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Worthington
Sets Record for Revenues, Income
Worthington Industries Inc., Columbus, Ohio, reported net earnings
of more than $179.4 million on sales of $3.07 billion for its fiscal
year ended May 31. Both revenues and income set records for the
company, increasing 29.4 and 106.8 percent, respectively, over the
prior fiscal year.
The
Processed Steel division reported sales of $1.8 billion on shipments
of 3,685,000 tons, a 31.4 percent increase over the previous fiscal
year, when its sales totaled $1.37 billion on volume of 3,806,000
tons. Operating income increased sevenfold year over year, even
while its raw material costs jumped 46 percent.
“We
had a great year,” says Chairman and CEO John P. McConnell.
Looking forward, the company will diversify its customer base and
execute “a strategy of providing our processed steel products
downstream to our other business operations and joint ventures.”
Butech
Buys Bliss Products from DMS
Butech Inc., Salem, Ohio, has purchased the intellectual property
and products of the former E.W. Bliss-Rolling Mill Division from
the DMS-Bliss Co. DMS-Bliss was a division of DMS, Lille, France,
which purchased the designs and operation of the former Bliss-Salem
company out of bankruptcy in 1999, when Butech purchased its facility.
The Butech asset purchase includes the Bliss name.
The
acquisition gives Butech all the drawings and technical information
for the entire history of Bliss products, from the original E.W.
Bliss Co-Rolling Mill Division through the current DMS-Bliss operation.
Also included was the transfer of licensee rights from Mitsubishi-USA
of Pittsburgh, for the exclusive North American authorized force
motor valve rebuild operation. Butech hired technicians and many
other employees and is relocating them with all the DMS-Bliss equipment
and material to Butech’s facility.
Butech
is also providing rebuild services for Bliss and other automatic
gage control cylinders. The equipment will be relocated and merged
with Butech’s extrusion/forging press cylinder manufacturing
and service operation.
Butech’s
300,000-square-foot Salem facility was built for the production
of Bliss rolling mills. Its 200-ton crane and 12 bays have three
erection pits accessed by rail spur. Since 1999, Butech has invested
more than $7 million into the manufacturing plant.
ESCO
Purchases Two Companies
ESCO Corp., Portland, Ore., has acquired the assets of privately
owned Quality Steel Foundries Ltd. and SRW Technologies. The companies
will keep their existing names, under ESCO Engineered Products.
The
acquisition of these assets is a strategic move into the growing
resource-based markets in Western Canada, including oil sands and
coal mining. Resource-based business is growing, and ESCO is investing
to meet the current and future needs of mining and industrial customers.
QSF facilities in Nisku, Alberta, and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and
SRW in Edmonton, Alberta, are geographically well situated to serve
these customers.
All
three acquired facilities will increase production volumes, as they
will continue to produce QSF branded products and add selected ESCO
products to their output.
Servimetal
Acquires Perry Products
Servimetal Inc., a Caguas, Puerto Rico-based processor of flat metal
products, has acquired Perry Products of Puerto Rico, the oldest
and largest industrial supplier of stainless steel tubular and long
products on the island.
The
acquisition represents a growth step for Servimetal and gives Perry
the financial backing to undertake future growth. Both companies
will continue to operate under their respective trade names.
Emilio
M. Ortiz, Servimetal’s president and CEO, says that in conjunction
with stateside manufacturers, Perry will now be able to venture
into manufacturing and assembling some components used by industrial
customers. Perry will also expand its geographic reach to the entire
Caribbean Basin.
Servimetal
operates a 110,000-square-foot facility in Caguas and ships just-in-time
via its own trucks several times a day from more than 15,000 metric
tons of coil and sheet inventory. Products include hot-rolled, cold-rolled,
galvanized, Galvannealed, prepainted, stainless steel and aluminum.
Perry
Products supplies stainless steel tubular and long products, and
valves.
Briefs
Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co., Los Angeles, entered into a $600
million, five-year, unsecured revolving credit facility that replaces
its previous $335 million credit facility. Reliance initially approached
the bank market to raise $400 million in credit commitments. Given
the significant over-subscription of the credit facility, however,
the company elected to increase the facility amount to $600 million.
Reliance plans to use its credit facility for working capital and
general corporate purposes, internal growth initiatives, and the
funding of acquisitions.
Members
of the United Steelworkers Local 8925 recently ratified a three-year
contract with B & T Steel, Stoney Creek, Ontario, a division
of Russel Metals Inc. It includes wage increases of 2.8 percent
in each of the three years, a signing bonus, pension plan improvements,
six weeks vacation for employees with 25 years of service, and some
health insurance improvements.
