Published by:Alesha Alkaff<>
2 May 2025 @ 20:23 UTC

Olympic Steel is confident in its position to take advantage of a boost in domestic manufacturing, despite potential turbulence caused by US President Donald Trump’s tariff policies, the firm’s top executive said during an earnings call on Friday May 2.

While tariffs have dominated the macroeconomic conversation, Olympic Steel is well-positioned to support increased manufacturing in the US, chief executive officer Rick Marabito said on the call.
According to the Cleveland-based service center, Trump’s tariff policies have little impact on Olympic Steel’s operations, with a majority of the company’s supply coming domestically.
Trump’s cornerstone Section 232 tariff policy, which took effect in mid-March, imposes a 25% levy on all imports of steel and aluminum, as well as derivative products made from the metals. Prior exemptions and quotas have expired.
After many tariff announcements and postponements, many market participants scrambled to get ahead of potential price increases and tried to gain protection from strained global supply chains.
However, for Olympic Steel, the impact of tariffs is minimal, since more than 90% of the company’s supply and sales are domestic.
The CEO’s comments come on the heels of Trump’s presidency concluding its first 100 days on Wednesday April 30.
To mark the occasion, Vice President JD Vance visited Nucor’s steel plant in Berkeley County, South Carolina, on Thursday May 1, where he told steel workers that the current administration has kick-started an industrial renaissance in the US.
The service center has three main business segments: carbon flat products, tube and pipe products and specialty metals.
Olympic Steel’s upcoming projects remain on track, Andrew Greiff, president and chief operating officer, told investors on the call, with most of the facilities expected to become operational toward the end of 2025 or in early 2026.
The projects included a new cut-to-length (CTL) line at the company’s coil facility in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to boost its galvanized business; a new high-speed specialty metals slitter to expand capacity at the facility in Gary, Indiana; a new white metals CTL line in Schaumburg, Illinois; and the automation of the company’s fabrication operations.
Additionally, Olympic Steel’s new 105,000-square-foot facility in Houston, opened on March 31, will support the company’s Action Stainless business, by increasing the latter’s footprint by 73,000 square feet, Greiff said.
M&A strategy to remain key part of Olympic’s strategy The service center will continue to be active in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) as part of its growth strategy, Marabito said on the call, despite noticing a slowdown in M&A activity in the first quarter of the year.
In April, we started to see a return of potential sellers and candidates who are really interested in dialoguing, Marabito said.
Olympic Steel has acquired eight domestic companies in the last seven years and is mostly not considering foreign acquisitions, the company said.