Chad Broyles, thank you for coming in today on Irregardless. Thanks for having me. Yeah, so you're the executive vice president of Majestic Steel coming in from Cleveland to be with us today. So thanks for being here. Yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah, so we were just discussing a handful of things. And one is I'm just going to jump right in and ask you, what is Majestic Steel? There are going to be people who actually haven't heard of it. And what is it? What do you guys do? Yeah, absolutely. So Majestic Steel, I mean, we're a service center in the steel industry. But, you know, we actually like to think that we're more of a technology company first before a steel service center. And, you know, we've got nine service center locations across the U.S. from California down to Florida and Texas, Arkansas, all the way back up to Ohio where our corporate office is. So our corporate office there in Pepper Pike, Ohio. And then we have the first plant that was built for Majestic in Bedford Heights, Ohio, about 15 minutes from our corporate office. Okay. And so, I mean, we stock. We're probably one of the largest stockers of coated products, coated steel, in the industry. And we process it. Slitting, cut to length, multi-blanking, processing, and store that across our different locations. Our model is a little different. We've got common sizes that we keep on the floor ready to ship so that our clients can pick up the phone and order something today and ship it out on our truck today or tomorrow. Okay, so you guys do a lot of stuff. When were you guys founded? How old is Majestic? Yeah, so Majestic's almost 50 years old. We're getting close to the 50-year mark here. It was founded back almost 50 years ago by Todd Lebo's father, Dennis Lebo. Founded the company and started it. And actually kind of started the company by trading steel. Okay. The gateway. Yeah. It's a really cool story that I won't get into too much details on, but it's a really cool story where Dennis kind of came to the area and had a kind of decision to make of what he was going to do and was able to take the money he had and buy some steel that was incoming into the port and turn it and sell it. And that kind of started it. He was like... Yeah. I mean, more money than all my friends on that one trade that they'll make in a year. And you'll keep in mind, this is back almost 50 years ago. So, you know, you're doing pay phones and everything else. There's no email. There's no text trying to get you connected. So really a pioneer of it, able to trade that steel and eventually made enough transactions and built the first plant there in Bedford Heights, Ohio. Our first location. So the original location is about 150,000 square feet. It's been added on to since about 300,000 square feet there now. And that's how Majestic was founded. And then back in 2012, Todd Lebo, who's our current president CEO, is Dennis's youngest son, took over. back in 2012 as present CEO and has been leading the company into, you know, mass growth since then. I mean, we've been growing across multiple locations, downstream companies. And then, of course, like I said, our technology first approach is where we're at. You said two things there that caught my attention. One was that the fourth child, do you say fourth? Yeah. Is the president and CEO. I think statistically that's an outlier. I would think that it would be an older sibling. That just caught my attention. I don't have any data to back that. But it just seems like statistically speaking, is there other family that works there, though? Yeah, absolutely. Two of Todd's brothers work there as well and are part of the family business. I mean, the kids, you know, they were in it, you know, when they were young. I mean, they were, you know, four and five years old in the office, helping file paperwork and do other things. And, you know, out in the plant, seeing it firsthand. So, yeah, they've all kind of been in it since. So, yeah, they've all been in it the whole time. But, yeah, Todd leads the company. And then you said tech first. So tell me about that. I've had a lot of people here and talked to a lot of distribution companies. And you're the only one that has said, like, we think of ourselves as a tech company with a proviso. And, of course, you are a service, you know, stocking servicing company. But, like, tell me about that. Yeah. You know, so for us, you know, we feel like that's something that sets us apart. And we've focused a lot of time on our technology and our data pooling. And so, you know, we have what we call mHub. where all of our customers are able to get a login, go online. They can see steel that they have on the floor, orders as they're processing, when they're finishing. They can schedule and load trucks, pull material certifications. They can actually pull all their previous POs. So they can actually do their own review on their account and look over the last three years and say, okay, this is what I bought at two years ago. This is what I bought at now. Or even for their own inventory, when they're trying to track, hey, this is what my business has been doing, they're able to utilize our software to help look and say, okay, this time of year, every year, we get a big spurt. Okay, maybe I need to get ahead of that this year and pull ahead and be ready for that spurt in business. We also do a thing we call the core report. that you can have access through inside of the m hub and so that is our full report you can see it on our linkedin is shared little snippets of it yeah but it is a full i mean market report of not just the steel industry but i mean it tracks automotive manufacturing housing consumer spending import data iron ore gas oil Just about anything you can