Boomerang Tube is laying off 185 employees, which include 50 salaried and 135 hourly workers, at its Liberty, Texas plant citing weak demand for steel from the oil industry. The notifications were processed within the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
Boomerang has manufacturing operations in Houston and Liberty, Texas with the latter located 40 miles northeast of the former. The layoffs will reduce its employee count at the plant from 235 to 50.
Over 100 employees will remain at the Houston site. The company opened a rail branch line at its Houston plant to ship finished steel products throughout North America and gain access to better international lines via Port Houston in August 2019.
Boomerang Tube is based in Missouri and produces pipes and tubing for the oil and natural gas industry. A company official noted that it is unknown yet whether the layoffs will exceed six months which could result in a permanent loss of employment.