Service centers are less capital intensive than mills because they do not need furnaces, casters, rolling mills, etc. There are over 5,000 steel service center locations throughout the U.S., with locations in every state. The steel service center industry employs over 88,000 people. The industry ships approximately 27 million tons of steel annually. Distributors of steel As distributors of steel, service centers are intermediaries between the producing mills and the end users.
Distribution is more than just shipping materials.
This forces the distributor to understand a customer's business plan and production schedule. Metals usually need some pre-production processing before they are ready for manufacture. Service centers are increasingly providing precision processing to close tolerances, quality monitoring and inspection, and statistical quality control. A good example is a stamping plant. This is how car fenders and many car parts are fabricated - usually beginning with a steel blank.