I got a call from a recruiter the other day wanting me to move to Alabama because a steel plant was expanding operations there. The recruiter said the new products they would be adding are from plants in other parts of the country that were being shuttered. Maybe has something to do with it.
I was taking a machining class last year and our instructor worked for a company that used pipe product, he said that the quality of the pipe from USS was so bad that they had to go elsewhere for material. His company is located in McKeesport.
Maybe the union environment and plant equipment condition makes it more profitable to build the pipe elsewhere and ship it to PA for the drillers.