In 2000, Alan Kanoff and Michael Amato left their jobs at Metals USA, which had acquired their previous employer, Wolf Brothers Steel. The pair signed a one-year non-compete clause, stretching from Jan. 1, 2001, through the end of the year.

On Jan. 2, 2002, Camden Yards opened for business. The new service center operators were willing to take New Year’s off, but then it was time to sell steel.

During their one-year hiatus, Kanoff and Amato laid the groundwork for a small, flexible service center with an ambitious five-year plan, a blueprint the industry veterans have followed to the letter.

Starting from scratch, Camden Yards Steel has grown from roughly 20,000 tons shipped in its first year to projected shipments of more than 100,000 tons in 2007. It has been recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in Southern New Jersey. “The business has proceeded as anticipated,” says Kanoff, the company’s president. “We are not shocked by our growth.”

Camden Yards Steel stocks hot-rolled sheet and plate, pickled and oiled, floor plate and high-strength low-alloy steel, as well as cold-rolled, galvanized and pre-painted material. Its services include slitting, leveling, blanking and custom shearing. The company expects to add to its product offering in the coming year.

“We’ve had targets we’ve met and exceeded since Day 1,” says Amato, the chief executive officer. “You have to keep growing; you can’t stand still.”

It’s that attitude that led Camden Yards Steel to embark on its biggest expansion effort since its founding. In May, the company commissioned a new heavy-gauge cut-to-length line from Herr-Voss Stamco. Later this year, it will open a second facility in Columbia, S.C.

The new half-inch by 96-inch cut-to-length line, ordered in January 2006, went online last month, replacing a narrower 84-inch line. The new equipment can handle carbon steel coils up to 80,000 pounds and up to 65,000 psi yield strength. It features a cone-type uncoiler, a precision leveler, direct-drive downcut shear with automatic knife gap adjustment and a stacking system that permits lengths up to 600 inches.

“It will increase our business 25 percent,” Amato says of the new line.

Camden Yards also maintains a 60-inch-wide slitter and a 10-gauge, 72-inch-wide blanking line at its New Jersey facility.

The company’s original cut-to-length line won’t be headed for the scrap heap. The 84-inch equipment will be relocated to the company’s new facility in Columbia. Amato hopes to add a slitter at that facility in 2008.

The idea behind the second facility is to both extend Camden Yards’ reach on the Eastern Seaboard, and to better cover some of its existing markets. The company was already selling material into Virginia and North Carolina. The new facility will primarily service South Carolina, Georgia and northern Florida.

“Twenty-five years ago you could ship steel from Philadelphia to Florida. That market has changed,” Kanoff says, explaining the need for a facility in the Southeast.

The purchase of the new cut-to-length line and the opening of a second location were not independent decisions, Kanoff adds. “We knew when we purchased the new piece of equipment that we were going to open a new location four to five months later.”

The pair isn’t ruling out further expansion. “We expect to see a third location. Where will depend on how business conditions change,” Kanoff says.

When Kanoff and Amato were in the planning stages for their new company, the first order of business was to find a suitable headquarters location. They initially intended to look for a site up the river on the Pennsylvania side. However, their search was interrupted by a call from the South Jersey Port Corp., a New Jersey agency that operates the Camden Port.

The port corporation was seeking a tenant for its facility on the Delaware River. The port was offering the former South New York Shipyard Building, a structure that once was home to a major shipbuilder but had been dormant since the late 1960s.

“They wanted us as an anchor for imported material,” Kanoff says. “They recognized the value of what we would bring to the table.”

The fledgling company got an attractive offer from the port, which possessed everything Kanoff and Amato were looking for in a steel distribution operation.

“It was important for our business to be located near major highways, water access and the ability to receive rail. The site was logistically perfect. It’s just outside Philadelphia, with access to Interstate 76 West, 95 South and the Jersey Turnpike. And it’s perfect here in terms of bringing in material.”

With its easy access to the Delaware River, the company is a major purchaser of imported steel. Its product mix ranges from 40 to 60 percent foreign material, depending on the market.

The building’s roof stands an impressive 100 feet in the air, with thousands of panes of glass making sunshine the predominant source of light. The building itself is an immense 185,000 feet, though that’s not quite large enough to give Kanoff and Amato separate offices. The two share an office space in one corner of the facility, symbolic of their give-and-take partnership and complementary strengths.