think that is tracked across the United States and world markets that kind of can impact all of our end users' industries. That's a huge value add to them because, I mean, being the volume that you got, the volume that Majestic does and the other businesses, and we'll talk about a couple of them that you guys are involved with, you get a really good, you have a good perch and a good flow of information that you can. Reward majestic customers by saying here's a really up-close and very accurate look at what's happening in the market. Yep. So that's just something that comes with, basically. That's huge. So we have a team, a research team, that works through that. um and builds that weekly and then it goes out uh the next week to all of our all of our customers how much are distributors do you think competing on the axis of of tech right now in in your opinion i mean is there i think we can agree there was a time that this was not one of the battlefronts uh for for distribution and it's still forming but to what degree do you see Other companies that you guys consider competitors, like in earnest, I mean, everyone's a competitor, but the ones that you really are looking at, how much is that sort of concentrating on the access of technology? Yeah. And, you know, we like to call it other players in the industry, you know, not necessarily competitors. I think we've all are good at certain things and have different pieces and roles that we play. It's a good refinement, I think. Yeah. But no. I think now, more than ever, it's a huge piece we've all got to be involved in, especially with AI. At Majestic, we have an entire AI team that is just daily working on improving all of our processes, what can be managed by AI, what can track data by AI. We're already actively using it. in the background and training it and working with it to help improve the service we provide our clients and also to help our clients with their end customers and how we all work together to service that. But, I mean, I think, you know, in this day and age where, you know, labor shortages are out there, skilled labor, various things that are impacting, you know, people want to work in an office, not work in an office. You know, we hear a lot about work-life balance, all these different things that come out of it. Take all the time you need. Yeah, but I mean, you've got to have, you know, you've got to have a backing of technology that helps support. And, you know, what we're really using the technology for is how do we better support our team? You know, how do we make sure our team's not just... you know doing paperwork entering things in the system let's free them up to do more value add for our customers and our clients so they have more time to be on the phone uh and servicing our customers instead of doing that kind of work and do you feel like you guys are progressive in the way that you're approaching ai as compared to other players in the market are you saying uh what you consider sort of uh the closer other players to be embracing it uh the same way that you guys are do you think that or do you kind of yeah i mean i you know i think you know everybody's got their own way they're looking at it and what they're trying to utilize it for uh you know so i can't always speak to you know what they're doing with it. But I know what we're doing with it. And like I said, I mean, we've got a team dedicated to this. We meet on it weekly of where the progress is made. I mean, I've got a hub on my phone. I'm able to kind of see what progress we're making, where it's going. And like I said, our big focus is how do we better improve the lives of our team with it and free them up that then provides a better service to our customers and our clients by having our team more available to them. instead of having to do some of the tedious work in the background. Is there anything about AI that, as you guys got into this, and you've been there for plus or minus a year, so I don't know to what extent they already adopted this, but since you've been at Majestic, has there been anything about AI that's pleasantly surprised you? Like, wow, this is much more, this isn't a toy. Like, this thing can really be put to work. Yeah, I think for me, the best part of it is the learning side. You know, you can respond to it, ask questions, and how quickly it learns the next time and the next time. And it progressively gets better. It'll tell you that, hey, I made a mistake yesterday, and this is the actual data I think you were looking for. Or this is how I'm going to better refine this next time that you ask this question. So I think the speed of learning that AI has and the capabilities it has to improve. And then at the end of the day, that's better for all of us because, I mean, we're getting more real-time data. You know, it's going to flag scenarios and items and things with POs. I just think there's a lot of good that's going to come out of this for our industry that's going to actually, you know, be a benefit, not just for teams and your own personal team, but also our end users. Yeah, I think that there's a... of a knee-jerk reflex to AI, and I don't think it's just specific to the metals industry. I think that there's the feeling and the headlines of unemployment and just the looming threat of someone losing their job. It's a bit of a dilemma for somebody who receives the message that way because if they feel that way, they don't participate in the programs for a company to adopt it. So that choice is leaving them behind. But they feel personally, if they engage it, that they're going to put themselves out of the job. Where my experience tells me that, no, embrace it, keep going. Because first of all, that makes you more valuable to the business