The expansion of V&M Star Steel is no longer just a possibility; it is a reality.
The company announced Monday it is bringing its $650 million project right here to the Valley.
"This is a great day," said Gov. Ted Strickland. "We ought to celebrate and rejoice."
After nearly a year-and-a-half of negotiations, V&M Star Steel announced it will build a new state-of-the-art rolling mill next to the current Youngstown plant.
"To get the phone call that this day has actually arrived is something that this community has worked for," said Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams. "Certainly this is news that we need in these difficult economic times, and it has national and global significance."
The location, skills of the current workforce and support of nearby businesses and communities were reasons behind the final decision.
"For a French company to recognize this as a place they want to make a $650 million investment, is a game-changer for us," said Congressman Tim Ryan (D-17).
The details released at the expansion announcement outlined the plan over the next two years.
Construction will take around 18 months, with production slated to begin in the fourth quarter of 2011. The mill should be fully running by the end of 2012. About 350 jobs will be created once production begins.
"It's jobs, first and foremost," said Ryan. "There are people, families who are going to go work, get off the unemployment line, make a good living. These wages, benefits, vacations. These are well-paying jobs."
Skip Herald, managing director of Vallourec, said the plant would manufacture small diameter seamless tubes. V&M is a seamless pipe producer, and the demand for seamless pipes has been on the rise, he said.
“We believe this mill is a perfect fit,” Herald said.
Roger Lingren, president of V&M Star, agreed that V&M Star is the perfect fit for this type of plant because there is a skilled local workforce, strong local business partners and trained current employees, among others.
“This product range is going to complement our current product line,” Lingren said. “[It’s] designed to serve the current market.”
Strickland said this project will be partially supported by funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Strickland said $25 million for this project is coming from the stimulus bill.
"When the story is written about the renaissance of Youngstown, Girard and the Mahoning Valley, it will undoubtedly reflect this project as one of the lynch pins of that success," said Williams.
That's a success officials hope will ignite future economic growth.
"Once you get recognized as a place to do business, a good place to do business, where you don't have to deal with a lot of nonsense, word will spread," Ryan said. "People will continue to invest. This is the beginning not the end."
Hiring is expected to start shortly and company officials said construction could start within a month.
A release from the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber’s called it “a pivotal step in the rebirth of the Mahoning Valley’s economy.” The new mill, totaling more than one million square feet of space, will initially produce 350,000 tons of steel tubing per year for the drilling of shale gas in the U.S.
Chamber President and CEO Tom Humphries said the project will also spur the company and organizations to transform the old industrial area along U.S. Route 422 to a green industrial zone that will be a model for industrial developments.
The agreement, which included annexation of Girard land to Youngstown, will result in the two communities sharing income tax revenues from V&M employees working in the new plant, the release stated.
