
› Metal components manufacturer Precision Castparts Corp.
(Portland, Oregon) announced it has acquired a 49% equity
stake in Yangzhou Chengde Steel Tube Co, Ltd, a manufacturer of
carbon steels and alloy steel seamless steel tubes. As reported by
the financial newswire RTTNews (15 January), the American company
said its lack of capacity for seamless boiler pipe manufacture would
have forced it out of that market.
Through its newChinese affiliation, Precision expects to gain immediate
access to the boiler pipe market in China. From there, the distribution
network of another US forgings and castings maker – Wyman-Gordon
Co (Grafton, Massachusetts) – will introduce Precision Castparts
products around the world.
Yangzhou Chengde Steel Tube manufactures seamless extruded pipe
for boilers in coal-fired power plants, as well as pipe and tubing for
energy-related applications such as the transport of compressed natural
gas. It operates a single facility, in China’s Jiangsu Province.
Legal proceedings
In California, a ‘whistleblower’ suit against
PVC pipe maker JM Eagle will go ahead
without the participation of Washington
JM Eagle (Los Angeles), the world’s largest manufacturer of PVC
pipe, and its former parent company Formosa Plastics Corp (USA) are
being sued for millions of dollars in damages for allegedly supplying
substandard water and sewer pipe to states, cities, and municipalities
across the US from 1995 to 2005.
The new “qui tam” (whistleblower) lawsuit, like an earlier such suit
filed by former employee John Hendrix, stems from an assertion by Mr
Hendrix that the tensile strength of PVC pipe sold by the company was
below that required by Underwriters Laboratories to qualify for the UL
mark stamped on its product.
JM Eagle moved its corporate headquarters from Livingston, New
Jersey, to the West Coast in 2008. The plaintiff, an engineer in the
product assurance division of J-M Manufacturing (the company’s name
before its acquisition of PW Eagle in in 2007), in Livingston, was given
the job of fielding customer complaints. He was, he said, trained to
find ways of attributing leaks and ruptures to the governments and
contractors who installed and maintained J-M pipes.
“Only when he was assigned to oversee certain tests did Mr Hendrix
begin to think the complaints stemmed from the company’s own cost-
cutting measures,” Mary Williams Walsh wrote in the New York Times.
“He said he realised JM Eagle had started buying a lower grade of
raw materials from Formosa and had speeded up its production lines
without reporting the changes to the certification agencies” as required.
(“Bursting Pipes Lead to a Legal Battle,” 12 February)
Mr Hendrix told the Times that he was asked to oversee the certification
of a new manufacturing process that put the pipes through a prescribed
battery of tests. He concluded that JM Eagle had been selling
substandard plastic pipe since 1996, and that it had subsequently
manipulated test results. According to his original complaint, filed in
2006, when he told his superiors of his concerns they said the problems
were a normal “business risk.” When he pursued the issue, he was
fired.
› The filing of Mr Hendrix’s second qui tam suit followed on the
announcement by the US government that it had decided against
intervening in the matter. The decision, announced on 16 February, was
hailed by JM Eagle as a finding of innocence, but that is to assert too
much. The purpose of qui tam is to enlist the public in the recovery of
civil penalties and forfeitures; the government rewards with a portion
of the recovered proceeds those who sue in the government’s name,
or otherwise assist in the recovery. A civil action brought either by the
United States or by a relator – whistleblower or other private party –
in the name of the government involves the same considerations (of
expense, available time, and likelihood of success, among others) that
inform any decision to go to law for the recovery of damages.
› Writing in Plastics Today after the government announcement,
Clare Goldsberry observed that the law firm representing Mr
Hendrix includes among those alleged to have sustained damage from