Steel pipe and tube manufacturer Zekelman Industries will build a new 300,000 st/yr structural steel pipe mill in Arkansas.
The $150mn electric resistance welding mill will be built in Blytheville, Arkansas, and will be able to produce structural products in square, rectangular and round shapes, the company said.
The mill, which is expected to start production by September 2021, will be able to process steel up to 88 inches wide to produce 28-inch diameter structural pipe that is 1 inch thick.
The new facility could be supplied by mills like Osceola, Arkansas-based Big River Steel, Steel Dynamics' recently announced mill in Texas near Corpus Christi, and Nucor's new plate mill planned for Kentucky.
The facility will be built next to an existing tube facility run by Atlas Tube, a subsidiary of Zekelman.
Fabricated structural steel imports have been targeted recently by the US Department of Commerce, which in July instructed the US Customs and Border Protection agency to collect cash deposits from importers of fabricated structural steel from China and Mexico. The final countervailing duty determination will be announced by 19 November.
The duties target imports of structural components like columns, beams and girders along with other steel products that have been fabricated for assembly or installation into a structure.
The use of the products are as varied as for commercial, office, and multi-family residential buildings, parking decks, convention centers, medical facilities, and transportation and infrastructure facilities.
