Economy
Lock Joint Tube to Supply Solar Firm From New Texas Mill
July 21, 2023
Lock Joint Tube will supply steel tubing to solar energy company Array Technologies from a new mill in Texas.
The two companies entered into an agreement for Albuquerque, N.M.-based Array to secure structural-grade steel tubing from Lock Joint, which is based in South Bend, Ind., Array said in a statement on Thursday.
The new mill in Temple, Texas, where Lock Joint Tube has established operations, will use locally sourced steel to produce solar tubing as a response to domestic content requirements in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Array said.
“Lock Joint Tube’s newest mill will provide Array with domestic tubing under the IRA, which our customers are demanding in this high-growth market for utility-scale solar,” Array CEO Kevin Hostetler said in the statement.
“By utilizing domestically sourced steel, Lock Joint Tube enables our customers to maximize domestic steel content, which has become essential to the expansion of clean, renewable energy throughout the country, underpinned by a growing US-based supply chain,” Kevin Marks, president at Lock Joint, said.
A ribbon cutting for the facility was held on June 28 in Temple, Array said, adding that Lock Joint Tube also produces tubing for the company at a steel torque tube mill in South Bend.
A spokesperson from Steel Warehouse, a sister company to Lock Joint, told SMU that the new operations add 37,500 square feet to an existing facility in Texas that now has a total area of 330,000 square feet. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
By Ethan Bernard, ethan@steelmarketupdate.com
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