Esmark Inc has re entered the service center market with the purchase of Amtex Steel Inc. The acquisition is the first of many as Esmark tries to rebuild its service center empire.

Mr Craig Bouchard founder of Esmark Inc said that "It is a nice facility with clean assets and a nice customer base. It is not a big acquisition. It is just a nice way for us to re enter the market."

The USD 10 million acquisition includes Amtex's physical plant, assets and real estate, plus its rail line facilities. It will be renamed Chicago Steel & Iron, a division of Esmark. Esmark plans to retain its 70 plus employees and expand its workforce with additions in the commercial sales and plant staff.

Mr Tom Modrowski CEO of Esmark Steel Group said that "Our acquisition of Amtex Steel is consistent with the successful business strategy we employed in building Esmark’s original service center network in the Midwest: acquire well run, family owned businesses with loyal customer bases and outstanding processing facilities and utilize those assets as a foundation for further expansion and growth. We will be employing that same strategy as we explore additional service center acquisitions in the Midwest in the coming months."

Mr Craig Bouchard said that "We bid USD 110 million. We hope Severstal considers that over time. We like and respect the Severstal people and we hope we can arrange a deal working with them."

He added that "We've entered a new era. Debt financing, which used to be popular across the board and made a lot of people wealthy, is not coming back for a long time. Our first nine acquisitions were done with cash. Wheeling Pitt was done with leverage. That leverage almost killed us. We were within a few months of it crushing us as the credit crisis descended on America."

(Sourced from www.metalcenternews.com)