Esmark gets back into steel industry

CHICAGO - About 15 months after selling Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. and a string of steel service centers to Russia's OAO Severstal, Esmark Inc. is getting back into the steel business.

Esmark announced Monday it has made a $10 million acquisition of Amtex Steel Inc., a steel service center that specializes in processing and distributing flat rolled and bar products for light manufacturing and durable goods.

The company will be renamed Chicago Steel and Iron and will become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Esmark Steel Group. Esmark said it will retain Amtex's more than 70 employees and plans to expand the work force in commercial sales and plant staff as part of a plan to rapidly increase shipment volumes within the next year. Amtex was a family-run company for more than 25 years.

Thomas Modrowski, chief executive of the Esmark Steel Group, said the company plans to have revenues of $250 million by the end of 2010 and will be pursuing more service center acquisitions on a cash basis without carrying debt.

Esmark Steel Group is based in Chicago while Esmark Inc. is headquartered in Sewickley, Pa.

Esmark was built from a single service center acquired in 2003 to a company that included 10 service centers in the Midwest and Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel. The firm sold its steel business to Severstal for $1.23 billion in August 2008. The W-P assets have been mostly shuttered since then.

Esmark Inc. remains a private holding company for the investment and philanthropic activities of the company founders, brothers James P. and Craig T. Bouchard, who had been senior executives of Wheeling-Pitt while Esmark owned the firm.

Esmark now has holdings in oil and gas exploration, aviation, real estate, technology and sports management among its business interests.

(Giannamore can be contacted at pgiannamore@heraldstaronline.com.)