Lakeside Steel Inc. Wednesday announced it will increase production in its upsetting and threading operation by adding additional production shifts to meet significantly stronger demand for Lakeside Steel's end-finished OCTG products booked for the quarter ending June 30, 2010.
Based in Welland, Ontario, Lakeside Steel is a diversified steel pipe and tubing manufacturer that manufactures pipe and mechanical tubing for the resale market, which is sold to distributors in Eastern Canada and the Northeastern United States. Lakeside manufactures a variety of products including oil well tubing and casing, mechanical tubing, pressure tubing, automotive tubing, hollows for re-draw, line pipe, heating and plumbing pipe, drill rod and specialty tubing.
The increased demand for the Company's OCTG products has been driven both by the enhanced end-finishing capabilities of Lakeside Steel's new upsetting and threading operations which became operational in December 2009, and also by increased prices for oil and natural gas. Favorable rulings in OCTG-related trade cases in Canada and the United States involving Chinese manufactured products have also positively impacted Canadian OCTG manufacturers.
Lakeside has secured sufficient orders for the new facility to remain fully loaded for the entire first quarter and continues to receive orders beyond June 30, 2010.
"We are encouraged with the recent increases in demand and pleased that Lakeside has been able to respond quickly to the demand for the higher value added products that our new facility produces," said Ron Bedard, Lakeside Steel's President and COO. "Our upset and threading capabilities are the newest in North America and have positioned the Company to take full advantage of the increased demand we are seeing in 2010. We continue to focus on cost reduction, margin enhancement and growth opportunities".