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Tackling the ''tough stuff'': this Dayton-area service center continues to invest in new, specialized processing technology despite the market downturn.

Article Excerpt
Miami Valley Steel Service Inc., Piqua, Ohio, differentiates itself through the range of processing it offers and the types of equipment it operates.

"Everybody wants to do the truckload quantities. We get our share, but we also do a tremendous amount of the tough stuff that the big guys either can't or don't want to do," says company president and owner Brian Williamson.

Miami Valley specializes in narrow-gauge slitting, blanking and edge conditioning of carbon flat-roll steel. It also houses a complete testing lab with two full-time technicians who perform various types of physical tests on the steel and its coatings, from full chemistries to coating weights.

Williamson learned the steel business as he worked his way from the shop floor through inside and outside sales at Ryerson Steel in Dayton, where he spent more than eight years, and later al nearby Ohio Kentucky Steel, where he spent about three years.

With a few partners, whom he bought out two years later, Williamson set up a steel brokerage in 1983. The fledgling operation soon expanded, buying a used narrow-gauge slitter and taking on some inventory.

By 1989, Miami Valley had built a 40,000-square foot plant in its current location and acquired four slitting lines, manned by a workforce of 30. The facility has since been expanded twice, to 310,000 square feet, and the workforce now numbers 152. The company sells about 180,000 tons of carbon flat-roll products annually and expects 2003 sales to top $90 million.

EQUIPMENT INVESTMENTS

To handle customers' demanding processing requirements, Miami...

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