2700 Spruill Ave. | North Charleston, SC 29405 | 843-722-7278 | www.charlestonsteelandmetal.com
Jonathan Steinberg, Vice President/Industrial Relations Manager
Family-owned Charleston Steel & Metal continues to grow
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harleston Steel & Metal is one of the original green businesses. For 120 years, the Lowcountry family business has been recycling steel, copper, aluminum and other metals for use by industry in the Carolinas and beyond. Samuel Steinberg started the company in 1893 in his King Street back yard. The business has since grown to its North Charleston and Mount Holly locations plus four satellite offices in South Carolina and Georgia. Over the years, Charleston Steel & Metal has acquired two competitors and grown the workforce to more than 100. It is one of the largest scrap processors in the Carolinas. The company’s largest customers include JW Aluminum and Nucor Steel and extend throughout
the Southeast and as far as China, India and Turkey. Individuals also can bring their metal to Charleston Steel & Metal to trade for cash. Scrap processing plants that began around the same time as Charleston Steel & Metal were always family-owned, but that has changed dramatically over the last 20 years as the small businesses have been purchased by international conglomerates. Charleston Steel & Metal is proud of its heritage, and even though the Steinbergs own the business, employees are treated like family. According to Bernard Steinberg, President of Charleston Steel & Metal, “This company is all about the people who work here. They are our most important commodity.”
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The pull of the family business drew Jonathan Steinberg from work as a New York tax attorney back to the work of his father and grandfather. Jonathan said he had never imagined working in the metal processing business, but the idea of raising his family in Charleston and working with his father grew more appealing. He moved to the Lowcountry in 2012 and has been learning the ins and outs of the business and a process that has become less dependent on manual labor and more tied to equipment and technology. “I want to ensure all our current customers are extremely satisfied and that we can impress prospective clients with our expertise, work ethic and fairness,” Jonathan Steinberg said.