because you're in the group of the know-how-to-do-it. But now I can only speak to the metals industry. I've never walked into a business in the metals industry. that is probably appropriately staffed like it's always understaffed and so it's not like if you start becoming more efficient that means you're not needed that's not what that means it means now you can like go get the stuff done that was in that you know the annual strategic project that you normally you fall you walk out of the board meeting or whatever with this great plan and you know the bullets start firing again and you just kind of get back to work and so growth is such a deliberate activity and i think that ai kind of creates the bandwidth to execute on growth versus just falling into the operations trap of just like fulfillment fulfillment fulfillment fulfillment you know yeah i think there's a couple things there you know to uncover you know one with your current team i mean you know you should always be sharing the why Why are we investing in this? Why are we growing in this? Why are we doing this? And I think that kind of helps solve for some of the issues of people being concerned about, well, what does this mean if we're investing in this? I mean, it's needed. We need it. But secondly, I think that's any company, regardless if it's metals industry, pharmaceuticals, grocery store, I don't think it matters what the industry is. If you're not changing. Right. And adapting new things and new products or new ways of doing things, you fall behind. And it's AI today, but it could be something different in two years or tomorrow that we've got to be able to change and adapt. And I think that's one of the keys that we've all got to be aware of is, you know, it's AI today, but what is it tomorrow? Yeah. And perhaps said another way is, and you're not saying this, I'm saying this, which is what if we don't? That's the great motivator is I think that a lot of companies are all as cool. We'll just keep doing what we're doing. And then some are saying, well, wait, if we don't do this, we might be putting ourselves behind the eight ball. Absolutely. And then so moving on, you started, you said at Majestic about a year ago. Backfill the story. Where did you get into the metals industry? How old were you? How did you find it? Yeah, so, I mean, I've been in the steel industry about 15 years now. I actually started in the St. Louis, Missouri area at Precoat Metals. And how I found it was I was actually kind of going through a hard time at life. You know, I was trying to figure out what did I want to do. My previous company was relocating jobs to another state. I didn't want to leave at the time. Took a buyout package and was kind of like, all right, now what am I going to do? And I had a friend whose father worked at Precode and he had been there 20 plus years. And he's like, hey, you know, if you want to come here and work. And at least, you know, do something right now and see if you like it. You know, it's a union shop at this location where, you know, where he worked at. He's like, you know, you come in, you got to prove your, you know, prove your worth. You know, you get 90 days and then, you know, there's layoffs that can happen. And, but, you know, then they might bring you back and you might have to do that a couple of times before you get hired on full time to kind of manage it. You know, we talked about earlier at the short staffing of places you go in the metal industry. And so anyway, I went through that, did that, and actually enjoyed what I was doing. But I mean, how I started as I started on the floor at Precoat as a utility. I mean, I ran crane, ran forklift, packaged coils, inspected coils, and eventually moved up and operated. the lines, and then into, you know, shift supervisor roles and a management role. And over what time period was that, that you were kind of paced through all those different positions? Yeah, I mean, I think it was a couple years of working out on the lines, you know, and then moved up into like a more of a shift supervisor role. And I remember when I went from shift supervisor to a manager role. Up front, it was like, man, hey, you're going to make less money in the short term. Now you're talking. And I'm like, okay, hold on a minute here. I'm going to move what I'm doing here. And one of my business mentors, Roger Kramer, who actually used to work for Precoat, he told me, he's like, hey, short-term loss, long-term gain. This is what you need to do to better your life and continue to move on and do other stuff. So I was making the transition from the union side to the company side, which would open up more opportunities. And so, yeah, we did that. And then I was a quality manager, did some production management at another facility down the road from the location I started at. And then while I was there, Precision Strip reached out to me through a recruiter, and I actually picked the family up for the first time. We moved. I had two boys at the time, and we picked up and moved for the first time out of the St. Louis area. Was that a big deal for you? Or the opportunity was great enough that it was a no-brainer? No, it was a big deal. I mean, family's all still in the St. Louis area. Kids are young. Who's going to help support as a support function with the kids and where are you going? But, yeah, it just felt right. It felt like this is what I needed to do. Here we go. Here we go. We made the move. And we moved up to Michigan as a plant manager, site manager for precision. It was all automotive aluminum processing. So we were doing slitting, all the big mills, Novellis, Arconic, Alaris at the time, now Commonwealth, various ones, but all for Ford. We were doing, I mean, 90% of the work was going into