CADDO, La. — At a news conference with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Benteler Steel/Tube Friday announced it will build a new hot rolling tube mill in Caddo, La., to strengthen the company’s position in the North American oil exploration and drilling market.
The facility, with a total investment of nearly $900 million, will be Benteler Steel/Tube’s first U.S. production facility and will create more than 1,000 construction jobs, an estimated 675 full time jobs when at full capacity and numerous indirect jobs with suppliers and service providers to the plant.
As recently as early 2012, Benteler had been named as a potential tenant to join Mitsubishi on the Pooler megasite near the intersection of Interstates 16 and 95. The Savannah Economic Development Authority and state economic development officials had been talking to the company using the designation Project Delta.
At that time, Bentler spokeswoman Gudrun Girnus would only confirm that the company was looking at several U.S. locations.
“Yes, the Benteler Group is looking for opportunities to internationalize its steel tube business by building a plant in the United States,” she said. “We have a project group working on this, currently investigating the conditions in different states. Decisions will probably be made in the next six months, toward summer.”
In February, neither state nor local economic development officials would comment on the project, although Chris Cummiskey, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, indicated the megasite continues to draw national and international attention.
“The Pooler megasite is the foremost such property in the Southeast, and we have shown it to companies on a regular basis,” he said. “It’s a prime location that provides easy access to global markets for international companies like Mitsubishi, which has a successful operation there already.”
At the Savannah Economic Development Authority, project manager Jerald Mitchell was equally vague.
“We cannot comment on any project SEDA may or may not be working on,” he said.
Sites in North and South Carolina also reportedly had been in the running for the plant.
Friday, Matthias Jaeger, president and CEO Benteler Steel/Tube GmbH, said he was pleased to announce that northwestern Louisiana will be home to the first U.S. production facility for Benteler Steel/Tube.
“With the growing demand for high-quality steel tubes for exploratory drilling in the U.S., and Louisiana’s proximity and access to energy customers, Benteler Steel/Tube’s Caddo Parish plant is poised to play an important role in meeting U.S. domestic energy needs,” Jaeger said.
Groundbreaking on the new facility is scheduled for the spring of 2013 and completion is planned for the second half of 2015. In the initial phase, Benteler will build a hot rolling tube mill with new and sophisticated manufacturing technology along with several finishing lines for the production of seamless tube solutions.