German pipemaker EEW in venture to create US wind-energy steel plant

Offshore wind companies Bay State Wind and Ørsted said they will partner with German steel pipemaker EEW and Gulf Island Fabrication to manufacture wind-energy components in the US, in the state of Massachusetts.

EEW and Houston, Texas-based Gulf Island will construct monopile foundations and secondary-steel and prefabricated components for turbine foundations, Bay State Wind said in a press release on Tuesday April 3. EEW will provide the large steel pipes.

“The collaboration will deploy new and specialized steel manufacturing capabilities that are not currently utilized in the US,” the statement said.

Out of EEW’s nine pipe mills, three specialize in producing wind-energy components. Those facilities are in Germany, South Korea and the United Kingdom.

Bay State Wind and Denmark’s Ørsted will be 50-50 partners in the development of the offshore wind project, which will be located 15 miles from Martha’s Vineyard.

The Massachusetts manufacturing facility will create “approximately 500 annual construction jobs,” the statement said. The plant will hire welders, blaster-painters and steel fabricators.

American Metal Market’s pricing assessment for cut-to-length carbon steel plate stands at $46 per hundredweight ($920 per ton), fob mill.