The 100,000 square feet service center will initially offer slitting and will eventually expand its processes to include cut-to-length, blanking and multi-blanking. Along with construction, Kloeckner will focus on developing a first-rate workforce to operate the facility, which will require approximately 40 people.
“The focus of this facility will be three-fold: growth of our traditional value-added flat-rolled business, entry into the value-added automotive processing business and toll-processing for the mill,” said Russ Delaney, President of the Flat Rolled Group for Kloeckner Metals.
The newly constructed processing center can be expanded to over 400,000 square feet, if required. It will be the second Kloeckner Metals location in Alabama. The company currently operates a 78,000 square feet general line service center in Bessemer, Ala., part of the company’s Heavy Carbon Group.
“This expansion in flat rolled processing capabilities represents a continuation of Kloeckner Metals’ commitment to our customers in the region, as well as our overall strategy to meet the growing demand for processed flat rolled products in the Southeast,” said Bill Partalis, CEO of Kloeckner Metals. “It is our intention to be fully operational by the third quarter of 2013.”
Kloeckner Metals is the North American subsidiary of Klöckner & Co SE. Klöckner & Co acquired Macsteel Service Centers USA in 2011 and has merged it with Namasco Corporation to create one of the largest metal distribution companies in North America. The core business of Kloeckner Metals is the warehousing, processing and distribution of steel and nonferrous metals. Thousands of customers are supplied from 57 distribution locations by about 2,600 employees.