TPT March 2013

Global Marketplace

› A steel tubing producer on the West Coast of the US announced that its first significant expansion in years is set for Cheyenne, Wyoming, some 1,000 miles to the east. As reported by the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle (4 January), Searing Industries, Inc (Rancho Cucamonga, California) said it will produce structural, mechanical and ornamental tubing in a new 200,000ft 2 facility in Cheyenne. Groundbreaking will be in August or September, with commissioning in the first quarter of 2014. › As reported by the Cambodian Information Center on 4 January, two Chinese companies announced their agreement to build a railway, a port and a steel plant in Cambodia. San Sok Lika, a Cambodian official working with Chinese- owned Cambodia Iron & Steel Mining Industry, said that construction should begin by July. The other participant is China Railway Group. Chinese companies have invested heavily in Cambodia over the last decade. The projects announced in January include a 249-mile rail line to run from the steel plant, in northern Preah Vihear province, to a port in Koh Kong in Cambodia’s southwest.

for hot stamping. As reported by Dow Jones Newswires (3 December), the company said that, in setting aside a January 2012 ruling in Delaware invalidating the patent as pertaining to aluminium precoated steel products for hot stamping, the decision confirms that the patent is not limited to hot-rolled steel. ArcelorMittal produces Usibor steel for the American automotive industry at its operations in Indiana. According to the Luxembourg-based company’s website, the steel is intended mainly for use in structural and safety parts and meets all the requirements of lighter-weight vehicles. It was designed to be heat-treated and tempered during the hot- stamping process. › Europe’s largest steel mill will remain open during a two- year clean-up operation after the Italian government rushed through legislation to keep the ILVA plant going. The move saves 12,000 jobs in the southern Italian city of Taranto. As reported by euronews (1 December), the operators will have to invest $5bn to modernise the mill. An investigation into health and environmental issues had threatened the plant. Estimating that a closure would drain more than $10bn from Italy’s economy, the government of Prime Minister Mario Monti stepped in. According to the company’s website, ILVA contributes 75 per cent to the gross domestic product (GDP) of Taranto Province.

Dorothy Fabian, Features Editor (USA)

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March 2013