From Acquisition to Impact: The Central Region's Story
From Minneapolis and Bettendorf to Monterrey, the Central Region’s story is one of growth, innovation and community impact. Explore the chapters that helped shape the region.
The Olympic Steel we know today was built in chapters. The first began in Cleveland in 1954, where a small, rented warehouse gave our founders, Sol Siegal and Sam Sigel, a place to start. In the decades that followed, the Company took on more work, welcomed more people and found new ways to grow, which included acquisitions, expansions and new facilities built from the ground up.
One of those chapters began in January 1990, when Olympic Steel acquired Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Juster Steel. The acquisition brought an established coil, sheet and plate operation into the company, beginning the history of what we now call our Minneapolis Coil division. Plate work continued to grow under Olympic Steel, and in 1995, it moved into a newly built, dedicated facility about a minute down the road: our Minneapolis Plate division.
Today, that short drive takes you between two different kinds of work. The Minneapolis Coil team works with carbon steel, stainless and aluminum, slitting and leveling coil and cutting it into sheets. Their cut-to-length work got a boost in 2025 when a new Andritz line was added, nearly doubling the location’s capacity and giving them more room to take on quick-turn orders and pursue business in additional markets. The work that leaves there goes on to serve some pretty important purposes, including aluminum sheets used to build fire trucks and sheet and slit coils used to make lawn mowers that maintain golf courses around the world – just to name a few. At Minneapolis Plate, the team cuts plate by plasma or oxyfuel, then machines or finishes parts depending on the job, including blasting and beveling large parts like those used in the machinery that builds and maintains our roads.
Bettendorf, Iowa's place in the story began in 1997. Our first temper mill (Cleveland) had drawn strong interest from agricultural equipment makers and plate fabricators in the central United States, giving us another reason to grow. That August, we broke ground on our Bettendorf facility, which would house our second temper mill and equipment for processing sheet and burning plate. Nearly 30 years later, that mill—one of three across Olympic Steel—is still running every day, turning out flatter sheet while the team also cuts, forms and machines plate. Bettendorf’s work supports a wide range of industries, from agriculture, construction and forestry to trailer manufacturing—and more recently, the data center market.
Our Central Region story has also included a chapter in Monterrey, Mexico, where we opened a warehouse in 2011 as our work with customers there grew. In August 2026, Olympic Steel moved the business to join Ryerson’s processing facility in the Monterrey area. The move, featured in a recent Synergy Spotlight, brought the teams’ experience, capabilities and market reach together to better support customers in Mexico.
Back in the Midwest, the divisions continue to invest in their operations, with an eye on both today's needs and what might come next. Bettendorf is now home to Olympic Steel's first Kinetic machine (a CNC system that combines plasma cutting, laser cutting and oxy-fuel burning with vertical machining), and Minneapolis Plate is preparing for the new shot blaster they’ll be moving into the facility this quarter.
The Central Region teams are passionate about living out our Core Values and they’re dedicated to making an impact both inside their facilities and out in their communities. For example, in Minneapolis, newly launched OLY Workshops bring employees together to work through real quality challenges from the shop floor and take new ideas from the sessions. In Bettendorf, employees recently partnered with the American Heart Association and local high school students on a steel sculpture to raise awareness about heart disease. Other efforts include volunteering with organizations that help feed the hungry, raising money for Make-A-Wish, ringing bells for The Salvation Army and collecting toys, blankets and jackets for children. The teams are big on Safety and making time for one another—whether they’re celebrating a milestone, recognizing a teammate or gathering for a company picnic.
Keep learning and growing with us! Visit Olympic Steel Academy to learn more about the work we do across the country, including our products, processes, services, Family of Brands and more.
