NEW YORK — China’s TPCO America Corp. expects to start the finishing and threading operations at its new mill in Gregory, Texas, "later this year," a slight push back from earlier plans to start up in early summer (amm.com, Nov. 21).

"Construction projects in south Texas often get delayed," a company spokesman said of the adjusted timeline.

The company broke ground on the $1-billion seamless pipe facility, with expected annual capacity of 500,000 tonnes of line pipe, drill pipe and oil country tubular goods (OCTG), in August 2011 (amm.com, Aug. 31, 2011). The first phase of construction will be followed by a rolling mill and electric-arc furnace (amm.com, March 9).

TPCO America, a subsidiary of China’s largest seamless pipe producer, Tianjin Pipe (Group) Corp. (TPCO), selected the Gregory site for the pipe mill in July 2008.