Steelmaker Tenaris to cut 120 jobs in Beaver County

Steel pipe manufacturer Tenaris will cut its Beaver County workforce by about 120 people, the company announced Wednesday.

The company’s heat treatment and finishing lines in Koppel will see the largest concentration of layoffs, Tenaris representatives told The Times.

A combined 170 employees at Tenaris facilities in Beaver County and Brookfield, Ohio, will be affected.

Koppel’s facility produces seamless oil-country tubular goods, drill pipe and line pipe used in the oil and natural gas industry.

In 2020, Tenaris suspended operations at its Koppel and Harmony Township facilities due to market conditions worsened by COVID-19, cutting hundreds of employees. The company brought both plants back online in 2021 after investing more than $15 million in upgrades at the Koppel shop.

Previous reactivation:Tenaris to reactivate treatment lines at Koppel plant, add 75 workers

The company on Wednesday said the new round of layoffs is related to an influx in oil-country tubular goods, or OCTG, imports to the United States sold at less than fair market value – creating unfair competition that hurts domestic steel production capacity. OCTG refers to piping products used in oil and gas production.

“These imports are mainly manufactured in China and shipped through countries such as Korea, Thailand and Taiwan, and are being brought into the United States and sold at less than fair market value,” Tenaris noted in a news release. “Most of these countries do not have any drilling activity and produce OCTG with the purpose of exporting, mainly to the U.S.”

Tenaris is a principal OCTG producer in the United States and globally. In a workforce reduction announcement, the company asked the federal government “to level the playing field through the enforcement of fair trade remedies and additional tools of defense for a healthy, domestic OCTG supply chain that enhances national security with regards to energy development and creates and preserves jobs.”

Company leadership said they will monitor market conditions and work to mitigate operations impacts, adding Tenaris “remains committed to U.S. manufacturing and will continue to advance ongoing investments at its steel shop in Koppel.