Dura-Bond Lands $30M Marcellus Contract for Steelton Plant

By Jim T. Ryan - Central Penn Business Journal

Friday, May 21, 2010
Dura-Bond Industries Inc., a Westmoreland County-based steel pipe manufacturer, will produce $30 million worth of pipe at its Steelton plant for the Marcellus Shale gas industry.

The Dauphin County plant will begin producing 45 miles of large diameter pipe in January for a transmission line that Richmond, Va.-based Dominion Transmission Inc. will build in western Pennsylvania, Dura-Bond Vice President Jason Norris said.
The contract —a couple months worth of work — could help Dura-Bond rehire people laid off from the Steelton plant, but it’s too early to know for sure, Norris said.

In 2007, the company added about 100 workers in Steelton to reach a total work force of 300. But Dura-Bond laid off 180 workers in 2009 because of the recession and a contract that was significantly reduced.

Dura-Bond will add protective coating to 65 miles of pipe at its McKeesport plant for the Dominion contract, he said.

Marcellus Shale drilling has increased work to Dura-Bond, particularly for small-diameter pipe that takes gas from the well to the transmission line, and for its pipe-coating, Norris said.

The company expects more business over the next several years as drilling increases, he said. Within a year, Dura-Bond plans to build a new factory in Duquesne, Allegheny County, Norris said.

From Drake To The Marcellus Shale Gas Play Distribution Developments

(excerpted text)
by Derek Weber - Pipeline & Gas Journal - April 2010 Issue

Companies active in the Marcellus are developing their own playbooks on how to manage winning strategies aimed at successful infrastructure buildouts. Whether the intent is to complete Marcellus wells, gathering systems or pipelines; approaches vary depending on specifics. What most are conceding is that there must be a strong regional vendor base of support to bring activities to fruition with lessons learned during the course of infrastructure development, often in other North American shale plays, exercised in concert with a cadre of regional vendors who understand the local challenges and have the world-class assets and technical sophistication required to succeed.

As the North American gas supply map continues to evolve in response to the abundance of new shale gas production, a shift in direction among the natural gas industry’s products and services supplier base can be clearly felt across the Marcellus shale region. Fundamental changes in the market are leading suppliers in a new direction in the Northeast - a new orientation from a predominately manufacturing and local production outlook to what is emerging as a reconstituted solutions-based consumer market with shale gas underfoot and new pipeline projects weaving across familiar fields.

One such supplier, Dura-Bond Industries, a third-generation privately owned large-diameter pipe manufacturer, pipe coating and steel fabrication company, located directly inside the Marcellus fairway, with 450 employees and in excess of $200 million in sales, has found itself riding high on a new jet stream of energized Marcellus opportunities. From the rough-and-tumble world of coal tar pipeline coaters that arose in Pennsylvania after WWII, Jim “Buster” Norris founded Dura-Bond in 1960, operating as a local hand-coating company working on specialized pipe.
The purchase of McKeesport Coating Co. in McKeesport, PA in 1982 offered Dura-Bond the ability to coat line pipe with coal tar enamel in high volumes, putting them on the map as a high-volume coater. A new fusion bond plant in McKeesport a decade later doubled production capacity. In 1993, DB bought the fusion bond coating line in Steelton, PA where they coated large-diameter DSAW pipe for Bethlehem Steel. By 2003, Dura-Bond purchased the entire 600,000-square-foot pipe-manufacturing plant and founded Dura-Bond Pipe, LLC and today manufactures word-class straight seam expanded API line pipe. The acquisition of the Steelton facility required new management, new approaches and a streamlining of the manufacturing processes.

“As the only American-owned straight seam mill in the U.S. and with our facilities in the Marcellus we are seeing the power of this infrastructure buildup first hand. With our pipe manufacturing and coating assets in general and our McKeesport plant centrally located in the fairway, customers can ship in pipe from any mill and have us coat and store or we can manufacture pipe and store for stringing to the right-of-way. Logistics have become the big question and can be challenging; our customers tell us they find the easiest thing is to deal with a local coater,” said Jason Norris, vice president - Commercial of Dura-Bond explaining the “Marcellus Effect” on the ground in Pennsylvania.

Dura-Bond, in response to these massive Marcellus-related requests, is in the midst of expanding the McKeesport facility with the addition of a new fusion bond coating facility located on additional land that will more than double their current capacity to coat and store pipe.

“Houston-based energy companies have a strong awareness of us from our reputation, but once you start believing that everyone knows you is when you lose sight of the customer. We intend to remain the dominant player for pipe manufacturing and coating in the Marcellus. For 50 years we have been successful with our customers by being agile and customer-oriented and for as long as we are here, that will never change.” Norris said.