Joint Venture to Produce Steel Tubes for Hydroforming
Bethlehem Steel Corporation
For Immediate Release
BETHLEHEM, Pa., February 18, 2000 -- Bethlehem Steel Corporation and Novamerican Steel today announced the formation of a joint venture to produce steel tubes for use in hydroforming automobile and truck parts.
The joint venture, to be called BethNova Tube, LLC, will build a new, state-of-the-art tube manufacturing facility at a still undetermined site. The bulk of tube production at the new facility is to be dedicated to Dana Corporation, a major automotive parts supplier, which is in the process of building a new hydroforming plant near Elizabethtown, Ky.
Hydroforming continues to grow as a process improvement to reduce both manufacturing costs and vehicle weight.
In announcing the joint venture, Curtis H. "Hank" Barnette, Bethlehem's chairman and chief executive officer, said: "This venture represents still another action by Bethlehem Steel to advance new technology and develop innovative products and services that will improve the value of steel for our customers. The joint venture between Bethlehem Steel and Novamerican Steel, one of the leading manufacturers of tubing for hydroforming applications, will provide automakers and their suppliers with a premier source of tubes for this rapidly expanding application."
D.Bryan Jones, chief executive officer of Novamerican, said: "In recent years we have invested in machinery specifically designed to manufacture tubing for the hydroforming process. We are very pleased to be combining our efforts with Bethlehem Steel to enhance the development of this process and to further our goal to become, through this partnership, North America�s leading supplier of tubing to the automotive industry."
With the finalizing of the joint venture agreement, BethNova Tube is in a position to make a site selection and begin construction of the facility. Tube production is expected to begin in the First Quarter of 2001.
Novamerican Steel (www.novamerican.com), headquartered in Montreal, Can., owns tubemaking facilities and service centers throughout eastern Canada and the northeast United States, and has built and currently operates one of North America's first tube mills targeted specifically for high-pressure hydroformed tubes.
Bethlehem Steel (www.bethsteel.com), America's second largest integrated steel company, is a major supplier of steel to automotive manufacturers in the U.S.