September 25, 2012

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Paul Ryan Attends Town Hall Meeting Hosted by MSCI Cincinnati and Byer Steel

Cincinnati, Ohio—Today the Cincinnati chapter of the Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) and Byer Steel hosted Republican Vice Presidential candidate Congressman Paul Ryan (WI-01) for a town hall meeting as part of its Manufacturing Summit series “Closing the Divide Between Jobs, Policy and Growth”. U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot (OH-1), Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), and Brad Wenstrup, Republican candidate for U.S. House of Representatives, Ohio First District joined over 1,000 manufacturers, metals service center owners and Cincinnati workers.

“We are delighted that Congressman Ryan chose Byer Steel, a fourth generation family-run metals business, to discuss the issues critical to the success and growth of the manufacturing and metals industry and to showcase his and Gov. Romney's vision for America,” said MSCI President and CEO, M. Robert Weidner, III. “We launched our Manufacturing Summits to provide a platform for our members to hear directly from the candidates as to how they intend to create manufacturing jobs and grow the economy. Today we accomplished that goal.”

MSCI member company Byer Steel was founded in 1911 as American Compressed Steel in Cincinnati, Ohio, by President and CEO Burke Byer’s great grandfather, Abe Byer. Byer Steel employs about 140 people and its core business is made up of rebar manufacturing, rebar fabrication, a steel service center and a metal recycler. It distributes steel as far as Chicago, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Louisville, and parts of Tennessee and Michigan.

Byer opened the event by calling attendees to political action. “The issues that face the manufacturing industry are very critical, and you can do something about it today,” said Burke Byer. “You have choices. Your friends, your neighbors, your networks—they have choices. You need to get people out there to vote for the right issues. The manufacturing industry is struggling and it needs your help.”

In his address Rep. Ryan covered the national debt, the importance of jobs to U.S. economic recovery and leadership in Washington. “We are here in a fourth generation family business. We are here in a building that creates jobs, that struggles in a global economy. We are here in a place that is the embodiment of the American ideal,” said Ryan. “The American system of freedom and free enterprise has done more to help the poor, more to produce opportunity and prosperity and job security than any other economic system ever designed.”

MSCI will host 11 advocacy-focused events this fall; other host cities for its Manufacturing Summits include: Cleveland, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Buffalo and Los Angeles. MSCI has hosted town hall meetings since 2004, but the program was expanded this year to more forcefully address the continued economic uncertainty many manufacturers and American industries face and to provide the leadership necessary time to find workable solutions.

Weidner explained that the benefit these summits provide members is two-fold. “It’s important to give our members, their employees and communities the opportunity to learn more about the concerns of our industry—and to share that information with candidates, too. So our purpose is to build awareness about the issues that matter to members, while at the same time giving us a seat at the table once candidates become elected officials.”

ABOUT MSCI

Founded in 1909, the Metals Service Center Institute, based in Rolling Meadows, Ill., has over 400 members operating from more than 1,500 locations in the United States, Canada, Mexico and throughout 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. Service centers inventory, process and distribute metals to manufacturing intermediaries and original equipment manufacturers.

For more information, visit www.MSCI.org. “Like” us on Facebook at Metals Service Center Institute, follow us on Twitter @MSCITweets, and connect with us on LinkedIn at Metals Service Center Institute.