SMU Community Chat with Ira Kreft of Bank of America

We’ll discuss M&A in the steel and metals industries. Is there still room for consolidation in flat-rolled steel?

We’ll also talk about the trend of historically carbon steel service centers diversifying into stainless and specialty metals. They are adding great value-added capabilities, including downstream fabrication. How durable is that trend, and what does it mean for M&A at the service center level?

Finally, mills are focused on decarbonization.  Beyond record piles of cash, what financing is available to fund their path to net-zero?

We’ll take your questions too. So think of some good ones, and throw them in Q&A box on Dec. 13.

Why you should listen

Ira Kreft is a senior vice president at Bank of America Business Capital and national metal industries executive. His office is in Chicago and he works and collaborates with Bank of America’s bankers and investment bankers with respect to companies from Main Street to Wall Street across the metals spectrum from metal recyclers to mills to service centers to fabricated metal and metal intensive manufacturers.

He serves as a subject-matter expert in metals for BoA’s Global Commercial Banking division. He comes by the metal industries naturally because his father spent his career with U.S. Steel and he was indoctrinated into the industry at an early age.