May 31, 2013 4 min read

As business manager for Pittsburgh-based Steamfitters Local 449, Ken Broadbent acknowledges he’s biased when it comes to seeking local talent to recruit for his union, which in recent years has found itself extremely busy with projects related to natural gas extraction in the Marcellus Shale.

On Friday, Broadbent said he hopes many more young men and women here will consider a career as a welder and pipefitter, arguing that the Marcellus is a highly valuable regional economic resource that should employ as many local people as possible.

“It’s all about jobs,” said Broadbent, who was one of three panelists at a Washington County Chamber of Commerce breakfast at Southpointe to discuss the impact the Marcellus Shale is having on manufacturing and skilled trade positions in the area.

The panel was moderated by Andrew Browning, executive vice president of the Consumer Energy Alliance, a national organization that works to create a connection between energy consumers and energy producers.

“I don’t want people from Texas and Oklahoma welding in your backyard,” Broadbent told more than 100 chamber members. “I want your sons and daughters welding in your backyard.”

According to Broadbent, he has visited Western Area Career and Technology Center, which is in the process of building an expanded welding training center, as well as other career and technology centers in the area to spread the word of the need for certified welders.

“I tell these kids, ‘If you can weld, you can make $80,000, $100,000, $120,000 a year,'” Broadbent said, noting the tremendous economic impact people earning those amounts can bring to the area.

Fellow panelist John McCarthy, chief executive officer of Chapman Corp., agreed that the need for welders has continued to grow along with the Marcellus Shale work his company does, using steamfitters from Local 449.

McCarthy said the company employs 1,000 to 1,600 people depending upon its project load, which in addition to natural gas infrastructure work, also includes power plants and steel mills in the region.

“But the Marcellus Shale is really the driver” for much of Chapman’s work these days, McCarthy said. “Every project we do, we’re desperate for welders,” he said.

Filling demand for welders and other skilled labor positions from the local workforce could be problematic.

Panelist Kurt Barshick, general manager of U.S. Steel’s tubular division, noted a national shortage in the trades, one of several challenges facing businesses, despite the fact that they’re benefiting from the work the unconventional shale gas industry provides.

A year ago, Chapman completed work on a $6.6 million, 54,000-square-foot expansion of its pipe fabrication shop in downtown Washington to better compete with pipe companies from outside the area that were picking up business from the oil and gas drillers here.

“We had a pipe fab shop that couldn’t compete” with other pipe fabricators that were entering the area from Oklahoma and Texas, McCarthy said.

Three years ago, he said, the local shop employed 15 to 20 workers, but now has 65. He noted that the company has hired 16 “metal trade” workers locally who also are members of the Steamfitters union.

Barshick said U.S. Steel has seen growing demand for its pipe products as a result of the various natural-gas producing shale stratas around the country, including the Marcellus and Utica plays.

The low price of domestically produced natural gas also has helped the steelmaker lower its production costs to become more competitive, he added.

“It’s making us very competitive against foreign producers, which pay a much higher price for natural gas,” Barshick said, but later added that much of the competing product comes from foreign countries, including China and South Korea, whose governments are subsidizing the products to make them cheaper.

“Imports are up by almost 50 percent,” he said, adding that even some domestically produced pipe may have a foreign lineage.

He noted that before the advent of natural gas production from the shale stratas took off, there were no new pipe mills built in the U.S. “for years.”

Now there are four pipe mills being built around the country, but most are being built by foreign companies.

Returning to the question of how to best attract a new generation of qualified workers, the panelists said there are several options.

Barshick said U.S. Steel offers in-house training for its workers.

Broadbent said those who want to become welders can attend career and technical schools’ welding programs that are offered for free for high school students.

For high school graduates who want to enter the profession, he said, the Steamfitters Union provides training for those who pass a qualifying test.

Aside from those two choices, Broadbent said community colleges with certified welding programs could provide the best answer.

“Community college is probably the cheapest place to get good training at the most reasonable cost,” he said.