CLEVELAND, May 6, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Olympic Steel, Inc. (Nasdaq:ZEUS), a national metals service center, today announced plans for approximately 300,000 square feet of additional warehouse, processing, and office space with the recent purchase of a facility and leases of new properties.
In April 2011, the Company completed the purchase of its previously announced facility located on United States Steel Corporation's Gary Works site in Gary, Indiana. This new location, which totals approximately 177,000 square feet, will house our new temper mill and cut-to-length line, and is expected to become operational by year-end 2011. In April 2011, Olympic Steel completed leasing agreements for approximately 43,000 square feet of warehouse and staging space in Kansas City, Missouri, a new foothold in the important farm belt, and 8,000 square feet of additional warehouse space in Quincy, Washington. The Company also intends to execute a lease agreement in the second quarter of 2011 for approximately 57,000 square feet of warehouse space in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Kansas City facility will serve as a satellite for our existing operations in Bettendorf, Iowa, and is part of our temper mill product expansion strategy. The Quincy and St. Paul locations will further support our operations and customers currently served by our Minneapolis operations.
Additionally, Olympic Steel entered into a lease agreement in April 2011 to operate approximately 15,000 square feet of warehouse space in Monterrey, Mexico. Our physical presence in Mexico will augment our long-existing sales efforts there. Finally, to extend the Company's international reach, the Company has leased sales office space in Miami, Florida to support and grow existing markets in South Florida, the Caribbean, and South and Central America.
"We are pleased to execute on our geographic growth strategy, and provide more timely delivery options and a greater range of services to our customers," stated Michael D. Siegal, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "It is our intention to continue to seek opportunities to increase our national supply chain. Being closer to our customers, with more timely deliveries and smaller quantities, is even more critical when distribution fuel cost constraints exist. This creates new opportunities for our employees and increased value for our shareholders."
Founded in 1954, Olympic Steel is a leading U.S. metals service center focused on the direct sale and distribution of large volumes of processed carbon, coated and stainless flat-rolled sheet, coil and plate steel products. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, the Company currently operates from 16 facilities. For further information, visit the Company's web site at .
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Forward-looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words or phrases such as "may," "will," "should," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "estimate," "potential," or "continue," as well as the negative of these terms or other similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.
It is the Company's policy not to endorse any analyst's sales or earnings estimates. Forward-looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words or phrases such as "may," "will," "anticipate," "should," "intend," "expect," "believe," "estimate," "project," "plan," "potential," or "continue," as well as the negative of these terms or other similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those implied by such statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the ability to successfully place the new Gary, Indiana facility in operation during the expected timeframe and achieve expected results; the success of our new startups in Gary, Indiana; Mount Sterling, Kentucky; Monterrey, Mexico; Kansas City, Missouri; Quincy, Washington; St. Paul, Minnesota; and Miami, Florida; the ability to successfully integrate the newly leased locations or newly acquired businesses into our operations and achieve expected results; general and global business, economic, financial and political conditions, including the ongoing effects of the global economic recovery; access to capital and global credit markets; competitive factors such as the availability and pricing of metal, industry shipping and inventory levels, and rapid fluctuations in customer demand and metal pricing; the cyclicality and volatility within the metal industry; the ability of customers (especially those that may be highly leveraged and those with inadequate liquidity) to maintain their credit availability; the ability of our customers to honor their agreements related to derivative instruments; customer, supplier, and competitor consolidation, bankruptcy or insolvency; reduced production schedules, layoffs or work stoppages by our own, our suppliers' or our customers' personnel; the availability and costs of transportation and logistical services; equipment installation delays or malfunctions, including the new Gary, Indiana temper mill and cut-to-length line; the amounts, successes and our ability to continue our capital investments and strategic growth initiatives and our business information system implementations; the successes of our strategic efforts and initiatives to increase sales volumes, maintain or improve working capital turnover and free cash flows, reduce costs and improve inventory turnover and improve our customer service; the timing and outcome of inventory lower of cost or market adjustments; the adequacy of our existing information technology and business system software; the successful implementation of our new information systems; the timing and outcome of our joint venture's efforts and ability to liquidate its remaining real estate; our ability to pay regular quarterly cash dividends and the amounts and timing of any future dividends; and our ability to generate free cash flow through operations, reduce inventory and repay debt within anticipated timeframes; the recently enacted federal healthcare legislation's impact on the healthcare benefits required to be provided by us and the impact of such legislation on our compensation and administrative costs. Further information on these and other risks and uncertainties is provided under Item 1A "Risk Factors" of our Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, which disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, and elsewhere in reports that the Company files or furnishes with the SEC. This release speaks only as of its date and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by law. You are advised, however, to consult any further disclosures the Company makes on related subjects in its reports filed with or furnished to the SEC.
CONTACT: Richard T. Marabito Chief Financial Officer Telephone: (216) 292-3800 Fax: (216) 292-3974
