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March 18, 2010

MSCI Central States Chapter to Hold Manufacturing First! Town Hall

March 18, 2010

MSCI Central States Chapter to Hold Manufacturing First! Town Hall

ROLLING MEADOWS, Illinois, March 18, 2010 – The Central States Chapter of the Metals Service Center Institute will hold the first of a series of town hall meetings on threats to North American manufacturing next month.

The town hall meetings are designed to alert the metals and manufacturing communities to some of the most pressing public policy issues and ways to respond to them.

“MSCI first raised concern about the declining state of capital goods and consumer durable manufacturing six years ago, and since that time, the situation has not improved significantly,” said M. Robert Weidner, III, president and CEO of the institute. “In many respects, the specter of laws and regulations that will raise costs, lower competitiveness and leave us open to illegal trade practices has grown. It’s time to arm our members, their customers and others with an interest in a strong manufacturing base with the information they need to be effective in the public policy confrontations yet to come.”

“Our chapter is the largest of MSCI’s local organizations, and ours has the good fortune to be based in an area that’s rich with manufacturing of all kinds,” said Roy Berlin, the chapter’s president and president and owner of Berlin Metals LLC of Hammond, Indiana. “I’ve seen firsthand how policy decisions in Washington have hurt manufacturers, reduced their numbers and ceded to overseas competitors entire industries that used to thrive in this region. It’s time that we, as an important element in the area’s economy, respond to misguided ideas and organize to defend our manufacturing base.”

The meeting will be held on April 19 at 3:00 p.m. at Drury Lane in Oak Brook Terrace, Illinois. Confirmed speakers, in addition to Weidner, include:

  • Bill Jones, vice chairman of O'Neal Industries of Birmingham, Alabama, and chairman of the MSCI national organization
  • Bill Hickey, president of Lapham-Hickey Steel Corporation, Chicago
  • Jim Miller, partner, Winston & Strawn LLP, Washington, D.C.
  • Kevin M. Dempsey, senior vice president, public policy, and general counsel of the American Iron & Steel Institute, Washington, D.C.

Founded in 1909, the Metals Service Center Institute has more than 375 members operating from about 1,200 locations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and elsewhere in the world. Together, MSCI members constitute the largest single group of metals purchasers in North America, amounting each year to more than 55 million tons of steel, aluminum, and other metals, with about 300,000 manufacturers and fabricators as customers. MSCI’s membership also includes almost all ferrous and non-ferrous industrial metals producers in North America. Metals service centers inventory and distribute metals and provide first-stage fabrication services.

Contacts:

Jon Kalkwarf, vice president and CFO, MSCI, (847) 485-3009

jkalkwarf@msci.org

Roy Berlin, president, Berlin Metals, (800) 754-8867

rberlin@berlinmetals.com

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