Oregon Steel Mills Inc. plans to resume pipe production at a Pueblo plant, closed two years ago, that will employ 150 workers. Oregon Steel also will build a tubing plant in Canada.
The Rocky Mountain Steel Mills plant will start production in December at an annual rate of 100,000 tons, Portland, Ore.-based Oregon Steel said Thursday in a statement.
Jobs at the mill, which was idled in November 2003 in response to poor market conditions, will pay at least $25 per hour including benefits, said Ray Adams, chief financial officer for Oregon Steel.
The reopened pipe mill is part of the Rocky Mountain Steel Mills Division in Pueblo where steel rail, rod and bar are also manufactured.
About 100 people worked at the pipe mill before production was halted.
“We are excited. Any time you have already got a very good corporate citizen reopening that plant and providing those numbers of jobs at those salary figures it is a very good thing for the community,” said Pueblo City Manager Dave Galli.
The company said Colorado Seamless Corp., a unit of Houston-based OCTG LLP, agreed to buy the products produced.
Oregon Steel said it also agreed with a Canadian investment group to construct a facility at Oregon Steel’s pipe mill in Camrose, Alberta, to make coiled tubing products for the oil and natural-gas industries. Construction will be completed in the first quarter next year. Oregon Steel, through a unit, will own 51 percent of the venture.
“In the first quarter of 2006, we will have approximately 650,000 tons of production capacity dedicated to the oil country tubular-goods and line-pipe markets,” Oregon Steel chief executive Jim Declusin said in the statement. “As a result of today’s energy prices, we anticipate that the high level of exploration and production activity will continue and should result in increased demand for all of our energy-related products.”
Oregon Steel shares have surged 68 percent in the past year. The stock closed Thursday at $25.70, up 82 cents.
“Assuming that selling prices remain favorable, we expect the energy part of our business to record strong financial performance into the foreseeable future,” Declusin said.
Denver Post staff writer Tom McGhee contributed to this report.
