Acquisitions and deals

• Anvil International has purchased the business and operating assets of Beck Manufacturing. Beck makes steel, PVC and aluminum fittings for the wholesale plumbing, electrical and telecommunications industries. It has facilities in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, California and Mexico. Beck will operate as a stand-alone division of Anvil.

• Dresser Inc. has acquired the assets of Elliott Valve Ltd., based in Houston. Elliott distributes, repairs and reconditions valves, actuators and related products, and is a long-time distributor of Dresser products.

• U.S. Steel has entered into an exclusive, multi-year agreement with Lone Star Steel Co. to market ERW steel tubular products manufactured by U.S. Steel's Tubular Division.

• IPEC Ltd. and Flint Energy Services of Alberta, Canada, have agreed to combine their businesses, conditional on the listing of the combined companies on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Bragging rights

• Northwest Pipe Co. of Portland, Ore., announced that it has received a letter of intent from Kenko Inc. of Minneapolis to supply approximately $6.2 million of welded steel pipe and fittings to Tampa Bay Water in Tampa for delivery in the first quarter of 2002.

• AK Steel said that its contractor safety organization, SHIELD, has been awarded a $100,000 training grant from OSHA. SHIELD trains contractors in avoiding safety and health hazards in construction.

Facilities

• Capitol Manufacturing has closed its facility in Houston and announced the closing of its Lansing, Mich., plant within 60 days. Manufacturing is to be consolidated at plants in West Jefferson, Ohio, and Crowley, La. Capitol says no loss of capacity or capability has occurred.

• Wisconsin Nipple & Fitting Corp. has broken ground on a new 12,000-sq.-ft. facility in Milwaukee.

Appointments

• Field Systems Div. of Metso Automation (Helsinki, Finland) has named Dirk Mischnick president. Senior vice president John Quinlivan will continue as head of the Field Systems business in North America, operating out of Worcester, Mass.

• Tioga Pipe named Jim Brunjak general manager for its Chattanooga, Tenn., office. Tioga also announced the transfer of inside sales rep Don Gregory from its Pennsylvania to Chattanooga office.