Metal Coaters can paint any grade of light gauge flat-rolled steel, as well as aluminum.
The Middletown plant, 2400 Yankee Road, was opened to supply other divisions of NCI Group that make metal building components and to supply outside customers.
Metal Coaters is a subsidiary of Houston-Texas based NCI Group Inc.
The Middletown opening was timed with construction of two building component plants by NCI in Illinois and Virginia. A big factor in picking Middletown to open a coil coating plant was the potential savings to the company of lower freight costs. Costs are lower because the coated metal is sent to customers from a shorter distance than before.
“Really what we wanted to do is support our outside customers who have facilities in that region of the country,” said Metal Coaters President John Kuzdal. “And the fact that there were proven assets on the ground there made the whole equation make sense.”
The new Ohio operations makes Metal Coaters the only U.S. coil and coating company with facilities in three U.S. time zones — East, Central and Pacific, Kuzdal said.
NCI purchased the building in 2010, a former metal coating plant that sat empty for several years, to hold until a time it made sense to open.
The total investment to buy and open the 170,000-square-foot plant was approximately $15 million. Sixty-six workers have been hired.
Metal Coaters’ business is closely related to the commercial construction industry.
“We’re really positioning ourselves so we have capacity as that market segment comes out of recession,” Kuzdal said.
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