Koppel steel plant resumes production

KOPPEL – Workers at a Beaver County steel plant have resumed production after a yearlong facility renovation.

Tenaris’ Koppel melt shop will soon supply steel bars for its seamless pipe mills in the United States and Canada after a $15 million upgrade.

Company investments include a plant expansion that facilitates a wider range of steel bars – designing and installing molds for the caster that solidifies liquid steel. The company also overhauled existing mill cranes and added new ones for the transfer of scrap metal to furnaces and implemented a new production management system alongside other automation upgrades.

Tenaris leaders in April announced plans to expand workforce and bring the Koppel and Harmony Township seamless tube mills back online this summer, expecting about 250 employees to be recalled or hired at the sites. Koppel's facility has historically manufactured specialized piping used in the oil and natural gas industry.

"We are producing steel at our facility, a central component of our domestic industrial system and at a critical time when supply chains are under severe constraints and costs are surging to unprecedented levels," said Tenaris U.S. President Luca Zanotti.

Testing at Koppel will continue in the coming months to "steady production, streamline processes and align with the company's integrated high standards for quality, health, safety, and environment," the company said in a news release.

The Koppel facility is expected to be fully commissioned by the end of summer.

Chrissy Suttles covers business, energy and environment for the Beaver County Times and the USAToday Network. Contact her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @ChrissySuttles.