A subsidiary of Dallas-based SBI Trading, SB Specialty Metals closed the deal on 28 January and opened for business on 1 February.
It has a chain of 10 warehouses stretching from Texas and Arkansas through the mid-west to Pennsylvania and has taken on around 80 former Crucible staff in sales and operations positions.
President Peter M Gordon, himself a former Crucible Materials staffer, said: “We are a speciality metals distributor with and we have many years’ experience selling powder to the tooling markets. Our focus is on iron-based powder for high-speed and tool steel applications. We hope that the deal with Carpenter will prove to be of longstanding, although initially it is for one year.
“We are excited about the opportunity ahead of us. Our customers can expect to receive the same excellent service to which they are accustomed. We have already begun to replenish our inventories and will be able to service our customers’ needs better than we ever have before.
“There have been tremendous changes in the market and the likes of Böhler and Erasteel are putting in great effort and energy that we will have to match.”
- The Crucible Materials mill now operates as Crucible Industries LLC and has contracted to sell its products through Latrobe Specialty Steel Corp.