Ford at the time when I was there. And then I think we were there about a year. some of the leadership executive team at Precision Approach Mears like, hey, a lot of this automotive aluminum is going to move south into Kentucky. It is. And we need help. The team there doesn't know how to use it. Would you be interested in moving down there? And so, you know, here we go a year later, moved to Kentucky. We're in Kentucky. We were in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Yeah. And so had helped oversee a couple of locations there and was there, you know, almost three years. And then Nucor found me, and I ended up going to Nucor Arkansas. So how did they find you? Same thing. It was through a recruiter. I kind of reached out, and I wasn't really looking. I was just, you know. And, you know, it just seemed like a really good opportunity. But, you know, originally when I was going to leave and go to Nucor was they were going to build the first paint line in the company's history. And so, you know, my past history at Precoat Metals and understanding painted product, you know, we were going to build one there on the Arkansas campus. And so it was kind of like, hey, come in, manage this project with us, help us pick out equipment, hire people, build this thing up from the ground up. No problem. Yeah, so, you know, to me, right, that was the cool opportunity that kind of drew me to Nucor. Like I said, I was very happy doing what I was doing. We kind of had a community built there. Kids were in school and all that stuff. But, yeah, Abel, I was like, man, this seems like a really cool opportunity. Like, when's the next time somebody's going to call and ask, do you want to come be a part of building the first paint line in the history of our company? It probably won't happen again. No, probably not. So, you know, so we took that opportunity, and that was in 2020. Okay. And so the scary part there was the week after I started, COVID really sank in and started hitting. Is this spring of 2020? Yeah, March. Oh, wow. Yeah, and it's really starting to sink in. You know, people are restricting. That was it. March was the month. Where you could go, you know, where you could travel. I think even for work, we had to have, you know. letters stating, hey, we have to travel for work purposes, where we're going, why, and all those things. So kind of went there, and that was the big shock for me. I was like, oh, no, what's going to happen? In previous life, I've seen people be laid off, roles eliminated, what's going to happen with our spending? Yeah, they can pull the plug on the whole deal. Yeah. So the great thing about Nucor, right, and this is one of the big touts Nucor has, is they've really never had a layoff in the history of the company. Is that right? That's something they've always stood behind and not done. And still me here, I am a new guy coming in. I'm like, man, are you guys sure I'm okay? Like, what's going to happen here? But we kind of put spending went on hold. We didn't know what COVID was going to happen, what we're going to do. And so spending kind of went on hold there. But it was neat because I got to spend a lot of time in the hot side, the melt shop, the roll mill, bounce around the cold mills and do all of that, and then help on the new gout project that was there. And then eventually we ended up buying a paint line instead from Precoat. Funny enough, there in Arkansas. There it went, full circle. Yeah, full circle, right there down the road from the Arkansas campus. And so I went there and helped part of the acquisition team and stand that place up and get it to where we wanted it. And it was still Nucor's first paint line, but not the way I envisioned it of getting to build one from the ground up is we kind of took an old one and retrofitted it. Maybe that's okay. It went that way. You know, that does give you a bit of a leg up as far as getting it done. But, you know, everything has a push and a pull. But while we're talking about it, other companies, what are the majestic, back to majestic. We talked about a couple of companies that you guys, you told me about that I thought were pretty cool, which is Quicken and Steel Homes, right? Yeah. So tell me about those. Yeah. So at Majestic, we have a couple of downstream companies. Quicken Steel, we own 100% of. And we have two locations, one just outside of Dallas and one in Grand Prairie, or that's the Grand Prairie, Texas location, and the one in Claxton, which is about an hour from Savannah, Georgia. Okay. So out a little ways, but it's there. And we do cold form steel buildings. Okay. And so we can do up to 100,000 square feet. So light industrial, airport hangars, barn dominiums. I mean, sport complexes. We're doing pickleball courts that are, you know, in the hot states, right? You want them enclosed and air conditioned and all of that. All the way down to, you know, a man or woman cave that you want just to, you know, have something cool to be in. Yeah. And then Steel Homes, what is that? Yeah, Steel Homes is a newer piece of us here. We just purchased into that. It's a partnership that we own majority shares of down in outside of Miami. And so this was a really cool opportunity. We closed on it in December of last year. And where we kind of see the market going, you know, it's... There's always a home crisis, at least with the cost and where they're at today, starter homes. When your kids get older, and my kids get older, our two older kids, I don't know what the price of an average starter home is going to be. I don't know, but they're not going to be at my house. But we keep seeing the price raise up and go up. And so there's a housing crisis going on. And then there's a labor shortage to build the houses. So steel homes