Universal eyes growth in ‘undersupplied’ markets

Feb 07, 2013 | 02:50 PM | Daniel Fitzgerald

Tags  Universal Stainless & Alloy Products, Dennis Oates, stainless demand, destocking, aerospace demand, stainless capacity, Daniel Fitzgerald

NEW YORK — Universal Stainless & Alloy Products Inc. has positioned itself to grow in "undersupplied" premium markets and will avoid the likely pricing "catfights" caused by capacity additions in the flat-rolled market, president and chief executive officer Dennis Oates said.

The Bridgeville, Pa.-based company is in the middle of ramping up the North Jackson, Ohio, plant it acquired in June 2011, conducting up to 144 heats on its vacuum induction melting (VIM) furnaces in 2012 while adding more vacuum arc remelt (VAR) furnaces in the second half of the year.

The ramp-up will give the company "an opportunity to get into markets we couldn’t service before," with the VIM furnaces producing 10 different alloys over 2012 while the forging plant adds further capabilities, Oates said in an interview with AMM. "You can produce a piece in eight minutes on that forge, which gives us shorter lead times that we can take to market. It also cuts out outside forging work we were doing, so that profit we were sending to someone else now stays with us."....