A metal service center that distributes quality carbon, aluminum, and stainless steel metals across North Carolina and southern Virginia, Tri-State Steel is known for our ability to meet our clients' unique specifications rapidly and at a fair price. Any time you get in touch, whether it's with a question or to place an order, we give you our total focus. We don't recommend products that don't fit the bill just because we have them on hand, and we don't make delivery promises we can't keep.

Our History

Nothing represents our passion for this work and commitment to doing it right than the story of our founder, Gerald "Jerry" Scott. In early 2014, Jerry celebrated 45 years in the independent metal service center industry.

After graduating from Miami of Ohio with a business degree, Jerry joined the U.S. Coast Guard, where he saw active duty during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Recruited into sales by US Steel in Pittsburgh, Jerry graduated from the US Steel Sales Training School and went on to find a passion in the steel industry. The first week of February in 1969, he threw himself into the private metal service center business, opening his first company just outside of Youngstown, Ohio.

After starting and selling two additional steel companies, Jerry started Tri-State Steel in Niles, Ohio, and the company served customers throughout the Tri-State region of the Ohio River valley for almost 10 years.

Then, in 1988, Jerry and his wife Anne made the big decision to move the Tri-State Steel operation to the South, relocating to Reidsville, NC. Based on the central location that Reidsville has in NC, its proximity to the Triad, and the ability to service southern Virginia, Reidsville felt like the ideal location for Jerry's newest entrepreneurial adventure. Of course, being only 3½ hours from Ocean Isle Beach, which the Scott family loves, was a major plus as well.

After more than 20 years at the helm of Tri-State Steel, Jerry turned operation of the company over to his son, Steve. Jerry has shown great willingness to allow others to take the company to the next level while still being an active, valuable participant in the day-to-day business operations, enabling Tri-State Steel to flourish.