Oregon Steel Idles Napa Pipe, Plans to Build A New Mill
Oregon Steel Mills Inc., of Portland, began in late June to idle indefinitely its large-diameter pipe mill in Napa, Calif. CEO Jim Declusin says that in this tight steel market, “We do not believe the operating margin opportunities in large-diameter pipe justify the allocation of steel plate from our Portland plate mill for conversion into large-diameter pipe.”
For now, he adds, “The best economic decision for the company is to direct production from the Portland mill to support our plate and coil customers, our structural tubing operation and our Canadian line-pipe business, Camrose Pipe Co.”