Producer
Cerro Flow Products
Major U.S. copper tube manufacturer (HQ Sauget, IL); owned by Marmon Holdings, itself a Berkshire Hathaway company. Cerro Flow is the second-largest domestic copper tube producer with an estimated 15-20% of the U.S. market. Sauget, IL plant produces ASTM B88 plumbing tube and industrial copper tube. As a Marmon/Berkshire company, Cerro Flow operates with significant financial stability and long-term capital commitment. Cerro Flow competes directly with Mueller Industries in the plumbing and HVAC copper tube market but lacks Mueller's vertical integration into copper mining.
1
Inputs supplied
1
Goods downstream
1
Facilities
0
Stories
What they make
1 input Cerro Flow Products supplies
Click an input to see every good that depends on it, every country that produces it, and every other company in the supply chain.
Where it shows up
Goods downstream
Essential goods that depend on something Cerro Flow Products makes, pick one to see the full supply chain.
What else they do
Business segments
The company's full revenue map, where this supply-chain role fits within their broader business.
Plumbing Copper Tube (ASTM B88)
65%Industrial Copper Products
35%
Intelligence
What's known
Sourced claims about this company's role in supply chains, chokepoints, concentration, incidents, dual-use connections.
Concentration2023
Cerro Flow Products is a wholly owned subsidiary of Marmon Holdings, itself owned by Berkshire Hathaway — one of only two significant U.S. domestic copper plumbing tube producers. This means Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, through Marmon, controls roughly 15-20% of U.S. copper tube supply for residential and commercial plumbing. Berkshire's portfolio includes GEICO (auto insurance), BNSF Railway (freight), Berkshire Hathaway Energy (utilities), and Cerro Flow Products (copper plumbing tube) — all essential infrastructure inputs. Cerro Flow's Marmon ownership means it is unlikely to exit the market even during industry downturns, providing more supply stability than a standalone competitor would — but also less pricing pressure on Mueller's dominant position.
Marmon Holdings (Berkshire Hathaway) ↗Origin2023
Cerro Flow Products is owned by Marmon Holdings — a privately-held industrial conglomerate built by Jay and Robert Pritzker of Chicago, the same family that created the Hyatt Hotels chain when Jay Pritzker purchased the original Hyatt House motel in Los Angeles in 1957. The Pritzker brothers built Marmon Holdings as a separate industrial empire from Hyatt, accumulating dozens of manufacturing companies including wire and cable producers, copper processors, railcar manufacturers, and specialty industrial companies. Berkshire Hathaway acquired Marmon Holdings for approximately $4.5 billion in 2008 — the culmination of negotiations between Warren Buffett and the Pritzker family estate. The acquisition brought copper tube manufacturing (Cerro Flow), steel processing, and industrial products into the Berkshire portfolio. Cerro Flow's Sauget, Illinois plant, making copper plumbing tube for US residential and commercial construction, is now a Berkshire Hathaway asset — the same corporate family that owns Geico insurance, BNSF railroad, and Dairy Queen ice cream also owns the second-largest US copper plumbing tube manufacturer. The Sauget, Illinois plant draws from the same US residential construction demand cycles that drive homebuilding stocks like D.R. Horton and Pulte, all of which Berkshire's various entities can observe from different vantage points.
Cerro Flow Products / Marmon Holdings ↗