is a really cool concept because we actually build the homes inside of a factory. And it's not shipping containers. or anything like that, I mean, we are roll-forming steel stud and floor beam and constructing. These things are amazing. I mean, you showed me the website, and it's no joke. They're really nice-looking houses, and they're big. Yes. And they aren't, you're right, they're not shipping containers. Someone would have to tell you that what they, like someone, it's not obvious that that's a modular steel home when you look at it. They're really well done. And you've got to check out this site because it's Steel Homes. We Googled Steel Home Modular. And so people have got us. It blew me away. They're really good. They're awesome. Yeah. And they're built in Miami-Dade spec. So, you know, 189 mile an hour plus winds rating. I mean, you're pretty much fire resistant, termite resistant, you know, mold resistant. I mean, it's steel. So a very cool concept that we went into. We're only about seven months into it, but looking to continue to grow that concept out into more locations as we continue to fill it up. But yeah, that's our other pieces of Majestic that we have. No, that was very cool. We didn't get a chance to check out Quicken, but the steel homes was surprisingly cool. I was like, yeah, I want to live in that house. So back to new course. So how long were you at? at Nucor from end to end. How long were you there? Yeah, I was at Nucor almost six years, you know, about a little over five years. You know, worked, like I said, started there at the mill, went to that acquisition team, helped buy a paint line and still got to do the first paint line in Nucor. And then from there, actually moved to South Carolina and was an operations manager for a downstream, another company that we bought into. It was called Nucor Insulated Panel Group. And so, you know, it's sandwich panel, but done in a pretty cool process. Nice joint. It locks together, goes up fast. And so, you know, bought into that. So I went down there and helped out in South Carolina. And eventually, shortly after that, relocated to Dallas, Texas, to our corporate office that we had there for the insulated panel group. Okay. And so, you know, kind of how Majestic came about, you know, as a... Did Kruger call you? Nope. No, no. We were, you know, I knew the Lebo family for a little while. I mean, their customers of Nucor on the upstream at the mill. And then in the downstream, we actually utilized Majestic Sum. You know, there were strict job timelines that we had to meet. And so, you know, like look at today's time that we're in where mills are late. I mean, on average, mills are what, about 50% on time right now across the board. And so, you know, we'd have different times where a mill shipment could be late or if we had a reject at a paint line and then you're short steel and you delay one of these job sites. Well, depending on what the job is, you know, if it's for the federal government or the military or government building, you know. Don't be late. Don't be late. And so we ended up actually bringing Majestic in to the supply chain. and the downstream piece of that business to kind of help with some risk mitigation and have some common sizes for us in case we get into a pinch. Yeah, that's smart. And so, you know, just continue to have a relationship there and built it. And, yeah, I mean, you know, Todd and I, you know, talked regularly and met regularly to keep that partnership strong. And then, yeah, an opportunity came up talking with Todd and a couple others to come join the Majestic team. Yeah, we made the leap and made the jump over. And so you've gone from Dallas. That meant you went from Dallas to Cleveland at that time? Correct. Okay. So let's talk about Majestic for a little bit. So you've explained what you... you guys are, what you do, and how you think about sort of your process, which is just sort of this, it's technology is really guiding the experience, both internally and externally, it sounds like, provided that, you know, the operations side is clicking along well. So what are you guys looking at for future for Majestic? Like what initiatives, just in a general sense, as specific or nonspecific as you want to be, are you guys, like, what are you looking at? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, we're always looking at what makes the most sense to grow. Yeah. So, you know, that's the thing about Todd. I mean, Todd's a visionary. He's always looking into the future and what's next and what we want to grow. And so, you know, it's growth. I mean, we want to continue to grow. And whether that means in a new products that we don't offer today, is that new processing we don't offer today, is that, again, right, into downstream markets that we're not in today that we can be in. We want to continue to grow the company. and continue to grow our market share and grow our clients and take care of more families. That's the coolest part about this role. It's more of an entrepreneurial role, being privately held, family-owned company. I mean, we're very connected with our team. And so we've got a commitment to making sure that... our team gets to provide for their families and so as we talked about earlier uh in the you know the growing market and what changes today it's ai maybe it's something different we've got to constantly just be looking at you know what protects our business from going backwards, but then what is it going to take for us to continue to grow and continue to help and provide for our team we have today? But, I mean, how awesome is it to be like, hey, we're going to get to go hire more people and provide for more families tomorrow? And so that's what we're looking at is, you know, it