ThyssenKrupp Materials NA in Southfield, Mich., is buying VPK Metal of Toronto, which operates Canadian metals service centers under the names Peckover's, Vimetal Peckover, Roy Metals Sales, Vifab and O.M.I. The firms will retain their current names and operate as part of ThyssenKrupp Materials' Copper and Brass Sales division.

Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. of Los Angeles, the second-largest service center company in North America, is acquiring the Earle M. Jorgensen Co. of Lynwood, Calif. The transaction will add 39 facilities in the U.S. and Canada to Reliance's existing network of 100 locations in 31 states, Belgium, South Korea and China.

Ipsco will supply 160,000 tons of large-diameter steel pipe mill for the 236-mile Waupisoo Pipeline that will transport crude oil from the Alberta oil sands to an Edmonton refinery hub. The firm also will supply pipe to the Southern Access Expansion Project, a 321-mile pipeline from Superior, Wis., to the Chicago area.

Mittal Canada, a subsidiary of Mittal Steel Co., has completed the acquisition of former Stelco steel-processing subsidiaries Norambar, Stelfil and Stelwire.

Allegheny Technologies plans to fire up the first of its rehabilitated titanium sponge furnaces by the end of first-quarter 2006.