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Friday, April 24, 2009

Southern Steel to close after 98 years

A longtime Charlotte steel fabricator once dubbed “Little Pittsburgh” is closing its doors, putting about 70 people out of work.

Southern Steel, which founded in Charlotte 98 years ago, moved into its current Steele Creek plant seven years ago during a multimillion-dollar expansion.

On Friday, president Glenn Chambers said the company had struggled during the last year as the construction market, and demand for its products, dried up.

“I think everyone in the construction industry has seen things turning south for a year,” he said. “Then with the credit market joining the construction decline, it's just a bad combination.”

Southern Steel's parent company, Beta International, also owns a rebar plant in Rock Hill, Carolina Rebar, which employs 30 workers, and a structural steel fabricator in Lynchburg, Va., that employs 125 people.

Chambers said the company will focus resources on those companies, which he said are doing well.

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