Craft O'Neal named chairman of O'Neal Steel

Craft O'Neal, third-generation owner of 83-year-old O'Neal Steel, will become chairman of the privately held manufacturing company on Jan. 1. He will take the reins of the steel processing business following the death last month of his father Emmet.

The current executive officers - CEO Bill Jones, chief operating officer Terry Taft and chief financial officer Mary Valenta - will continue.

Craft's grandfather, Kirkman O'Neal, started the company in Birmingham in 1921.

Headquartered in the North Birmingham industrial district near the airport at 41st Street, O'Neal has 2,500 employees in 39 locations nationwide, posting $800 million in sales on 1.1 million tons of steel product in 2003.

The company's Birmingham presence includes 500,000 square feet of storage under-roof and 250,000 square feet of outside storage space.

O'Neal Steel serves the role of middleman, buying directly from the mills large quantities of carbon steel, alloy steel (carbon steel mixed with other metals to strengthen the steel) and stainless steel in the form of plate, sheet and coil, bars, tubing and pipe. O'Neal then resells it to fabricators, job shops and original equipment manufacturers. The company also sells aluminum products.