doesn't mean it's another service center or anything like that. You know, it's just what makes sense? Where can we make money? Where's the market heading? Where's the data telling us that the market is heading? And where does it make sense for us to invest in? And, you know, that's kind of what led recently. to us are decking lines that we just installed. That's a new product we just started offering here recently, roof decking and floor decking, steel decking, and very similar. You know, we talk a little bit about data center space. You talk about advanced manufacturing, but there's a ton of buildings that just have decking in it. And so that was something new that we added here recently that just made sense for our business. I mean, we already got steel sitting on the floor. What's another product we can turn that in and be a value add to our customers? So let's talk about, you brought up the idea of this infrastructure that's being built as a result of the CapEx that's going into AI. How much is that informing what's happening in the metals market right now? you know, Bryzos, we see quite a bit of some, you know, some trends, runs on sizes and those sorts of things. And what are you guys seeing from your seat? Yeah, similar. You know, I don't think it's just data center. I think it's just advanced manufacturing in general. We're just starting to see a lot of new markets come back to the United States and grow and build. And that's helping lead some of this, you know, turn on demand. But I think, you know, there was a lot of people that sat on the sidelines for a while as well, waiting on interest rates to make a change. And, you know, again, we talk about growth. If you sit idle too long, you're going to go backwards or you're going to get left behind. And so I think, you know, we're finally getting to a point to where everybody's like, okay. This rate is what we're dealing with. This interest rate is sticking around for a while. We can't sit on the sidelines anymore. We've got to go. We've got to start building. We've got to start growing and getting back into the game. Maybe something that was in one of your comments, but not explicitly, was the effect of what tariffs are doing. And maybe that was or was not sort of in the fabric of what you were saying, but what is the effect you see tariffs having on? or just kind of the domestic market? Let me back up really quickly, which is I think that tariff has become kind of a charged word. And I think that maybe not enough effort is put into what does all that really mean? It's layered, to say the least, but different industries. And different chains in that supply chain feel it differently. So from your perspective, it's majestic. How do you, and you're not speaking for majestic, I'm kind of asking you just kind of in a general way, but talk to me about tariffs from your perspective. Yeah, I mean, I think tariffs are a good thing for our industry. You know, I think there's been unfair trade and act that has happened in our country for years. And it kind of gets us back on a level playing field where we can actually produce more in the United States, provide jobs to Americans that need it, that are here. And I think they're needed now. A lot of people don't do enough research, I feel, on the tariffs and actually understand what they are because it's a hot word. And I think you see different things posted online and possible tariff, possible increase here. But there's exclusions in certain markets. things that can reduce your tariff. And so a lot of people did enough of the research on it to really understand where they impact. But I think for our steel industry, they were absolutely 100% needed. It's brought back a lot of growth for the United States. That makes sense with our mills and just our downstream companies to where it makes sense to add jobs back to America as well. And then, you know, I think it's interesting what other countries are doing as well with the China. There's a lot of other countries now that are banning or putting tariffs on China imports into steel to where now, okay, other countries that were exporting, well, now they need to keep it inside their own country for their own infrastructure and build. And so it's actually helping out other countries as well from that standpoint. So, you know, imports are still coming in. There's still products that come in that make sense. And even today, I mean, even... With pricing where it is today and where tariffs are today, I mean, there are still offers out there for imports to come in that, you know, make sense. That way you're like, hey, maybe I need to buy that. It's still undercutting the U.S. market. I think there's a part of Ð so tariffs, like you said, can be a hot word. And I think that to a degree there's not a full understanding of the imbalance. that actually existed meaning between importing something from china i'm talking about you know i was in the pvf you know pipe valves and fittings and apples i mean literally apples to apples i could have something brought in from china landed for 60 cents a pound you know and that's made brought across the globe put into you know texas or some you know uh in california for 60 cents landed versus I could buy it domestically for $1.20. And these are apples. It used to be at some point that maybe China's steel was inferior, but just not as well made. The quality control wasn't there. But that time has sort of passed, and these are really advanced mills, and they make this stuff very well. And so it became hard to say, well, it's not as good. And now you're just sitting there looking at, you know, 100% despair, like delta between pricing. And you can't, it's kind of like AI to a degree. It's like, well, you don't feel good about it, but