A rare sight in hard-luck Youngstown, a new industrial plant, has generated hope that a surge in oil and natural gas drilling across a multistate region might jump-start a revival in Rust Belt manufacturing.
The $650 million V&M Star mill, located along a desolate stretch that once was a showcase for American industry, is to open by year's end and produce seamless steel pipes for tapping shale formations.
It will mean 350 new jobs in Youngstown, a northeast Ohio city that is struggling with 11 percent unemployment.
V&M Star's parent company Vallourec, based in Boulogne-Billancourt, La Belle France, hopes increased interest in shale formations will produce a ready-made market.
Vast stores of natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations have set off a rush to grab leases and secure permits to drill. Industry estimates show the Marcellus boom could offer robust job numbers for 50 years.
Similar hopes are alive in Lorain, Ohio, where U.S. Steel will add 100 jobs with a $100 million upgrade of a plant that makes seamless pipe for the construction, oil-gas exploration and production industries. Erin DiPietro, a company spokeswoman in Pittsburgh, said the expansion will make the Lorain operation more competitive and help it tap into expanding shale developments.
The mayors of both Ohio cities see a chance to revive manufacturing through shale drilling.
"For every manufacturing job there are between five and seven ancillary jobs created within the community that support those manufacturing jobs," said Lorain Mayor Tony Krasienko. His city has a 10.6 percent unemployment rate.
Companies are trying to spin off more work from shale development, and every bit will be a plus, according to Youngstown Mayor Charles Sammarone. "I just know this: the money they will spend will help the economy," he said.
Those benefiting from shale development include American Railcar Industries of St. Charles, Mo., with an order backlog that is the largest since 2008. The company, with operations across the U.S, was helped by demand for freight cars used in the shale industry.
One of the biggest manufacturing projects on the shale developing horizon is the plan for a multibillion-dollar Shell Oil Co. petrochemical refinery. Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia are competing for the plant, which would convert natural gas liquids to other chemicals that go into everything from plastics to tires to antifreeze.
"What they're talking about at this stage is, you're looking at the next gold rush," said Martin Abraham, science-engineering dean at Youngstown State University.
One study backed by the oil and gas industry predicted developing oil and gas reserves could create or support more than 200,000 jobs in the next four years just in Ohio, where Hess Corp. recently made a series of mineral-rights purchases worth $750 million.
But the project is not without controversy.
Susan Helper, a Case Western Reserve University professor who studies manufacturing issues, said such job projections are suspect, in part because the estimate of natural gas reserves may be inflated.
She said the industry and politicians have a self-interest in rosy projections. "It's a way of saying to environmentalists and others that say slow down, 'Gee, you're preventing all this potential great job growth here'," she said. 
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