A Brief History

PDM Steel Service Centers

PDM entered the steel service center industry in California with its 1954 acquisition of the Proctor-James Steel Company in San Jose. In 1955 Kyle and Company, with facilities at Fresno, Stockton and Sacramento was added. With four service centers, PDM was able to provide outstanding service throughout central and northern California.

In 1962, new facilities were constructed at Fresno, California giving improved service to customers in the central California area. Recognizing the great potential for its products and services, the Company established a fifth service center in the Reno/Sparks area of Nevada in 1963. In 1968, the new service center facilities at Fresno and Sacramento and the existing facilities at Santa Clara and Sparks were greatly augmented by the completion of the semi-automated center at Stockton.

The latest in material handling fixtures and equipment were used in the Stockton facility. Steel is stacked 24' in the air on specially constructed racks. Stacker Cranes are used to handle the material in the racks. The Stacker Cranes move the material from the order storage areas to delivery trucks.

To provide the greatest possible service and selection for our customers, the "Common Inventory Concept" was established. This gave all customers access to the total company inventory at all locations. Under the Common Inventory Concept, Stockton is the geographical hub of the Service Wheel with spokes running north to Sacramento, east to Reno and Spanish Fork, south to Fresno, and west to Santa Clara. The "Interplant Transfer System" moves this Common Inventory from one location to another, allowing short lead-time delivery of most items regardless of the inventory source. The efficiency and success of this system has proven to be an important benefit to our customers. A new service center was established in Spanish Fork, Utah, south of Salt Lake City, in 1977.

As customer demands for "pre-production processing" grew, new processing equipment was installed at all facilities. Shears, automatic saws, and shape burning equipment that can virtually burn in steel anything that can be drawn in two dimensions, are available at each center. Plasma cutting equipment allows shapes to be cut in material which is too thin to be cut with conventional flame cutting equipment. Computer aided design and CNC have made possible the burning of shapes too large to fit on paper and too complex to be easily laid out on a drafting table, while at the same time allowing for the efficient "nesting" of burned parts for reduced scrap loss.

At the end of January 1997, PDM purchased a majority interest in General Steel of Vancouver, Washington. General Steel was a full line, carbon steel service center serving the Portland and Seattle marketing areas. In April, 1999 PDM/General Steel moved into a large, modern facility in Woodland, Washington. With increased inventories, well laid-out processing facilities, and state of the art material handling equipment, PDM Woodland is able to serve larger areas of Oregon and Washington and has begun to serve some areas of South-Western Canada and Southern Alaska.

In February 2003 PDM established a new service center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Finally . . .

PDM Steel Service Centers is constantly evaluating opportunities to improve service, inventories, and delivery in existing facilities and has an on-going program to explore opportunities for expansion into new markets.

Our pledge to you in the future, as in the past, will be to provide you with the finest . . .