US Steel to Resume Operations at Idled Lone Star Electric-Weld Pipe Mill

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The Pittsburgh-based United States Steel Corporation (US Steel) has decided to restart the No.1 Electric-Weld Pipe Mill at Lone Star Tubular Operations in Lone Star, Texas. The restart process is expected to commence at the earliest and is expected to complete by beginning of third quarter this year. Further, it will lead to hiring of nearly 140 new employees.

The company had permanently idled the No.1 Pipe Mill in 2016, owing to challenging market conditions for tubular products, mainly on account of volatility in oil prices, falling rig counts and escalating imports. The company press release noted that the recent improvement in market conditions coupled with increased customer demand for domestically produced tubular products have made the company decide to restart the Lone Star No.1 Mill.

According to Douglas R. Matthews, Senior Vice-President- Industrial, Service Center and Minning Solutions and Interim Head-Tubular stated that the restart will provide access to high-quality electric-welded pipe to its customers. The Mill will offer electric-welded pipes in the range 7” to 16” outside diameter, he said. Incidentally, the Lone Star No.1 Mill has a production capacity of approximately 400,000 tons per annum.

Recently, the company had reported strong earnings in Q4 and full-year 2018. The annual net profits by the company had nearly tripled from $387 million in 2017 to $1.115 billion in 2018. The Q4 ’18 net earnings had totaled $592 million, as compared to net earnings of $159 million in the corresponding quarter in 2017.