Valley job experts say the new pipe finishing plant at the former Sheet and Tube building in Youngstown is only one example of ancillary industrial business that a Marcellus Shale boom will bring.

The new plant, announced Monday December 5, 2011, is being opened by V&M Star sister company VAM USA, a Houston-based Vallourec subsidiary that manufactures casing and tubing connections for the American oil and gas industry. VAM has three other such plants located in oil country cities like Houston, Houma, La., and Oklahoma City.

"This is all about the supply chain, and we want to be the center for that supply chain for that industry in this area," Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber spokesman Tony Paglia said.

Eric Planey, the Chamber's vice president for international business attraction, said the potential shale drilling boom could be a "rising tide lifts all boats scenario" and said local businesses are already seeing an uptick in revenue, citing increased bank deposits from landowners who have enjoyed early royalties or received some of the first upfront contracts for drilling on their property.

"That's good for our banks because it allows them to lend more freely into our community," he said.