Sandvik Materials Technology Acquires Pennsylvania Extruded Tube Company Sandvik and PEXCO job fair planned May 20 and 21 International steel manufacturer Sandvik Materials Technology (SMT), headquartered in Sandviken, Sweden, is expanding its investment in northeastern Pennsylvania with the 100% acquisition of Pennsylvania Extruded Tube Company (PEXCO), located in Clarks Summit, Lackawanna County. SMT has owned 70% of PEXCO and recently acquired the remaining 30% from its partner Nippon Steel Extruded Tube, Inc (NSEXT). PEXCO has been a joint venture between SMT and NSEXT since 1993 and has approximately 86 employees at its single site in Clarks Summit, located adjacent to SMT’s tube manufacturing facility on Griffin Pond Road. PEXCO’s line of business focuses on the production of extruded steel utilizing high purity stainless steel provided from the melting facility in Sweden and is part of SMT’s tube division. The PEXCO extrusion press is the only press of its size range in the U.S. market, and it has a capacity of producing over 21 million pounds of finished product per year. According to Göran Björkman, president of Sandvik Materials Technology, taking sole ownership of PEXCO will accelerate SMT’s portfolio shift in North America. It will also strengthen SMTS position, portfolio, and ability to serve the local market, through a full alignment of PEXCO ‘s hot extrusion and cold working units on the campus near Scranton. “This allows for future investments to fully support our strategic priorities, and I am very pleased that we continue to execute on our profitable growth strategy, at the same time as we are continuing to excel our operational excellence program,” explains Björkman. “PEXCO has been very successful partnership between Sandvik and Nippon Steel Corp for almost 30 years. However, given the increased demand for higher alloyed materials, the acquisition of the remaining 30% will allow us to secure, improve and develop our ability to better serve the U.S. market,” says Michael Andersson, president of Tube Division. According to Ryan Stoa, P.E., president of PEXCO, both PEXCO and SMT have approximately 20 job openings and plan a combined job fair on May 20 from 2-6 p.m., and on May 21 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on site at 982 Griffin Pond Road, Clarks Summit, PA 18411, with both white- and blue-collar roles available. Prospective candidates may also visit sandvik.com/careers if they are unable to attend. “Sandvik Materials Technology has had a presence in Pennsylvania since the early 1970s and as we expand our roles in the U.S., we aim to be the premier supplier of advanced technical stainless steel tubing and materials to the Americas market,” adds Stoa. For information on the job fair, contact Donna Sunick at 570-585-7624 or donna.sunick@sandvik.com.
Regional Manufacturers Report Significant Results from NEPIRC Engagements Throughout 2021, regional manufacturing firms attributed over $120 million in revenue impact, $11.7 million in cost savings and $21.2 million in expansion, modernization and workforce training to their successful engagements with the Northeastern Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Center (NEPIRC). Those financial impacts allowed the firms to create and retain 1,200 full-time manufacturing jobs – bringing our region’s industrial employment to nearly 44,000. NEPIRC clients reported those impacts during surveys administered by the Fors Marsh Group under the guidance of the U.S. Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards & Technology. As a result of the dynamic results reported by NEPIRC clients during 2021, the organization maintained its placement among the top performers in the Manufacturing Extension Partnership National Network. NEPIRC also received a Sliver Award for Excellence in Economic Development from the International Economic Development Council during the year. “We’re proud of the impacts that our offerings have had upon our manufacturing clients during this critical time of rebound and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. These results speak to the expertise of our staff and the dedication of our manufacturers to continue to thrive amidst adversity, retain their existing workforce and create new good-paying jobs,” said Eric Joseph Esoda, NEPIRC’s President & CEO. “Our manufacturing economy has already returned to near pre-pandemic levels of employment and hundreds of job opportunities are still listed on our Manufacturing Job Board,” he added. In addition to capturing client financial and employment impacts, the Fors Marsh survey process assessed NEPIRC client overall satisfaction levels and their reasons for choosing NEPIRC for their consultative service needs. Most NEPIRC clients partnered with NEPIRC due to their staff expertise, reputation for results, exclusive focus on the manufacturing sector or practical cost of services. NEPIRC’s Annual Impact Report can be found at www.NEPIRC.com > “Our Impact”.
