LOS ANGELES — California Steel Industries Inc. (CSI) has ordered a heavy crop shear from New Metal Engineering LLC for an upgrade at its hot-strip mill.

Once installed, the new shear will be able to handle in addition to CSI’s current flat-rolled products the comparatively thicker, high-strength steel that will be used to supply a new electric-resistance welded (ERW) pipe mill being built at the company’s Fontana, Calif., location.

The shear, the cost of which wasn’t disclosed, is due to be commissioned in December 2013.

New Metal Engineering, a joint venture of Japanese-owned IHI Inc. and Enprotech Industrial Technologies LLC, said it will build the equipment at Enprotech’s Lansing, Mich., facility. It will utilize an IHI drum-type crop shear design, of which 23 are in production around the world, according to New Metal Engineering.

Installation of CSI’s new ERW mill, which will produce 24-inch-diameter pipe up to 80 feet long, is due to be complete by the end of 2014 at a cost of more than $100 million. CSI currently produces pipe up to 16 inches in diameter in lengths up to 60 foot.