Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Benteler Steel/Tube and Bossier Parish Community College (BPCC) Thursday marked the opening of BPCC’s Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering Technology in Bossier City, Louisiana. The $22-million workforce training center will provide instruction for new employees at Benteler’s $975 million steel tube manufacturing facility in Shreveport.
The 65,000-square-foot training center features labs mimicking Benteler’s manufacturing lines, as well as other facilities used to train workers for jobs in the advanced manufacturing, construction and energy sectors. The flexible, world-class workspace houses BPCC’s oil and gas technology, engineering, construction and manufacturing programs.
The new facility includes a mock steel tube rolling station, 10 classrooms, a computer lab, conference room and other training spaces that can accommodate more than 220 Benteler employees at once. All of Benteler’s new employees will go through orientation at the facility followed by customized training for specific job functions. Benteler held its first training sessions in the building in August 2014.
Classes in the facility are taught by Benteler employees, LED employees or contractors, BPCC staff and others. Topics covered include computer/systems, management and leadership, safety awareness, forklift, crane, hydraulics, and welding skills. Some of the classes will result in additional certifications for those that complete them.
Benteler broke ground on its 1.35 million-square-foot facility at Caddo-Bossier Port on September 16, 2013. Production at the facility is expected to start on August 1, 2015. Benteler’s customized seamless hot-rolled steel tubes and seamless cold-drawn precision steel tubes are produced for international customers in the automotive, OCTG line pipe, heat transfer, hydraulics precision engineering and construction sectors.
Benteler currently has about 120 employees in Shreveport and expects that number to grow to approximately 200 by the end of the year. By the end of 2015, Benteler expects to have more than 500 employees at the hot-rolling steel tube mill. At full capacity, the plant will have more than 675 employees.