TPT January 2009

89 / 108

From the AmericaS
87 January 2009 ›
In brief . . .
› Ending 81 years of operations, Linderme Tube Co (Euclid, Ohio)
ceased production on 1 October – the outcome, according to
company president William Haag, of a decades-long slippage in the
domestic metal pipe industry. As reported in the Cleveland Plain
Dealer (2 October), the main factors cited by Mr Haag were the
increasing use of plastic pipe for many construction applications and
increasing availability of inexpensive copper and aluminium tubes
made in China.
Linderme’s assets have been sold to Small Tube Products Co,
which planned to ship the metalworking machinery and inventory
to its headquarters plant in Altoona, Pennsylvania. The Linderme
acquisition represents its first expansion.
The buyer, Small Tube, founded in 1947, is a producer of precision
drawn, small diameter, thin wall copper and specialty alloy tubes,
with customers worldwide. It was itself spun off, in March 2008,
from Wolverine Tube Inc (Huntsville, Alabama), which had owned
it since 1994.
› Also from the Plain Dealer (3 October), Republic Special Metals
Inc (Canton, Ohio) was reported about to break ground on a new
speciality steel manufacturing plant near Youngstown. Construction
on the $64 million plant is expected to take from a year to 18 months.
Michael Owens, the vice president of sales and marketing, said that
the North Jackson plant would supply products for the aerospace
industry.At its Canton facility, formerly owned by Republic Engineered
Steel, the company produces both VAR (vacuum arc remelted) and
ESR (electro slag remelt) steels and alloys in ingots, semi-finished
billets, and finished bar stock.
› Alcoa closed down production at its Rockdale, Texas,
aluminium smelter as of 30 September, in response to overall
market conditions and ‘uncompetitive power supply’ to that
smelter. In June, the Pittsburgh-based aluminium producer, the
world’s largest, idled three of six operating potlines at Rockdale,
representing approximately 120,000 metric tons per year (mtpy)
of production. Curtailment of the remaining aluminium smelting at
the plant means the loss of another 150,000 mtpy as a result of
ongoing local power supply issues. Alcoa said it will continue to
operate the aluminium atomizer in Rockdale, as well as its anode
operations there.
› The Canadian Pacific Railway has gained approval from US
regulators to take control of the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern
Railroad Corp., raising the possibility of a third railroad accessing
lucrative coalfields in the western United States. The $1.5 billion
acquisition, first mentioned in 2007, reportedly would not decrease
competition in the North American rail industry; nor would shippers
lose the option of competitive services.
But the Surface Transportation Board – the successor agency to
the US Interstate Commerce Commission – said in October that
it will evaluate the potential environmental effect of increased coal
shipments if Canadian Pacific should pursue Dakota, Minnesota’s
plan to extend track into Wyoming’s Powder River Basin. Calgary-
based Canadian Pacific agreed to pay $1.48 billion including
assumed debt for the US railway company, which is based in
Brookings, South Dakota.
Dorothy Fabian, Features Editor (USA)