Man Industries (India) of Mumbai, India, plans to build a $100 million steel pipe plant at the Port of Little Rock, Ark., to serve the oil and gas industry. Production is scheduled to begin early in 2009.

Speaking at a Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce meeting in March, Ramesh Mansukhani, Man Industries chairman, says the facility also will be Man Industries' North and South American headquarters. "We were hunting for the last four or five months to find the right location in the U.S.," Mansukhani tells a news conference, noting the company looked at sites in Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana.

Man industries plans a facility capable of making 300,000 tons/year of helical submerged arc-welded, or HSAW, pipe. It will be located close by a Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren line pipe facility that is nearing completion and soon will operate its 300,000 tons/year plant at the Port of Little Rock.

Both companies supply pipe to the same industry, but they each have a niche market and sometimes work together on the same projects, Rajesh Chokhani, Welspun's assistant vice president of projects and business development tells the Times Record newspaper of Fort Smith, Ark.

India has become a major source in world steelmaking in just a few years, according to a news report on the Commodity Online wire service.

The rapid rise in the production has resulted in India becoming the fifth largest producer of steel in the world in 2007 since it produced 50.71 million metric tons of crude steel production and 51.9 million metric tons of finished steel milk products. The production of finished steel grew by 16.5%, from an average 44.54 million metric tons in 2005–2006 to an average 49.39 million metric tons in 2006–2007.

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