The benefits of Cascadia Metals Inc.’s climate-controlled warehouse

Tag : metals products

The 7,000-square-foot, climate-controlled warehouse  of Cascadia Metals Inc.’s, which is worth about &20 million, is headquartersfor the U.S. operations of Cascadia Metals and sister company NorthAmerican Pipe & Steel, which operates the pipe storage yardoutside the warehouse. Cascadia dedicated the new building lastweek.

Business has been booming since 2006, when Cascadia’s parentcompany bought 35 acres of port property for $2.2 million to add toits 15 acres purchased in 2001, said Danny Younce, general managerof Cascadia’s U.S. operations.

“It’s just been like it’s a dream cometrue,” Younce said.

Since that time, steel prices have nearly doubled. Sales have beenbrisk at the North American Pipe & Steel facility, which openedat the Port of Longview in 2001, and Cascadia’s Arlington,Wash., branch, Younce said.

Steel comes by boat and train into the Longview facility, whichships finished coils and pipes to customers as far away asCalifornia and Arkansas.

R & R Trading owns both Cascadia and North American Pipe &Steel.

The new facility was built by Longview contractor JH Kelly.Cascadia bought services and goods from other Cowlitz County-areacontractors to finish the building, Younce said.

“We try to keep as much of the business as we canlocal,” Younce said.

Cascadia’s development brings a much-needed boost to thelocal economy, which has endured major jobs cutbacks in the timberand paper products over the past years. With workers making between$40,000 and $50,000 per year, Cascadia’s new warehouse willadd $2 million and $2.5 million in new wages annually to the localeconomy.

It’s also a boost for the Port of Longview and provides workfor the longshoremen who unload cargo, said Ken O’Hollaren,port director. Cascadia will generate more marine shipments for theport, he said.

“They’re a long-standing customer for the port, andit’s a great fit for the industrial area,”O’Hollaren said.

Inside the warehouse, two cranes — a 30,000-metric-ton and a15,000 metric ton — haul coils of steel as tall as five feetand weighing as much as 60,000 pounds through the warehouse toprepare for shipment. Most of Cascadia’s customers areindustrial, and a lot of their steel is used in the siding ofbuildings and homes.

However, Cascadia has been unscathed by the nationwide housingdownturn because it offers so many varieties of steel, Younce said.

“We sell to so many different sectors in the market,”he said.