Ohio Steel to invest $7.2M in plastic pipe extrusion plant

Ohio Steel Industries Inc. (OSI) is moving forward with plans to invest $7.2 million to buy and rehab a vacant manufacturing plant in Delaware, Ohio, and rehire the former employees for a plastic pipe and custom extrusion operation.

Founded in 1958, the structural steel fabricator added an extrusion division — OSI Plastics — in 1975 and has been operating out of its headquarters site in Columbus and a facility in Pataskala with a total of 300,000 square feet of space and 200 employees.

At first a sewer pipe producer, OSI Plastics expanded into products and profiles for utilities and telecommunications companies in the U.S. and Europe.

Now the company needs to expand physically. Company officials selected the Delaware site, which had housed Chroma Color Corp. until it moved to North Carolina last October.

Built in 1992, the vacated building gives Ohio Steel 35,000 square feet of extrusion space and room to add 52 new jobs for laid-off Chroma Color workers and others.

Related: Ohio Steel eyes $8M investment for pipe, custom extrusion plant

"To accommodate our company's growth, we evaluated locations both in and out of state, but when we saw a local opportunity in the Delaware area, we knew this was the right fit for our company and would truly benefit the community," Ohio Steel Industries President and CEO Doug Hill said in a news release.

Company officials are embarking on a two-phase expansion of extrusion operations. Phase one calls for a new rail spur, a gravel area for outdoor storage, new silos, and site work for the second phase, which will be an addition onto the existing building, construction of a new facility, or both.

The project is "a huge net positive win for the city," according to Delaware Economic Development Director Sean Hughes, who was concerned the old industrial plant would sit empty.

"To have Mr. Hill come along … [the building] does have a lot of challenges. He's going to be spending $8.25 million on this project, and that's not including future phases," Hughes told The Delaware Gazette for a March 3 article. "That's just to occupy the building as it is now. You could, at least maybe pre-pandemic, build a building of that size for that amount. So, it's a significant investment in an aging, historical industrial building. I'm thankful that we actually found a company so quickly to occupy something that could have been a much larger headache for the city."

The latest release says the investment will be $7.2 million, but the figure of $8.2 million had been mentioned earlier.

With annual sales of $18.5 million in 2020, Ohio Steel ranked No. 111 among North American pipe, profile and tubing producers, according to Plastics News data.

At its new site, the Ohio Rail Development Commission will help improve the rail infrastructure.

"Not only do these improvements assist with the Delaware facility, they also improve logistics for Ohio Steel's other facilities in the state," Executive Director Matthew Dietrich said in the release.

JobsOhio, a private nonprofit economic development corporation, also plans to provide assistance after a final agreement is executed.

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