TPT May 2007

Industry News

Roll-Kraft announces promotions

Pervouralsky order electric steelworks from SMS Demag Pervouralsky New Pipe Works (PNTZ), Russia, has placed an order with SMS Demag, Germany, for the supply of a turnkey electric steelworks with two continuous casting plants. The steelworks will produce the starting material for the existing tube rolling mills of the ChTPZ group, leading to an annual production of 1.1 million tons of steel. The new steelworks include a 120t electric arc furnace with modern Arccess ® technology, a 120t ladle furnace and a VD vacuum tank degasser. The deal also includes a dust extraction plant, laboratory equipment, steam generating system and a supply system for alloying agents. Two continuous casting machines will cast the steel into round billets and blooms. For this purpose, Concast AG, Switzerland, will supply a five-strand caster designed to cast 660,000t of rounds with diameters of 150-220mm. The second caster will come with three strands to produce 440,000t of rounds.

Roll-Kraft has made a series of promotions at its facilities in Mentor, Ohio, USA. Mr Dave Rostocil has been promoted to the position of director of product applications, with responsibility for design of custom solutions for various applications. Mr George Salopek is now the director of technical services, and will organise and coordinate machinery and tooling tryout, project management, and the equipment

assembly departments. In addition, Mr Mike Lewis has been appointed as the tooling development supervisor, and will oversee the testing of tooling at Roll-Kraft and onsite at customer locations. Mr Matt Hozjan has been promoted to the position of equipment assembly supervisor. He will oversee the assembly operations of the equipment department, as well as training and supervising assembly personnel. Mr Gary Summerhill has been appointed as the engineering manager of form roll tooling, with management of the department operations and staff. Finally, Mr Adam Kirby has been promoted to the position of NC Soft Foreman. Each member of staff has shown specific expertise in their various areas, and Roll- Kraft customers will continue to benefit from their experience. Roll-Kraft is a leading manufacturer of tooling and equipment for the tube and pipe and roll forming industries.

fi Mr George Salopek, Roll-kraft’s new director of technical services

Roll-Kraft – USA Fax : +1 440 205 3110 Website : www.roll-kraft.com

SMS Demag – Germany Fax : +49 211 881 4386 Website : www.sms-demag.com

La Barge and Socotherm establish joint venture Socotherm Americas, a leader in pipe coating and insulation for energy transportation, has finalized a new joint venture with the La Barge Pipe & Steel Co Group, one of the main steel pipes and fittings suppliers in the United States. The joint venture will be split between Socotherm USA, with a share of 51 per cent, and La Barge with the remaining 49 per cent share. The new company, called Socotherm-La Barge, will comprise a pipe coating and insulation plant to serve the deepwater market in the Gulf of Mexico. The new plant will be installed in Channel View (Houston) and will be completed this year. It will supply the Gulf of Mexico deepwater market with Socotherm’s five layers syntactic polypropylene thermal insulation systems, a modified polypropylene matrix filled with hollow glass micro-spheres (Wetiskote). The plant will also apply 3-layer polyolefin external anticorrosion coatings (Plastykote) on pipes up to Ø 48" for the USA coating market. Mr Zeno Soave, chairman and CEO of Socotherm, says, “This is the first important action finalized by Socotherm Americas thanks to the funds collected during its IPO of last November. The operation was possible due to the synergies between our subsidiary Socotherm Americas and the American La Barge & Steel Co (led by Pi e rre Labarge). They have understood the oil companies request for an alternative technology to the Canadian competitor one.” Socotherm USA – USA Fax : +1 713 785 3878 Email : socotherm.usa@socotherm.com • Website : www.socotherm.com

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M ay /J une 2007