TPT January 2009

From the AmericaS

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)

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J anuary 2009

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