Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | M | Metal Center News

Poised for the rebound: despite the tough economy, this Pennsylvania service center expanded its production capabilities, and its product line, positioning itself for long-term growth.

Article Excerpt
Last summer, High Steel Service Center Inc. spent about $8 million to expand its office/warehouse complex by 55,000 square feet. The company also acquired some valuable prepainted inventory, moving the company into an entirely new market.

Expanding the warehouse to over 200,000 square feet made room for a new bay to house two new steel-processing lines: a precision slitter and a precision multi-blanking line, plus storage and handling equipment.

As of mid-December, both processing lines were already running two shifts and the company is quickly replacing the original prepainted stock.

The service center, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, is one of 11 operating companies under High Industries Inc., which started in 1931 as a welding shop in Lancaster, Pa., and today has combined annual sales of about $500 million.

"We expanded for a couple reasons," says Dan Kelly, High Steel's president. "First, we were at maximum capacity in the existing space. Our company had been a full-line carbon steel service center focused primarily on hot-rolled, cut-to-length sheets and sheared blanks. We didn't have the capability to process lighter gauge materials.

"As we talked to customers and studied the market, we saw a need for more precision light gauge blanks. We had not participated in the OEM slit coil business, and we thought that also represented an opportunity for us;' Kelly says. So the company sought to round out its processing capabilities and create additional capacity for future growth.

High Steel sells to manufacturers of office furniture, office machines, vending machines, lighting fixtures, electronic components and garage doors, plus job shops, stampers and construction subcontractors. The variety of consumers means the company is not overly dependent on the financial health of a specific...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!