Tenaris has announced it will restart select areas of its mill in Conroe, Texas, following a three-year suspension of operations. At this stage, the mill will support Tenaris’s ramp up of seamless activity in the US with the heat treatment and finishing of pipe products.
“We are prepared to respond to the increased demand for the domestic supply of pipe,” said Luca Zanotti, Tenaris President, USA. “Reviving areas of the plant will allow us to maximize production from our new mill in Bay City expediting the finish, prep and delivery of our products, while raising the current level of activity at the plant that during the downturn, remained opened as a service center.”
At Conroe, Tenaris pipe products will be heat treated, the process in which pipes are heated to obtain specified metallurgical properties. The product will then be finished which includes threading, inspecting, testing, stenciling and prepping the pipe before being dispatched.
In preparation for the restart, which is projected to take place by September, Tenaris will form a team of more than 100 employees—internal and external hires—who will be trained to operate the two areas of production as well as bringing equipment back online and performing tests to ensure the lines are operating as required.
“Market conditions have been improving over the past year with a higher price of oil, increased drilling activity and actions by the US administration to support domestic manufacturing. We look forward to expanding our team and resuming industrial activity inside the plant to further support and deploy our strategy in the US,” added Zanotti.
Tenaris will also be hiring approximately 150 additional personnel for its seamless pipe mill in Bay City, Texas, and its threading facility in Houston, Texas to support the company’s production ramp up.