Charlotte Pipe and Foundry has formed a new Technical Services Department to provide education and technical support to engineers and contractors on the application and installation of all Charlotte Pipe products.

Seven U.S. standard steel pipe producers urged President George Bush to restrict surging imports of competing products from China through a special mechanism that he has declined to use before.

After a three-year downturn in grassroot plant construction activity in the U.S., manufacturers made a comeback in 2005, as the industry's grassroot plant numbers are once again in line with those posted at the beginning of the new millennium.

Affiliated Distributors presented Michael Horner, chairman/CEO of Frischkorn Inc., Richmond, VA, with its Affiliate of the Year, Leadership - PVF Division award at its North American meeting in September.

Farris Engineering, a business unit of Curtiss-Wright Flow Control Corp., announced the opening of a new sales office in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and the appointment of Anand K as its regional sales manager.

Cooper Cameron Corp. has closed on substantially all of the businesses being acquired from the Flow Control segment of Dresser, Inc. for approximately $224 million in cash.

Jeffrey Beall, CEO of American Pipe & Supply (Birmingham, AL), announced the promotion of Bob Kyle (formerly COO) as president.

Red Man Pipe & Supply said that as of Nov. 15, all of its stores in the Gulf Coast area were back to full operations.

Industrial buyers are turning to the Internet nearly twice as often as the offline information sources they have long relied on, according to a comprehensive study of industrial buying and selling behaviors.

Red Man Pipe & Supply, Tulsa, Okla., was honored as Affiliate of the Year, Performance - PVF Division by Affiliated Distributors at an awards ceremony in September.