|
 |
| K&B Machine’s home of nearly 40 years will provide full-length pipe threading after the company moves to its facility next year. |
|
Family-owned premium threader K&B Machine will celebrate its 40th birthday next year, in a new facility being developed, in part, to provide the Houma company closer access to Port Fourchon.
The company will move its headquarters, and threading and manufacturing operations, to a completely covered 200,000-sq-ft facility in nearby Schriever, La., off Highway 311, said Vice President of Operations Doug Hemstreet. He said plans call for the new facility to be open for business in the spring of 2014, coinciding with the company’s fourth decade of operation. He said K&B, which holds API and premium treading licenses, encompassing well over 100 different connections servicing a diversified client base, will also continue to use its birth home for full-length pipe threading operations.
According to Hemstreet, the overriding impetus for relocation is the continual growth that has the original 20-acre yard bursting at the proverbial seams. Since 2006, he said K&B has increased its workforce from around 80 to just under 500 employees. “Since we’ve been here, we’ve grown so much, that we had to basically piece this site together, so it’s not the most efficient setting for us,” Hemstreet said. “There (at the new site), we can start with a clean slate and design it to fit our business today.”
Not to mention, he said, giving the company improved access to Port Fourchon, from where much of its handiwork goes to the end user. “One of the big advantages in moving our facility toward the I-49 corridor is better access to Port Fourchon. A lot of what we do goes out of Port Fourchon, so we know how important it is,” he said. 
Editor's note: The reference to the "I-49" corridor concerns plans that state transportation officials are working on, to extend Interstate 49 to the south and east, from Lafayette to New Orleans. The route would roughly follow the path of the current U.S. Highway 90.
|
PORT COULD SEE LNG ECONOMIC LIFT FROM WIDER PANAMA CANAL
Port Fourchon could receive an economic boost from a recent fact-finding mission to Panama, where representatives of neighboring Terrebonne Parish Economic Development Authority (TEDA) and the Port of Terrebonne primarily explored opportunities for exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The mid-March visit to Panama was to determine how Terrebonne Parish and its surrounding regions might benefit from the increased shipping that will result from the widening of the Panama Canal, said TEDA Chief Executive Officer Steve Vassallo.
“In the process, we identified a huge opportunity in the exportation of LNG," Vassallo said. “U.S. shale gas exportation to Latin America has led to the conversion of several Gulf coast ports into LNG export points. We were determined to investigate how the Port of Terrebonne and Port Fourchon might be able to capitalize on the opportunity.”
Vassallo said current trends for regional economic gains depend more on exports than imports. “In 2012, U.S. exports reached a record volume of $2.2 trillion, and in the past 35 months, exports have created more than six million private sector jobs,” he said. “The potential for export-generated economic growth in our region is therefore immense, and we are pursuing every opportunity we can.”
David Rabalais, executive director of the Port of Terrebonne, accompanied the TEDA delegation to Panama and will be in charge of investigating LNG exportation and other port-related opportunities. “The first step is to identify potential investors to promote opportunities in Panama, especially LNG,” he said. “Subsequent steps include expanding our deepwater operations and cargo trade.”
|
|
