Release Date: 09/25/2009

Dormant Pipe Plant in Bossier City to Reopen

Dormant pipe plant in Bossier City to reopen

Northwest Pipe could employ 120 by early 2011

By John Andrew Prime
jprime@gannett.com

Joined by local elected officials and company executives, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal welcomed the reopening of the Bossier City location of Northwest Pipe Co.as a signal of good health for the Shreveport-Bossier City area economy.

"What this shows is we can compete with any state in the country," the governor said Thursday after touring a revitalized manufacturing line at the 187,000-square-foot facility on 25 acres north of Interstate 20 and just east of Hamilton Road in Bossier City.

"They literally moved modern equipment down here from Oregon into this facility. What this shows is we can continue to outperform the national and Southern economies."

Jindal noted that plant executives "were pleasantly surprised how strong the economy was here, much better than any of the other locations where they operate facilities."

He was joined in his walk-through of the cavernous plant by Bob Mahoney, president of Northwest Pipe's Tubular Products Group, under which the local facility will operate.

The decision to close down the line that made fence pipe four years ago was not due to dissatisfaction with the local work force or setting, but rather due to market pressures, Mahoney said. The promise of exploring the Haynesville Shale formation and a market for the miles of pipe needed for such drilling were key in revitalizing the plant, he added.

"This facility will be about natural gas exploration. We're bullish on that, and we're bullish on Bossier City. Despite the difficult economic times, we are excited at Northwest Pipe about this project," he said.

"It is an investment in gas exploration infrastructure. ... Natural gas is going to be with us for a long time, and we expect to be an important player in that business."

With Jindal and Mahoney were Bossier City Mayor Lorenz Walker and members of the Greater Bossier Economic Development Foundation, including its president, David Rockett, whom Mahoney noted as being key in facilitating the plant reopening here.

"It was not a done deal that we were coming back to Bossier City." But in Louisiana and, particularly Bossier City, Mahoney said, "we received a welcome mat and a level of assistance that (was) helpful." Rockett, he added, "was holding our hand and making it easy the whole way."

The plant was created in 1956 as P&H Tube by Shreveport businessmen J. Roy Parker and Isadore Horowitz and was purchased by Southwestern Pipe of Houston in 1967. It later was acquired by Northwest Pipe. The local plant was idled in 2005.

The reconstruction will occur in two phases. The first, now under way, includes relocating a recently modernized, existing mill from the company's facility in Portland, Ore. Its product will be pipe up to seven inches in diameter, intended for oil field and Haynesville Shale natural gas customers.

According to a news release from Jindal's office, "the project represents the company's largest internal investment project in its history."

When fully operational, the first phase will require 50 permanent and full-time employees to meet the 120,000-ton production capacity.

The second phase, now in the planning stages, will add further processing and inspection capacity, which will create up to 70 jobs.

Bill Tungate, the local plant's operations manager, noted it initially will have 90 employees working in three shifts, with plans to hire up to 120 in all depending on the market for its products.

The heavy-manufacturing facility will be able to produce about 50,000 tons of finished product per shift.

Company representatives were reluctant to discuss payroll, but Jindal's office said the plant will have an average annual salary of $39,000 per worker plus benefits.

The renovation is projected to be complete later this year or in early 2010. It is expected to utilize the Louisiana Quality Jobs program and the Industrial Tax Exemption Program, Jindal's office noted. Additionally, the company will partially finance the project through Recovery Zone Facility Bonds issued by the Caddo-Bossier Port Commission.

"Our top priority is to make sure we are creating jobs for our people right here in Louisiana," Jindal said. "By reactivating this facility, they are providing great-paying jobs for our people.

"Not only do we want them to grow in this facility, we want them to have a great future in our state. We want this to be the best state they operate in, in the entire country."

In addition to Mahoney, company leaders include Brian W. Dunham, president and CEO, Gary Stokes, president of its Water Transmission Group, and Stephanie Welty, senior vice president and chief financial officer.