Welded Tube earmarks $61.8M to boost presence in OCTG sector

Dec 19, 2008 | 12:28 PM | Maria Guzzo

Energy tubular products maker Welded Tube of Canada Ltd. will spend Canadian $75 million ($61.8 million) to expand its oil country tubular goods (OCTG) market presence.

J.E. Fry, Welded Tube's senior manager of energy tubulars, said the three-phase development will not only increase the type of product the company can offer customers but also capacity for what it believes is a growing market.

"We started in the energy tubular business in late 2005 and it's been doing well. The market has shown a good acceptance of our product and we wanted to build around that success," Fry said, adding that he doesn't believe the additional capacity will hurt the market. "A lot of the mills are focused on large-diameter line pipe. Other than in China, there are no major API (American Petroleum Institute)-style mills being built as we speak, but there's been lots of chatter," citing Northwest Pipe Co., Vancouver, Wash., which has talked about moving a mill to make OCTG products; Atlas Tube Inc., Harrow, Ontario, which is retooling a mill in Arkansas to make....