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Talk of the Bay
Walter picks domestic site, dashing China pipe dream
By SCOTT BARANCIK
Published September 25, 2006
Walter Industries' U.S. Pipe division is planning to build a fifth manufacturing plant. For a while, China was on the Tampa company's short list of potential sites. The draw was powerful. China's demand for water and sewer pipe exceeds America's. Chinese laborers earn far less than U.S. Pipe's domestic work force, most of whom are unionized. U.S. Pipe president Ray Torok visited China twice. The China pipe dream is over, however. Spokesman Michael Monahan said U.S. Pipe will build the plant in the United States - preferably in Alabama, where two of its four factories reside - and primarily serve the domestic market. Torok told the Birmingham News that the plant will be modern and automated enough to undercut inexpensive Chinese imports. "I am worried we will be seen as naive for wanting the plant in the U.S.," Torok said. "But we are not. We have done our homework."
[Last modified September 25, 2006, 06:24:08]
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