"Mittal also is looking at Steelton's rail mill," in the old Beth complex, next to the tube mill that Dura-Bond now runs. "They drew up plans and bought part of the major equipment to build a new rail mill in Steelton, but put it on hold in 2007," when a slowdown in rail traffic put track replacement on hold.



"The Steelton rail mill was built in 1907 and modernized in the 80's, but still can only roll 120-160 feet long rails. They have a welding shop to create 1600-feet rail, which is what the mainline railroads use," combining rail sections that are each hundreds of feet long.



"The newest rail mills in the U.S. produce 450-foot-long sections. The proposed (Steelton rail) mill was intended to roll 600-foot-long rail. But I was told one of the reasons they put it on hold is to consider rolling 1600-foot-long sections, and eliminate the welding.



"It is totally feasible (technologically), but there is a space issue and the layout is huge."



The drop in general rail traffic in the late 2000s recession slowed track replacement and put rail-mill updates "on the back burner." But lately "railroads are starting to buy track again, and want better rail."



That want may be tough to fill for a different reason, Barends added: "Ironically, the pipelines that are going to bring both North Dakota oil and Canadian oil sands oil to the Delaware River refineries," keeping the tube mills busy, will come on line just in time to reduce rail traffic and rail-mill demand.



The pipe revival has come too late to save the century-old mill at Claymont, Del., which Barends called a worn facility plagued by planning mistakes: "The builders put in a pier to load plate onto ships," but failed to arrange for ship passage through the "shallow, rocky" Delaware River bottom to the main channel. "The pier was used for barges bringing in oil and such, but they never shipped steel plate out."