Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has reached a tentative agreement with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 1943 on a new four-year agreement for its Middletown Works steelmaking operation. The contract will be effective on May 15 and will cover approximately 2,100 hourly employees.

Chicago-based UPG Enterprises, a strategic operator of metals and logistics companies, will expand Contractors Steel west into Arizona; growing the geographic footprint of both brands. In anticipation, UPG has consolidated the Contractors Steel Livonia, Mich., plant into its Van Buren, Mich., facility.

Reliance Steel & Aluminumís record revenues of $11.5 billion in 2018 keeps it atop the annual survey of North Americaís largest service center companies.

Fifty years in, LexCentral Steel is primed to upgrade its processing. Meanwhile, sister company Union Partners has become a major acquirer in the steel distribution industry.

Maksteel, a Union Partners company, has acquired LexWest Steel based in Los Angeles, California. LexWest Steel is a full-line distributor of flat-rolled steel products and will be rebranded as Maksteel USA under the expanding Union Partners portfolio.

Mark Bula has been named executive vice president of corporate development for Union Partners, Oak Brook, Ill. He will oversee growth strategy for Union Partners and its family of companies.

Union Partners LLC has appointed industry veteran Steve Letnich as the chief operating officer of Contractors Steel. Letnich succeeds Marc Bokas, who has retired after 40 years in the industry.

As it does every year, Metal Center News compiles sales figures for North America’s largest service center companies for their most recently completed fiscal year.

Chicago-based Union Partners has acquired the assets of Xcel Steel's pickling operations in Dearborn, Mich. The division has joined Union Partners-owned Maksteel and will now operate under the name Maksteel Processing. As this transition occurs, there will be no interruption in service to customers, UP executives claim.

Ralph Hartsoe will retire from Contractors Steel on Friday, Aug. 3. He has been with the Livonia, Mich.-based service center company for the past 34 years.

To date, there have been at least 17 business acquisitions by service center companies, most of them involving the purchase of a smaller distributor. This far outstrips the pace of recent years, when that would have been closer to a full-year figure.

Pent-up demand is often a driver in consumer markets, whether talking about automobiles or homes. It also serves as a tailwind in the industrial marketplace, as businesses look to invest in new transportation equipment and machinery when they emerge from the down cycle.

The latest hires, promotions and retirements in the metals supply chain.

Union Partners is continuing to build its service center holdings, making one of its largest acquisitions with the purchase of Contractors Steel. The Livonia, Mich.-based service center company maintains more than 100,000 tons of carbon and structural plate, beams, pipe, tube, angles and channels.

Chicago-based metals and logistics company Union Partners announced that it has acquired Maksteel, Mississauga, Ontario.

Union Partners has acquired Lamination Specialties Corporation, one of the largest manufacturers of electrical steel laminations in North America.

Union Partners will build a new steel processing facility on the campus of Big River Steel in Osceola, Ark.

Union Partners, Oak Brook, Ill., has acquired Heidtman Steel's Automotive Steel Technical Center located in Gibraltar, Mich.