Local industries saw a diverse year with some major changes in 2002, as well as stability and steady growth in some sectors.

Company mergers, increased exports and steady growth were all visible over the past year creating a healthy industrial environment in the city.

The merger of Alberta Energy Corporation with PanCanadian in the early part of April caused some major changes in the oil industry in Weyburn for 2002, with the creation of the EnCana Corporation.

"The merger itself created a lot of change most of the changes were with office staff, supervisors, technical staff," said Darcy Cretin, superintendent for Weyburn operations.

Following the merger, there were eight job losses in the Weyburn office, which included some transfers out of Weyburn.

One of the other major changes was the second part of the Phase One roll-out in the CO2 project at the EnCana site.

"It was a big undertaking in that it was the first time we had rolled out into a new area of the field and took everything we learned from the first phase of construction," said Cretin.

EnCana's production for 2002 was steady and saw some increase, according to Cretin.

He explained that due to the carbon dioxide injection, the facility is able to offset the normal decline expected in a mature oil field like Weyburn. The company is predicting a similar production year for 2003 with little change in the field.

EnCana will be moving its Weyburn offices to the plant site, a move which should be completed sometime in February.

"We've got a lot of work so I wouldn't foresee many staffing changes," said Cretin of the company's employment future.

Nexans Canada Inc., Weyburn's largest employer, saw a year of fairly stable growth with the completion of their three-year $20 million expansion.

"As far as production and sales, basically things went fairly good; we had our strongest year ever and we're nicely coming out of an expansion," said Kerry Dolter, plant manager for Nexans.

The wire manufacturing company, formerly Alcatel Canada Wire, employs 144 people in Weyburn and Dolter said those positions look fairly secure for 2003.

Dolter said there has been a slight decline in the United States' markets but doesn't think the decline will have a major effect on production. About two-thirds of the company's products are sold to the U.S., making the company fairly dependent on their American buyers.

Nexans produces three basic wire categories with each category having dozens of different wire types.

The company was also named Business of the Year in 2002 by the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce in October, as well as Exporter of the Year, with over 90 per cent of its products leaving the province.

"We've been very stable, we've been achieving steady growth for the last 10 years and we'll consistently continue doing the good job we've been doing," said Dolter.

Stewart Steel Inc. is another Weyburn company that is making a move onto the international scene.

Del Croissant, sales manager for Stewart Steel, said the year began slowly but ended strong with the future looking bright in terms of foreign exports.

"Our exports for the U.S. are up this year over the last year and we've actually begun to tap the Australian market," said Croissant.

The company now has a distributor in Australia to import some of Stewart Steel's agriculture products.

Croissant commented that breaking in to the Australian market could take all of this year, but the company is excited by the opportunity to make sales in Australia.

Stewart Steel has done some direct exports to individuals in Australia and is hoping their distributor will be able to increase demand for their products.

"They're asking for what we've got; small town Saskatchewan can ship internationally," said Croissant.

The company's one major concern for 2003 is the possibility of an ongoing drought on the prairies which could adversely effect Stewart Steel's farming products line.

Employment at Stewart Steel will be fairly stable with 16 employees for the upcoming year, and Croissant said if the current growth continues there could be some new positions opening up at the company's night shift.

"I don't know how that fares with anybody else in the area, but we're very optimistic about what is going to happen for us," said Croissant.

Duraco Window Industries Sask Ltd., which has been in operation for 15 years, also saw a stable year with only a slight decrease in production and sales for 2002.

Tracy Oshie-Horton, manager for Duraco, said the company is hoping for a year of steady growth in both production and sales in 2003.

The staff of nine employees has been stable this last year and expected to remain the same for the upcoming year.

It's possible Duraco will be expanding their product line to include patio doors sometime in 2003, said the manager.