Ryerson is one of the largest metals service centers in North America. It buys industrial metals in bulk from producers and resells them — processed and cut to customer specifications — to manufacturers and fabricators. Ryerson stocks roughly 75,000 products across carbon steel, stainless steel, aluminum, and alloy steels. Nearly 80% of products are processed before delivery (cut, bent, laser-cut, drilled, or stamped), allowing customers to avoid investing in processing equipment themselves. Ryerson serves approximately 40,000 customers across commercial transportation, fabrication, machinery, heavy equipment, and HVAC, selling through an ~850-person sales force and its e-commerce platform. Ryerson makes money on the spread between metal input costs and customer selling prices after processing. Profitability is driven by this spread, shipment volumes, and the mix of value-added processing. Roughly half of Ryerson's business runs on multi-month contracts with indexed or fixed pricing, creating a lag when metal prices move — compressing margins when prices rise quickly and expanding them when prices fall. Ryerson has been investing to grow its transactional (spot) business, which carries better margins, toward a target of 60% of sales. In February 2026, Ryerson completed an all-stock merger with Olympic Steel, creating the second-largest metals service center in North America, with over 160 facilities and combined revenue of roughly $6.5B. The deal targets $120M in annual run-rate synergies, driven by purchasing scale, workforce attrition, and cross-selling across complementary product lines and geographies.