the market, everyone in the market's buying that. And if we want to be competitive or other players in the market, we kind of have to follow suit. So what this allows, tariffs allow companies to do is say like, okay, it's raising. the water level, we all have to comply. So it, it, it does, I think a good job of making sure that, you know, one person can't sort of still have this access to this really inexpensive apples to apples inventory, which is a really big deal because the last round of tariffs and Trump's first administration was a 25%. We put 25% on 60 cents pound and you're still remarkably cheaper bringing it in. So it just didn't have. And that wasn't even routing it through, you know, Canada or Mexico, you know, that whole business. It was, I could still bring it directly to the U.S., you know, for what was it, 75 cents a pound. Yeah. And I think, you know, some of the other things that are in place today that are different as well that people don't understand that are helping is buildings or projects having a spec. that it has to be U.S. melted. So that's the other piece is, you know, you've got a large vast of projects now that are, I mean, they require it to be U.S. melted. People are asking for it. So I think, you know, even while the tariffs are a part of it, you know, there's still deals out there to be had to bring, you know, material in at a cheaper cost. Like you said, even with the 50%, I mean, India was still bringing it in cheaper. into the U.S. than you could buy. And so I think the other piece of that that's kind of really helping is really starting to see some of this growth with everybody asking for U.S. melted, and that's making more of this sustainable. Yeah, and I think, you know, the challenge that it creates is that, well, the demand for these products are going to still exist. And so we're going to have sort of this air bubble, right, of people can't get these products, which is sort of the point, right, which is, okay, well, if we need them, we'll make them here. And so the limiting reagent was really how quickly can you get things per minute to get built. And it seems like things have been, you know, if you could no longer get product X here anymore, importing it, then we need to make it here. And how quickly, though, can we get that facility tilted up and operating such that it's not, so disruptive to the entire supply chain. And there's a question here, which is, are you seeing that, you know, government or whatever sort of the presiding governance is, is being responsive to the need to have things permitted? And I'm not saying carelessly, but they're expediting to fill a void. Yeah, I mean, I think so. I mean, we're seeing, you know, various companies now say they're going to bring investments back to the United States. And I think that's where we're seeing this big demand peak. You know, there's the hot word right now is data centers. And I don't think it's just data centers. You know, you've, Leon Topalian was on, I think it was Mad Money. I don't know, it was like one or two quarters ago. And he was talking about, you know, the data centers. And that question was asked, well, is this growth just data center base and it's going to die off? And he's like, no, that's not even half of our backlog. I mean, it's like 10%. And so I think while. Data center is the hot word. It's all the other stuff that's moving in, and it's just advanced manufacturing. New manufacturing making its way back to the United States is really helping to start building up this demand. So you've got that mixture of, like you mentioned, the tariffs are not just helping our steel industry. It's helping other industries come back to the United States that we've lost over the years and bring jobs back. And then the other piece of it, you've got everybody that was sitting on the sidelines. That's like, okay. This is the interest rate. We got to go. We can't wait on the sidelines any longer. We got to start building. Do you think tariffs will go away? I mean, and I don't mean like, I'm not trying to get into a political discussion. I just mean like in a general sense, do you think this is going to be something that is put in here to sort of jumpstart a new way of doing things? Or do you think you kind of view more of like, no, these are probably going to be here for the foreseeable future. Yeah, I mean, I think it's, you know, when you talk terrorists, it's hard not to get into the politics. piece of it. And I think we see it based off of what the administration is. So, you know, I think that's always at risk depending on what the next administration is focused on. But I mean, you've got to learn how to work regardless of who the administration is. Your company has to figure out how to work with any of those administrations if you're going to be sustainable and stay in business and continue to grow. So I think they're needed. They need to stay in place. But, you know, the future will tell what happens in the next rounds of administrations and what their focus areas are and what they want to do with this. No, I think that's right. I think you've done a good job of staying out of kind of the, you know, there was an opportunity to jump into something political, and that's really not what I'm trying to do. I'm just trying to make sense of what are tariffs and are they... and try to demystify what a tariff is. Because I think you said it's getting more sort of just word recognition than it is what is the utility. And there are two things we've discussed today so far that you guys have adopted and implemented in a way that is driving growth. for like, okay, we need more people or we need to, you know, get this new product. That otherwise, maybe the way it's talked about, if you turn on, you