One of my three beagle dogs recently lost a portion of her ear after an attack by a neighborhood dog. Fenway (my wife’s a huge Red Sox fan; we had another beagle named Boston) had to undergo emergency surgery to save/reconstruct the ear.

While the 2014 economic year is in its infancy, there are a number of positive factors indicating the current year will be the strongest comeback year since the end of the recent Great Recession and have the makeup of strong diversified economic elements.

Bill Bootz, owner of Houston-based industrial PVF master distributor Team Alloys, didn’t know much about the business when he first started as an outside salesman back in the 1980s. “My first sales call to SMS of Texas was on Sept. 18, 1989,” he recalls in vivid detail. “They told me my price was higher than domestic. I said, ‘What’s domestic?’ I knew absolutely nothing about the business — completely zero.”

Trends and forecasts always are frequent topics of discussion in the PHCP/PVF industry. That definitely holds true for the master distribution end of the equation. A group of master distribution executives recently spoke with Supply House Times on a variety of topics related to their companies’ roles in the industry.

According to the Metals Service Center Institute, monthly shipments of steel and aluminum both in the United States and Canada ended 2013 with gains over December 2012.

The Valve Manufacturers Association now offers an online version of its popular Valve Basics Training course.

This column often delves deep into all aspects of the United States’ energy revolution as it carves a path to practical independence in the next decade. But we seem to have been relatively isolated by other analysts who ignore the massive upward climb in refined derivative exports, which surged past 3 million barrels a day in 2013. That output is expected to reach an incredible 5 million barrels a day by the end of the decade.

MRC Global closes in on deals to buy Stream AS and Flangefitt Stainless Ltd.

American Piping Products recently announced it has purchased the assets Ozark Tubular Products. Based in St. Louis, Mo., American Piping Products also has locations in Houston, Philadelphia, Chicago and Baton Rouge.