YOUNGSTOWN - V&M Star President Roger Lindgren said he was excited enough that ''my knees are shaking'' Monday as he helped to announce the company's massive expansion on the border of Girard and Youngstown.
With words like ''history'' and ''watershed'' filling the DeBartolo Stadium Club overlooking the once-famed Steel Valley, V&M leaders made official what had been anticipated for more than a year: V&M Star will invest $650 million for a steel-rolling pipe mill next to its existing Youngstown seamless pipe mill.
Downsized from the original $970 million planned investment because the expansion doesn't include a steel-melt shop, the project will create 400 jobs during 18 months of construction that will start in the next 30 days.
Some 350 full-time jobs - 230 directly employed by V&M and 120 for in-house specialized service providers - are projected as production begins in the last three months of 2011 and hits full output at the end of 2012.
The expansion earlier was expected to add 400 or more workers before uncertainty developed about the melt shop. Lindgren didn't say when a decision might be made.
Engineers, technical and support workers will be hired first, with maintenance and specialized production workers being added starting in six months, Lindgren said.
The rest of the workers will be added after that, he said, noting hiring will be done through the state's One-Stop employment offices.
Lindgren, who thanked ''the bosses in Paris,'' France, for choosing Youngstown, didn't specify wage scales but said pay will be ''competitive,'' along with 401(k) savings, vacation, health coverage and incentive pay.
The mill has 450 workers, although it had layoffs last year as the economy slumped.
Closeness to one of the nation's largest natural gas reserves, a skilled work force and support from public leaders all helped sway V&M owner, Vallourec & Mannesmann Tubes, which said it was considering expanding at its Houston and Oklahoma sites.
Phillipe Crouzet, chairman of the Vallourec Management Board, said in a statement that the company is at a ''moment of opportunity that cannot be ignored. Seizing this moment is a strategic decision for V&M, and I am gratified to know it also creates significant opportunities for the communities of the Youngstown area.''
Crouzet called the expansion ''one of the largest economic development projects in all of America, and certainly the largest the communities of Youngstown and Girard have seen in generations.''
He said the investment ''brings hundreds of new, quality jobs to a region that is working hard to re-establish itself as a vibrant business and industrial center.''
Already a leader in seamless steel pipe known as oil country tubular goods, or OCTG, V&M Star's Youngstown mill became a prime candidate for the expansion because of its location on the western edge of the Marcellus Shale, a huge natural gas reserve the size of Greece under eastern Ohio, Pennsylvania and neighboring states.
''We see (natural gas) as a clear, clean fuel of the future,'' Skip Herald, managing director of Vallourec North America, said in announcing the investment that came to light in November 2008.
Herald said natural gas accounts for 22 percent of the nation's energy needs but that advances in extraction techniques have made recovery from difficult regions more feasible. Those new techniques have boosted the nation's natural gas supply to an estimated 90 years, the company said.
The new mill will allow V&M to meet rising demand for smaller diameter tubes ranging from 2 3/8 outside inches to 7 inches. Production is projected at 350,000 metric tons, with capacity of 500,000 metric tons, the company said.
Herald credited ''a great group of'' V&M Star workers for making the company comfortable investing such a large amount in Youngstown.
Lindgren said such workers are part of a high-tech business that will include a high-speed threading line and an automatic hydrostatic testing machine.
Reaching out to young jobseekers, he said today's steel workers ''don't walk around with shovels; we walk around with computers.''
The company's decision came after months of wrangling between Youngstown and Girard city leaders over the annexation of 191 acres by Youngstown and division of taxes.
Agreement between the cities, plus $20 million in federal stimulus dollars and $5 million more in other incentives, helped to bring about the historic announcement, officials said.
''In the history that will be written about the renaissance of this community, this project will be looked upon as one of the linchpins of that story,'' Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams said. ''It showed the only way we can succeed is if we collaborate.''
Girard Mayor James Melfi said Girard will get half of workers' income tax, along with revenue when the company turns a profit. Girard schools stand to get $1 million a year, he said.
''For a small investment, this community landed one of the largest projects in North America,'' he said.
U.S. Rep. Timothy J. Ryan, D-Niles, said the announcement marks another turning point away from the Mahoning Valley's image as a Rust Belt area.
''Today's unprecedented announcement by Vallourec is a watershed event for the Mahoning Valley,'' he said in a statement. ''This $650 million investment will result in 350 new jobs and sends a clear message that we have a world-class work force and a globally competitive business climate.
''Simply put, this is the game-changer for the Mahoning Valley.''
