Producer
Mueller Industries, Inc.
Mueller Industries, Inc. (NYSE: MLI, HQ Memphis TN; ~$3.5B revenue) is North America's dominant vertically integrated brass rod and plumbing fittings manufacturer. Mueller Brass division operates the Port Huron, Michigan brass rod plant — one of the largest brass rod extrusion facilities in North America, producing C36000 free-machining brass rod and lead-free alloys (C69300 eco-brass) for plumbing fittings manufacturers. Mueller also manufactures finished brass fittings under the Streamline® brand and valves under the Mueller B&K and Klauke brands. Mueller's vertical integration — from brass rod through finished fittings — is unique among North American competitors. The company supplies the majority of brass plumbing fittings used in US residential construction. Mueller's Port Huron plant is one of only two significant US-domestic free-machining brass rod extrusion facilities.
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Inputs supplied
2
Goods downstream
3
Facilities
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Stories
What they make
4 inputs Mueller Industries, Inc. 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.
mineral
Copper Cathode (Plumbing Tube Grade) →
manufactured
ACR Copper Tubing (refrigerant-grade) →
manufactured
Brass Rod & Castings (Plumbing Fittings) →
chemical
High-Density Polyethylene Resin for PEX Pipe →
Where it shows up
Goods downstream
Essential goods that depend on something Mueller Industries, Inc. makes — pick one to see the full supply chain.
Where they make it
3 facilities
Mueller Brass Co. — Port Huron MI Brass Rod Plant →
USMichigan · manufacturing
Mueller Industries' Port Huron, Michigan brass rod extrusion plant — one of North America's largest brass rod production facilities. Produces C36000 free-machining brass rod (61.5% Cu, 35.5% Zn, 3% Pb) for plumbing fittings screw-machine production, and lead-free brass (C69300 eco-brass) for NSF 372-compliant potable water fittings. Port Huron is located on the St. Clair River near Lake Huron, with Great Lakes logistics access. This plant is the primary US domestic source of plumbing-grade brass rod and one of only two significant US brass rod extrusion facilities. Source: https://www.muellerindustries.com/about/our-history
Mueller Copper Tube Products — Fulton, MS →
USMississippi · manufacturing
Mueller Industries primary copper tube manufacturing complex in Fulton, MS (Itawamba County). This is Mueller's largest and most integrated facility: copper cathode arrives, is smelted and cast into copper rod, then drawn into seamless ASTM B88 plumbing tube (Type K, L, M) and ASTM B280 ACR tube. Fulton is the cornerstone of Mueller's ~55-60% U.S. copper tube market position. Also produces copper fittings. Mueller Fulton is effectively the single largest copper tube production site in North America. Source: https://www.muellerindustries.com/about/our-history
Mueller Industries Fulton Mississippi Manufacturing Complex →
USMississippi · manufacturing
Mueller Industries' primary manufacturing complex in Fulton, Mississippi — the largest copper tube and brass fittings manufacturing site in North America. Mueller's PEX-b tubing production is integrated into this complex alongside copper tube drawing, brass rod extrusion, and fittings manufacturing. Mueller is the only company in North America that manufactures both the copper tube PEX is displacing and PEX tubing itself, at the same facility. Source: https://www.muellerindustries.com/about/facilities
What else they do
Business segments
The company's full revenue map — where this supply-chain role fits within their broader business.
Piping Systems (Copper Tube + PEX)
50%Brass Products (Rod, Fittings, Valves)
40%Industrial & Specialty Products
10%
Intelligence
What's known
Sourced claims about this company's role in supply chains — chokepoints, concentration, incidents, dual-use connections.
Did you know2023
Mueller Industries (NYSE: MLI, HQ Memphis TN) occupies a uniquely paradoxical position in the US residential plumbing supply chain: it is simultaneously North America's largest manufacturer of the copper tubing that PEX is displacing AND a PEX-b tubing manufacturer itself. Mueller's Fulton, Mississippi complex draws ACR copper tube for HVAC, DWV copper for plumbing drain lines, and Type L/K copper for water supply — and in the same complex produces PEX-b tubing that competes directly with its own copper products. Mueller entered PEX specifically to avoid losing wholesale plumbing distribution share as contractors switched from copper to PEX for hot and cold supply lines. This dual exposure means Mueller benefits from PEX adoption (PEX revenue) while also absorbing the volume loss in copper tube (copper decline). Mueller's financial performance is therefore partially self-hedging against the copper-to-PEX substitution trend in residential plumbing — an unusual dynamic where a company is the primary beneficiary of its own market disruption.
Mueller Industries ↗Concentration2023
Mueller Industries is the only US company that vertically integrates the entire North American plumbing brass supply chain: the Port Huron, MI plant extrudes C36000 and C69300 (eco-brass) rod → Mueller's own screw machine operations and casting plants → finished Streamline® brass fittings (elbows, tees, couplings, valves) sold through distribution to plumbing contractors. No other North American company controls both the rod and the finished fitting. Mueller's Port Huron plant is also one of only two significant US brass rod extrusion facilities (the other being Olin Brass/Chase Industries legacy operations, now fragmented). If Mueller Port Huron were to curtail or close, North American plumbing-grade brass rod supply would fall by an estimated 50-60%, forcing immediate and large-scale dependence on European imports (Wieland, Schwermetall) or Asian rod subject to antidumping duties. Lead times would extend 6-12 months minimum. Mueller's dual role as both upstream rod producer and downstream fittings competitor gives it structural leverage over independent US fittings manufacturers who depend on Mueller rod but also compete with Mueller fittings — a vertical market power dynamic unique in North American plumbing supply chains.
Mueller Industries, Inc. ↗Origin2023
Mueller Industries faced a forced materials science transition when the US Safe Drinking Water Act Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act (2011, effective January 2014) mandated that all wetted components in plumbing products for potable water contain no more than 0.25% lead by weight — down from the previous 8% threshold. The standard plumbing brass alloy C36000 contains approximately 3% lead, added specifically because lead makes brass free-machining (allows high-speed CNC cutting without tool wear). Mueller's Port Huron brass rod plant had to develop C69300 'eco-brass' — a bismuth-silicon alloy that provides machinability without lead — and transition the entire North American plumbing fittings supply chain to the new alloy. Mueller also had to qualify the new alloy with every major US plumbing fittings manufacturer. The lead-free mandate effectively forced Mueller to invent a new alloy, retool its extrusion process, and re-certify a supply chain it had served with the same C36000 alloy for decades. Mueller's Port Huron plant is one of only two US domestic free-machining brass rod extruders; the second is Olin's Chase Industries division.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ↗