Steel Mills

Olympic Sells Detroit Location to Canada's Venture Steel

September 17, 2021

Olympic Steel Inc. has sold its Detroit operations to Canadian flat-rolled metal processor and distributor Venture Steel Inc. for $58.4 million in cash.

The Cleveland-based service center said the final sale price would be higher once working capital adjustments were taken into account.

olympic steel logo The deal will allow Olympic to reduce debt, give it more flexibility to chase acquisitions and to invest in automation, company CEO Richard Marabito said in a statement on Friday, Sept. 17.

The Detroit operation focuses primarily on processing and distributing flat-rolled products for domestic automotive manufacturers and their suppliers.

“We believe redeploying the capital from this business to higher value-added opportunities … including our growing automotive business in the southeastern United States, accelerates our drive to deliver consistently higher returns,” Marabito said.

Toronto, Ontario-based Venture said the acquisition of the Detroit facility, officially known as Olympic Steel Detroit, would boost its number of locations to six and expand its footprint in North America.

“The team at our new Detroit facility has built a great reputation for customer service and will strengthen our reach, particularly as it relates to the automotive sector,” Venture Steel President Tony Kafato said in a statement.

The Detroit plant serves customers across the Midwest and sports three configured blanking presses, two slitters, and a Red Bud multi-blanking line with Herr Voss levelers. It is also capable of processing the advanced high-strength steels increasingly required by automotive OEMs and their suppliers, Venture said.

Venture has operations in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. The Detroit plant processes not only carbon flat-rolled steel but also stainless and aluminum products.

By Michael Cowden, Michael@SteelMarketUpdate.com

Michael Cowden

Michael Cowden is editor-in-chief for Steel Market Update. Cowden has covered the steel industry since 2007. He specializes in flat-rolled steel but has also reported on steel long products, steel pipe and tube, and aluminum. Before joining SMU, Cowden held reporting jobs at Fastmarkets AMM in Chicago, the Associated Press in Pittsburgh, and the Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh. He has also worked as a copy editor and in marketing at the University of Chicago Press. Cowden has a BA in English from the University of Chicago and an MSJ journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Contact him at michael@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7872.