Thompson Metal Fab, the long-renowned metal fabrication company located on the Columbia River, has a history of manufacturing products for the gas and oil industry.
However, changes in that industry have prompted the company to ramp up its focus on efficiency.
“We’re staying busy, and we’re always looking for new work,” said John Rudi, CEO of Thompson Metal Fab. “We’re finishing up our portion of the Sellwood Bridge right now. The fabrication has gone very well; the guys have done an outstanding job with a very difficult process. We’re also working on all the below-grade steel in the main terminal for the Transbay [a planned major transportation center] down in San Francisco.”
While the company is excited about these projects, the current state of the oil and gas industry has created some obstacles for Thompson Metal Fab that they are in the process of overcoming.
“The collapse of oil prices has definitely had an impact. A lot of work that was scheduled to start this year has been postponed for a year [to] a year-and-a-half,” Rudi said. “There are a lot of businesses that work indirectly with oil and gas companies, and the price decline has definitely had an effect.”
Rudi stressed that both he and his company have great relationships with gas and oil companies and had praise for their field. He explained that Thompson Metal Fab has “been in the market for several decades” and has “a lot of great relationships there,” adding that it’s “a great market, very good in general.”
Given the scope of the oil and gas industry, Rudi explained that Thompson Metal Fab is “really more focused on exploration and the refining side.” When it comes to things like Vancouver Energy’s proposed oil export terminal at the Port of Vancouver, he downplayed any meaningful connection.
“That’s not a portion of the market that affects us, except for maybe indirectly,” Rudi said. “Most of our markets are not Lower 48 markets; that’s not really where we focus.”
On the subject of future business development at Thompson Metal Fab, Rudi mentioned that he doesn’t “think we’ll be doing any expanding anytime soon,” and that “we’re probably going to be reducing our footprint a little bit, through an efficiency plan we’re working on.”“The plan is to remain about where we’re at for the foreseeable future,” he explained.
Rudi said that Thompson Metal Fab’s portion of the Sellwood Bridge is expected to be completed in the next couple of weeks, while work on the Transbay project in San Francisco is expected to last through the end of the year.
