Businessweek

Abakan, Inc. announced the first test-run of its CermaClad(TM) high-intensity arc lamp ahead of the opening of its first clad pipe manufacturing plant on April 26, 2013 in Euclid, Ohio. The Euclid, Ohio plant is a 1-line CermaClad(TM) corrosion-resistant clad pipe manufacturing facility that has the capacity to produce up to $60 million of clad pipe for use in upstream oil and gas production. This plant is the first production facility worldwide that will use MesoCoat's CermaClad(TM) high-speed large-area fusion cladding technology that produces a high quality product 40X faster than weld overlay processes, and at significantly lower capital and fixed costs compared to other production alternatives.

On 04/15/2013, Abakan, Inc. announced that they will be unable to file their next 10-Q by the deadline required by the SEC.

Abakan, Inc. announced that it has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Cone S.A. for construction of a manufacturing facility to suit large-scale clad pipe manufacture inside the new Suape Export Processing Zone in Pernambuco State, Brazil. The facility will help meet the demand for corrosion-resistant clad pipe to enable the safe and efficient production of oil in Brazil, where more than 80% of oil fields are highly sour. The large-scale, 4-line clad pipe manufacturing plant will be capable of producing up to $200 million of clad products annually. The decision to establish a plant in Brazil was driven by the requirements of the company's technology development partner, Petrobras, along with anticipated demand from other Brazilian energy and mining companies that have expressed interest in Abakan's cladding solutions as a means of reducing capital and operating costs in some of the world's most challenging corrosive and abrasive environments. The facility will be built on 1.6 hectares (four acres) inside the Suape EPZ together with an adjacent storage area. The EPZ offers exemptions from import and export taxes on equipment, materials and operations, with special financial privileges and tax incentives. The Suape EPZ is Brazil's first privately administered export processing zone. The construction of the Brazil facility represents the first step in Abakan's plan to build corrosion-resistant clad pipe manufacturing facilities globally, to meet the rising global demand for corrosion-resistant clad pipe, plates and components used in extracting sour oil and gas resources. Due to the potential that any one of a dozen oil majors or their contractors could tie up the entire production capacity of the Brazilian facility, Abakan plans to establish similar 4- to 8-line facilities in Indonesia, the Middle East and North America.

Abakan, Inc. announced the appointment of welding industry expert Dr. Damian Kotecki, Ph.D., PE to its Board of Advisors. Dr. Kotecki brings 43 years of welding expertise as well as his extensive technical and business network to the Board of Advisors, as Abakan transitions its CermaClad(TM) large-area cladding technology into full commercial production. Dr. Kotecki's extensive experience in welding research, pipeline failure analyses, welding training and specifications, welding procedure development, quality assurance and stainless/high-alloy welding filler metal and product development will help assure the company's CermaClad(TM) products incorporate the highest levels of technical excellence.

Abakan, Inc. announced the appointment of Sam Thomas Ph.D., Andrew Hall and Vinod Gupta to its Board of Advisors. Together, Dr. Thomas, a professor at Weatherhead School of Management and a renowned investment advisor, Hall and Gupta, an international entrepreneur, bring decades of corporate finance, investment strategy, money management and contract negotiations experience to Abakan and its portfolio companies. Hall is the founder and managing partner of Hall, Lamb and Hall P.A. Gupta is currently the chairman of the Ohio Board of Regents, where he also chairs the Commercialization Task Force and serves on the Shared Services Task Force. He also serves as an Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) for Jumpstart Entrepreneurial Network (JEN) Advisors.