Metals USA, Inc. announced that Bill Bennett has resigned as Senior Vice President of the company and as President of the Plates & Shapes Group.

The company has appointed Joe Longo as President of Plates & Shapes—East, and David Martens has been appointed President of Plates & Shapes—West. Both men will assume Mr. Bennett's current responsibilities in their respective regions effective immediately and will report directly to the CEO, Lourenco Goncalves. Both Mr. Longo and Mr. Martens have held significant leadership positions within our Company during the past several years and each has over 20 years of industry experience.

Mr. Bennett will remain with the company as Assistant to Mr. Goncalves until the closing of the pending acquisition of the company by Apollo Management, which is expected to occur during the third quarter of 2005.

Mr. Goncalves stated: "We thank Bill for his outstanding contribution to Metals USA's results during the past two and a half years. Bill's market knowledge and leadership were invaluable for our company. Going forward, we expect Joe and David to provide the same type of outstanding leadership and to continue delivering great results, as we take Metals USA to the next level."

Headquartered in Houston, Metals USA provides a wide range of products and services in the heavy carbon steel, flat-rolled steel, specialty metals, and building products markets.