Crystal Windows Named a Top New York Area Private Firm Recognizing the company’s continuous growth, national manufacturer Crystal Window & Door Systems was named by leading business publication Crain’s New York Business to the 2021 List of New York’s Largest Privately-Owned Companies. Based on 2020 revenues, the list includes the largest 125 privately-held businesses headquartered in the New York metro area of New York City, Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk counties, and Bergen, Hudson, Essex, and Union counties of northern New Jersey. This is the first time in its 31-year history that Crystal has been included. “With hundreds of thousands of private businesses in the New York region, including many that are the largest in the nation, it is quite a recognition for Crystal to be on this prestigious list,” said Steve Chen, President of Crystal Windows. “Especially with the challenges of the pandemic during the past year and a half, it is noteworthy that Crystal continued to serve its customers across the country efficiently and effectively.” Crystal is the only manufacturer on the list in New York and one of only five companies on the list that are headquartered in Queens, NY. The top three companies on the list – Hearst, Bloomberg, and Horizon Media – are in the media and information services sector. In addition, many of the region’s largest developers, real estate investors, and construction firms such as the Trump Organization, Hunter Roberts, STV, Procida, DeMattis, and Tishman Speyer are represented as well. One quarter of the listed companies are headquartered in New Jersey. “Crystal is proud to be a true manufacturer in New York City,” said Chen. “Our location in the heart of Queens keeps us close to our construction and real estate customers, as well as the numerous home improvement companies in the region. We provide jobs for over 350 New York residents at our facility, and we contribute significantly to the local economy. It is a win-win situation for Crystal and for New York.”
Regional Manufacturers Experience Dynamic Growth; Rebound Quickly with NEPIRC Assistance The Northeastern Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Center (NEPIRC) closed out its most recent fiscal year on June 30, 2021, with reports of dynamic growth and much faster than expected COVID-19 recovery among its manufacturing clients over the past year. Throughout the past 12 months, NEPIRC assisted more than 400 manufacturers across northeastern, the northern tier and central Pennsylvania in responding to the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and rebuilding their businesses. Of those companies, more than 100 received expanded services tailored to their unique circumstances and challenges. Citing client-reported data gathered through multiple independent sources and subsequently verified by the U.S. Department of Commerce, NEPIRC’s President and CEO, Eric Joseph Esoda, announced that those companies recorded $150.5 million in additional revenue over the past year as a result of NEPIRC’s assistance while also attributing $17.2 million in savings due to increased efficiency and productivity. Despite worldwide economic challenges throughout the latter half of 2020 and first six months of 2021, NEPIRC’s clients invested more than $22.1 million in expanding or modernizing their regional manufacturing facilities and were able to create and retain 2,045 good-paying area manufacturing jobs. “The outstanding impacts that manufacturers are reporting from their engagements with NEPIRC are indicative of the industrial sector’s potential to drive our Commonwealth, and even our country, out of the economic uncertainties that the COVID-19 pandemic left in its wake,” said Mr. Esoda. “We’ve consistently held that our industrial sector is Pennsylvania’s best bet for real, consistent and sustainable economic recovery and expansion and, in fact, fuels growth in other sectors that rely upon manufacturing activity. These results prove that our manufacturers are roaring back to life and will once again drive our Commonwealth forward,” he added. According to aggregate client data within NEPIRC’s year-end reports, 60% of the manufacturers NEPIRC assisted throughout the pandemic reported the avoidance of layoffs as a direct result of the advisement they received. A nearly equal number of clients (58%) credited NEPIRC with enabling them to retain customer relationships and sales that would have otherwise been lost by working with them to meet production requirements or find alternative suppliers when primary supply chains were disrupted by COVID-19. A full 40% of NEPIRC clients reported increased sales amidst the pandemic thanks to NEPIRC’s assistance in attracting new customers or pivoting into new markets – and over 30% of the companies that utilized NEPIRC’s services over the past 12 months created new manufacturing jobs within the region. Across the nation, NEPIRC ended its fiscal year as one of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s top-performing Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) affiliates, particularly with respect to the number of companies it served throughout the pandemic and the levels of jobs its clients created and retained over the past year.
