Calstrip Industries of Los Angeles established Southwest Steel Coil in Santa Teresa in 1999, a few employees traveled from California to New Mexico to open the plant. From there they hired locally and the total employment at the plant was 12 by 2000.
Since early 2011, Southwest Steel Coil has been on an aggressive growth pattern. Employment is presently at 42 workers which is an increase of two hundred and fifty percent from just two years ago. Sales in 2013 are approximately five times that of sales in 2010.
Southwest Steel Coil now processes over 50,000 tons per year of metal products – more than 80 percent of which is exported outside of the U.S.
To handle this growth, Southwest Steel Coil completed its first expansion of 20,000 square feet of warehousing space in 2012. In early 2013, Southwest Steel Coil broke ground on the current expansion, which added 35 thousand square feet of manufacturing space. This brings the total facility size to about 115,000 square feet.
When fully staffed this expansion will add up to 20 jobs.
Read coverage by the El Paso Times.
