Loeffel and Bouchard families and our respective steel services businesses moving forward. Together with Esmark, Inc. and Chairman and CEO Jim Bouchard, Loeffel Steel Group has formed a new joint venture with Esmark and expect  to close on that agreement and begin operations on October 19, 2015. The joint venture will operate under the Loeffel Steel Group brand.Needless to say we’re thrilled by the prospect of partnering with Esmark to strengthen and complement our respective operations, sales teams and customer service capabilities to help us better serve our diverse customer bases that include OEMs and companies engaged in pre-painted products, building and construction, consumer products, roof deck and siding, storage/shelving and residential home products.

As you may know Esmark has had a very successful track record in building and growing profitable joint ventures across the steel and energy industries including its 50-50 joint venture with South Korea’s TCC Steel and Esmark’s Ohio Coatings Company; Esmark’s joint venture with Australia’s Canning Petroleum to develop oil & gas potential in the country’s Canning Basin; and the company’s oil & gas exploration and production joint venture with U.S.-based Eagle Creek Oil & Gas Company.During the due diligence process I held talks with a number of potential joint venture partners and concluded that Esmark’s experience, world-class management team and leadership position in the steel services sector provided the perfect partner to create this new venture entity.As a valued customer and supplier partner of Loeffel Steel Group we want you to know that we anticipate another successful joint venture given our long history with Esmark and our strong relationships with Jim Bouchard. Together our families have more than 100 years of combined experience in the steel business and have weathered every steel market downturn over that period. And, we share the same business philosophies and commitments to our employees and the communities in which we operate. That way of doing business will continue under this exciting joint venture.

As a family-owned and operated company since 1983, Loeffel Steel Group takes great pride in what we’ve accomplished over the past 32 years in serving the steel processing, distribution and sales requirements of our customers. Together with Esmark’s market power and reputation, we’re excited about the future and look forward to continuing to service our combined network of customers and collaboration with our suppliers.