YSU, VAM put wham in chamber shale show
Youngstown Vindicator – Hopes were high heading into Wednesday’s Youngstown Ohio Utica and Natural Gas conference and expo.
The Youngstown Ohio Utica and Natural Gas Conference and Expo was held at the Covelli Centre, coinciding with an anti fracking demonstration in downtown Youngstown. Jobs and the environment were the key topics of the days events.
The event lived up to expectations: A few thousand patrons and dozens of businesses had the chance to interact.
But two major announcements — one from Vallourec, the parent company of V&M Star, and another from Youngstown State University — made the inaugural YOUNG conference one to remember.
Vallourec, which has invested $650 million in a new V&M Star mill that will create 350 new jobs, announced a $57 million investment that will employ an estimated 100 full-time workers at a new VAM USA, LLC plant.
“Most of our hiring will be done locally,” said Judson Wallace, president of VAM, an affiliate of Vallourec.
By 2013, Vallourec will have invested more than $700 million and created nearly 500 jobs in the Mahoning Valley.
The newest facility will be a finishing plant, which will allow VAM to thread pipe that’s produced from the $650 million mill for use in the Utica and Marcellus shale plays.
