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Vallourec Innovates New Pipe Connectors for Shale Drillers

Vallourec, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, manufactures steel pipes used in the oil and gas industry. The company employs some 19,000 people in 20 countries, including the U.S. In fact, Vallourec employed (at least at one time, prior to recent layoffs) more than 750 at three Youngstown, Ohio units: Vallourec Star, VAM USA and Vallourec USA Corp. The company has just announced a new high torque connection for shale drill pipes, something they call “a technological breakthrough for the industry.”
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Vallourec Announces Layoffs for One-Third of its U.S. Workers

Vallourec, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, manufactures steel pipes used in the oil and gas industry. The company employs some 19,000 people in 20 countries, including the U.S. In fact, Vallourec employs more than 750 at three Youngstown, Ohio units: Vallourec Star, VAM USA and Vallourec USA Corp. Yesterday Vallourec corporate headquarters announced it will reduce (layoff/eliminate) some 900 positions “across all plants as well as support functions.” That number, 900, represents over one-third of Vallourec’s total workforce and contractor positions in North America. The announcement implies all 900 of the positions being eliminated will happen in North America.
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Youngstown Plant Starts Operations, Selling Pipes to Shale Industry

Although drilling activity in the Marcellus/Utica, indeed across all shale plays, has decreased in the past six months, that doesn’t mean all gas and oil related businesses have been adversely affected. Take Vallourec’s VAM USA LLC subsidiary–a pipe manufacturer with a facility in Youngstown, Ohio. In May, VAM began producing the first pipes for commercial sale at its new premium threading plant in Youngstown. More money, more jobs, rolling into eastern Ohio–thanks to the miracle of hydraulic fracturing. Here’s the details on VAM’s startup in producing pipe products for the shale industry…
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Vallourec Star Pipeline Plant in OH Shutting Down for 3 Weeks

Vallourec Star, a steel pipe manufacturer in Youngstown, OH, has had more business than it knows what to do with since it opened in 2012. That is, until recently. With the plunging price of oil and gas comes scaled back budgets for drilling in 2015. Vallourec Star has been experiencing a slow down. In anticipation of even more slowing down, they’ve announced a three week shut down of the plant, meaning hundreds of families will have a big hole in their family budgets. For those that can do without a paycheck for a while, the company is also offering a 6-month voluntary layoff, which signals they think the “slow down” may be with us for while…
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French Company Christens New Pipe Facility/350 Jobs in Youngstown

French pipe manufacturer Vallourec cut the ribbon yesterday on a new facility at their Youngstown, OH location. The former V&M Star facility (now renamed to Vallourec Star) manufacturers pipe for the oil and gas industry–in particular the rapidly expanding Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling industry. The pipe manufactured at the new plant will not only service the northeast but will be shipped around the world.

Vallourec invested $1.5 billion in the new plant where there are now 350 employees, many of them formerly out of work pipe workers from the Mahoning and Shenango Valley area. In addition to 350 employees at the pipe plant, Vallourec employs another 350 at their adjacent steel mill. Coming soon, another 100 jobs at a new threading plant in the same compound…
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