Earle M. Jorgensen Co. announced that it is to open a new machining center in Houston, Texas.

Located close to the company's existing facility on Lumberdale Street, the new facility is the first within the Jorgensen organization to offer trepanning of steel bar. The facility will employ four newly refurbished machines offering full service and support to the company's customers throughout North America.

"Providing machining services such as these will be of particular benefit to our customers in the oil tool industry, but is part of our strategy to offer more value added processing and services to all our customers," said Kenneth Henry, Executive Vice President and District Manager for Earle M. Jorgensen Co. "As part of a long term strategy to provide higher processing and service levels, this is a facility that could grow to meet additional customer demand. The industries we service are seeking ever more cost-effective solutions in their lean manufacturing environments," he added.

The facility is currently producing for inventory and expects to be fully operational after September 1, 2005.

Earle M. Jorgensen Co. is one of the largest distributors of metal products in North America with 37 service and processing centers. The company inventories more than 25,000 different bar, tubing, plate, and various other metal products, specializing in cold finished carbon and alloy bars, mechanical tubing, stainless bars and shapes, aluminum bars, shapes and tubes, and hot-rolled carbon and alloy bars.