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Williams: Valley site preferred by V&M expansion
The Youngstown mayor said his meeting with company officials in Paris ‘went very well.’
YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams said his meeting in Paris with officials of V&M Star Steel’s parent company left him believing the Valley is the preferred site for a $970 million expansion project.
“I am comfortable this site is as competitive as any other,” Williams said Monday shortly after a one-hour meeting with Vallourec Group officials.
“I interpreted [the conversation as] our site is the preferred site. Those are my words and not theirs.”
Williams met Monday with Philippe Crouzet, Vallourec’s chairman of the management board; Jean-Pierre Michel, its chief operating officer and member of the management board; Didier Hornet, chairman of the company’s V&M U.S. division; and Pierre Frentzel, managing director of its oil and gas division.
“It went very well,” Williams said of the meeting. “I’m very comfortable that they understand our desire to have this ultimately land in the Mahoning Valley.”
The officials said there are two other sites, in Houston and Brazil, in the running, Williams said.
One concern expressed by Vallourec officials, Williams said, is accusations that Chinese companies are selling steel at below-production costs, a tactic known as dumping that violates U.S. law, in an attempt to hurt steel producers in the U.S.
V&M’s Youngstown mill manufactures seamless tubes used mostly in the oil and gas industry.
Williams said he’ll be in Washington, D.C., next month to testify in front of the International Trade Commission on this issue. “Dumping is making the playing field uneven,” Williams said.
The officials are “very pleased” with efforts in the Valley to bring the potential plant here, Williams said.
After somewhat tense negotiations, Youngstown and Girard signed an agreement Oct. 14 to provide about 200 acres of land to V&M for a potential expansion that would employ 400 if the company builds here. The two cities would share a 2.75-percent tax generated by the new facility’s profits and employees’ income.
Girard agreed to give 191 acres of industrial-zoned land to Youngstown for the expansion. V&M officials wouldn’t consider the site unless all of the property was in Youngstown, officials with Youngstown and Girard have said.
Vallourec officials are expected to make a decision on the site by January.
“They indicated the incentives we bring to the table make our site attractive and competitive,” Williams said.
Williams was in Germany for a week, ending Saturday, for a conference on how that country transformed some of its former industrial cities into productive places of business.
Because he was relatively nearby, Williams scheduled a Monday meeting in Germany with top Vallourec officials.
skolnick@vindy.com