Above: Gary Mayor Jerome Prince and Governor Eric Holcomb joined Alliance Steel President Andy Gross and Vice President Drew Gross to cut the ribbon for the new service center.

Distributor commits to being a new cornerstone for a historic steel community

September 2020 - Many of the domestic steel industry’s roots are sunk into the soil of Gary, Indiana. The city was founded in 1906 by U.S. Steel Corp. as the home for its new Gary Works. It’s had ups and downs over the years, like many other Rust Belt towns, but it’s rebuilding for growth. Indiana as a whole is home to the world’s second-largest automotive industry and leads the nation in creating manufacturing jobs, among other accolades like second-ranked infrastructure in the nation and Chief Executive Magazine’s 2019 Top Five states for business.

Alliance Steel, a supplier and processor of flat-rolled steel, earlier this year completed a move of its headquarters to Gary and plans to become a integral part of the city’s future. The company purchased a facility in Gary that was originally owned by steelmaker Republic Steel and more recently by Gary Metal Products, a manufacturer of building vents and ducts.

Room to grow

Originally a small toll processor, Alliance Steel was purchased in the late 1990s by its current ownership and spent 20 years in Bedford Park, Illinois.

“We are extremely excited to begin the next chapter of Alliance Steel at our new state-of-the-art offices and processing facility,” says Andy Gross, president. “We have put ourselves in a highly strategic position for continued growth with proximity to the northwest Indiana mills, as well as several major ports.”

Leaving a longtime home is never without challenges, but the bottom line was the company was out of space in Bedford Park. Gross says that the company’s rapid expansion over the past 10 years meant that Alliance was spread out over three buildings—“which was completely inefficient. Consolidating into one facility was a must.”

He says that location was a “big factor” in deciding to migrate to Gary. “We wanted to be closer to our suppliers and processing customers. We knew we could save very significant dollars on inbound freight being in between two of the major mills and even closer to the minis.”

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, at Alliance Steel’s service center in Gary, thanked city, county and economic development agencies for bringing the project to fruition.

Invest for the future

A thorough search paid off with a space that could meet the company’s needs, but, having been built in 1912, the building needed work.

“The state of Indiana provided tremendous incentives by way of grants and tax credits that helped Alliance afford the facility build-out and moving expenses,” Gross says. “When you are refurbishing a building, you can encounter all types of unexpected surprises from electrical to underground storage tanks. We had to completely reconstruct all the crane ways and add 11 new overhead cranes with a fully automated retrieval system. We also had to install over $2 million of new foundations and approximately another $2 million in installation and electrical costs.”

The new headquarters spans 290,000 square feet of warehousing and processing space that includes two slitters, fiber laser cutting capabilities, shearing, metallurgical testing, cold reduction and toll processing. It also features full rail service, recessed docks for van and flatbed loading, and two large temperature-controlled coil storage bays.

“We have made several investments in the latest coil processing equipment, which will complement an already-robust arsenal of capabilities,” Gross says. Alliance was able to retain 95 percent of its administrative team and approximately 85 percent of its plant employees. “Our team is very excited to settle in and begin laying down our roots here in Northwest Indiana.” MM