Heidtman
Steel Products Inc. has commissioned a new heavy-gauge (0.625-inch-thick)
slitter at its Cleveland processing facility. The 275,000-square-foot
facility has both slitting and continuous pickling capabilities
and will have created over 100 jobs for the Cleveland area when
production expands to all shifts. The pickling line includes edge
trim, dry lube capabilities and in-line shape correction. The plant
outputs a comprehensive product mix including hot-rolled, cold-rolled
and coated steels. Heidtman’s Cleveland plant is located on
the property of Mittal Steel USA (formerly ISG).
Steel
Technologies Inc., Louisville, Ky., reports that its third-quarter
results will be affected by lower than anticipated shipments and
further margin compression—the latter due to continued price
declines. The hit from market inventory adjustments and slowing
demand has been more pronounced than expected. The company targets
its shipment volume at 10 percent below projections given during
a conference call in April.
Steel
Technologies also has ordered a close-tolerance multi-blanking line
from Braner/Loopco. The line will convert 40-ton coils of 72-inch-wide
bare and coated carbon steel in gauges from 0.028- through 0.135-inch
thick into panel-flat sheets and precision blanks.
Aluminum
Blanking Co., a toll processor of aluminum and stainless products
in Pontiac, Mich., installed a new Herr-Voss Stamco precision six-high
leveler in an existing blanking line to expand the thickness capacity
and to improve the existing level of strip flatness. The leveler
processes material up to 0.375-inch thick and 110 inches wide.
Bushwick
Metals Inc. has opened two sales offices in the New York metro area.
The Great Neck, N.Y., office is staffed with both sales and purchasing
staffers. The employees of the former Fisher Bros Steel, now Bushwick/Fisher
Steel Co., have been relocated to 25 Rockwood Place, Englewood,
N.J. Each facility has a five-year lease.
Ferguson
Metals is expanding its Hamilton, Ohio, facility, adding nearly
39,000 square feet of warehouse space, plus a new cut-to-length
line. The company specializes in the distribution of stainless steel
products. Owner Wayne Ferguson was recently honored as Small Businessman
of the Year by the city of Hamilton.
New
Millennium Steel, Lake City, Fla., will install a new Pro-Eco slitting
line at its steel processing and distribution center. The line will
slit material from 30-ton coils, from 0.209-inch thick to 60 inches
wide, providing 11 cuts at maximum gauge.
Prudential
Stainless Pipe has changed its name to Prudential Stainless &
Alloys, to better identify and reinforce its product mix. As a master
distributor, Prudential carries hard to locate grades and sizes
and sells them exclusively to wholesalers and metal service centers.
Wyoming
Steel Co., Camden, Ohio, will install a Pro-Eco slitting line at
its steel processing and distribution center. The line will slit
material from 35-ton coils from 0.25-inch-thick up to 72 inches
wide.
Stebco
Inc., Parsippany, N.J., was named Master Distributor for copper
and copper alloy flat-rolled products, including plate, sheet and
coil stock, by Mansfelder Kupfer & Messing, Hettsted, Germany.
MKM’s sales arm is located at Stebco’s headquarters to
be headed by Phil Theobald, formally of Hussey Copper. Theobald
works with Stebco national sales manager Joe Vertucci in selling
and distributing products throughout North America. As Master Distributor,
Stebco is stocking copper, naval brass and cupro-nickel sheet and
plate, copper coil stock and roofing sheet; and is marketing full-case
quantities to metals distributors in North America.
Farwest
Steel, Eugene, Ore., made a $1 million gift to support Korean art
at the University of Oregon’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.
The gift results from a strong commitment by company co-owners Wan
Koo Huh and Dick Jones to give back to their communities to enhance
cultural and educational opportunities. Farwest Steel’s gift
enables the company to support the community and honor the Huh family’s
Korean heritage. The gift will support increased programming, exhibitions,
publications and student internships relating to Korean art. The
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art’s Huh Wing and Jin Joo Gallery
are the only university museum galleries in the United States specifically
designated to exhibit Korean art.
Worthington
Industries Inc.’s board of directors authorized the repurchase
of up to 10 million, or approximately 11 percent, of its outstanding
common shares. The purchases would be made from time to time on
the open market or in private transactions, with consideration given
to the market price of the stock, the nature of other investment
opportunities, cash flows from operations and general economic conditions.
People
O’Neal Steel, Birmingham, Ala., made a couple personnel changes
recently. Mike Payne was named corporate metallurgist. He has more
than 25 years of experience and is responsible for quality assurance
and specifications of all metal products stocked by each of the
company’s district operations. Bob Driscoll was promoted to
regional operations manager for the Southern Region. He has served
as operations manager for the Birmingham district since 1997.
Bob
Bryan has been appointed tubing products manager at Pennsylvania
Steel Co., Bensalem, Pa. He has more than 20 years of experience
in the tubing industry and will oversee sales and purchasing of
all carbon steel tube products
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