SIC 3317 Steel Pipe and Tubes

Contenidos

• NAICS CODE(S).
• FURTHER READING.

SIC 3317

Included in this category are establishments primarily engaged in the production of welded or seamless steel pipe and tubes and heavy riveted steel pipe from purchased materials. Establishments primarily engaged in the production of steel, including steel skelp or steel blanks, tube rounds, or pierced billets, are classified under SIC 3312: Blast Furnaces & Steel Mills.

NAICS CODE(S)

331210

Iron and Steel Pipes and Tubes Manufacturing from Purchased Steel

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 325 establishments operated in this category at the onset of the twenty-first century. Industry-wide employment totaled just over 20,000 workers in 2005 (down from 27,180 in 2000), receiving a payroll of $924.5 million. Within this workforce, 15,266 employees worked in production in 2005, putting in over 34 million hours to earn wages of more than $631 million. Overall shipments for the industry were valued at $9.5 billion in 2005.

After some years of declining sales, the U.S. steel pipe and tubes industry entered a period of stronger economic growth in the mid-1990s. Total shipments were $6.3 billion in 1996, up almost 6 percent from the 1994 level of $6 billion. Rising demand, the increasing price of raw material, and energy costs drove the prices of seamless carbon tubing up to $973 per ton, welded tubing up to $739 per ton, seamless carbon casing up to $701 per ton, and welded casing up to $560 per ton. After climbing to $7.5 billion in 2000, largely due to the strength of the U.S. economy in the late 1990s, the value of U.S. steel and pipe industry shipments fell steadily to a low of $5.6 billion in 2003 as a result of domestic economic turmoil, then rose the next year to $7.29 billion.

In the United States, the automotive, display fixture, juvenile furniture, and exercise and recreation equipment industries showed healthy increases in demand for steel pipes and tubes throughout the late 1990s, although demand for these products declined substantially when consumer confidence weakened in the early 2000s. Regionally, the Midwestern, mountain, and southern states exhibited high demand, while sales in the Northeast and on the West Coast remained stagnant.

The largest steel pipe and tube producing states in descending order are Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and California, which together ship 55 percent of total U.S. shipments. New capital expenditures on plant and equipment totaled $166.5...