know, pick up a newspaper, whatever, is that sometimes the real position just threats. And it sounds like Majestic's done a really good job of adopting AI in a way that is responsible for your family there. at Majestic. And the same thing with tariffs, which is you guys have, I guess, adapted to this environment and you'll do it to the next environment and so on and so forth. But it sounds like these are all variables in our lives and the life cycles of business. And you guys have, it sounds like you've adapted in a really healthy way to it. And I think one thing that is a little different in this cycle, you know, In the last cycle of tariffs in the first administration, when those started to really take place, I mean, we've seen steel go to crazy numbers, and they went fast. They did. And eventually they got to a tipping point to where, okay, it didn't matter what the tariff was. It was still cheaper to continue to bring it in. And I think the mills have done a very good job this time of not skyrocketing the price and just keeping the spread where it needs to be and managing it to where, Okay. I mean, imports are still happening. There's still things that are imported. There's still steel coming into this country. You know, we talked a little bit about beam earlier, I think before we jumped on and, you know, where the strain is there with, you know, all this construction going on and getting pulled in. I mean, that's a big import right now. Beams are being imported. You can't find some sizes that just can't be found. Yeah. And so, you know, I think that's the big thing, you know, is, yeah, you've got to adapt to whatever that market is, you know, and so if, If the tariffs go away in two years, then you've got to be able to secure your supply chain and make sure you've got the value that your customers need. I just think this time we're playing differently. The mills have played differently. And then also the request that everything be U.S. melted. I mean, that's growing. I mean, I can't tell you how many requests come through now. And that's been around forever that, you know, Buy America acts and things like that. But it sort of had a different feel about it, you know, 10 years ago or whatever it was. Like, that was a different feel then than it is now. And I think that it's better now than it used to be. It kind of felt like something had been kind of like stuffed in, and it didn't have sort of the group effort feel to me now. I mean, it's better now than it was then, in my opinion. So I've got kind of a general question for you, which is why steel? And, you know, I'm a steel lover, right? But why steel? I think it's an interesting material. It's been around for a long time. You know, the ingredients change over time. You know, maybe we're reaching some sort of terminal velocity with ingredients. But, you know, what is it about steel that keeps it so relevant? Yeah, and I'll give you two things. First, I'll tell you personally why steel. Well, I can say metals and so forth. All of it, yeah. But why did I stay in this industry and continue to pursue it? I mean, man, when you get to work with it every day and then you get to go downstream and see customers and clients and what they do with it and what it goes into. It's cool to be able to drive down when we're on a road trip or something and I'm able to show my kids. Oh, hey, our steel's on that building right there. Yeah. That's part of what we do. You know, so for me, that's the cool factor. I mean, steel's awesome. Yeah. It's really cool what you can build with it, what you can do with it. But I think, you know, it has to stay relevant for the future. I mean, when you're looking at, let's talk about natural disasters, for instance. Let's talk about them. Wildfires. Yeah. You know, think if all that was made out of steel homes. and steel beam and steel studs and structure. A lot of those homes would still be standing today. They might have some damage from the consumable piece of it and refinish it, but you're not talking about just everything being collapsed and being... done, you know. And so you look at disasters with hurricanes or just tornadoes, you know, this is part of why, as Majestic, we invested in steel homes down in Miami. I mean, they can handle almost 199 plus winds. So a tornado is not going to take it down. You look at termites as another thing with wood. Okay. Termites don't attack steel. So I think, you know, it's going to stay relevant as you continue on. And then, you know, as you look at sustainability and, you know, we can, again, not to get... of that, right? You can talk green and what's better for the environment. You recycle it like forever. Yeah. And that's the cool thing, right? The EAFs, it's majority of it gets recycled and put back in. They don't have to dig for it. They're able to use what they've got and just recycle it. But the cool thing is, you know, you can pick it up. You can build it at Barnominium on your property and then... One day decide, man, I want to move my family, you know, 600 miles away and I'm going to buy property there. And I mean, in theory, you can take that building down and go rebuild it where you're moving to. So sustainability is a big piece. It's a huge piece. And it's, you know, I think that the metals industry, when you're not in it, perhaps when you're in it, it's just thought of sort of this rusty, dusty kind of industry. But people and people don't think about it, but you can't walk 20 feet without walking past. something made out of steel yeah i mean it is absolutely everywhere everywhere uh and it is it's such a well-known formula at this time it so what other materials are you seeing that are i mean you know trying to get into the applications of steel right now we've had carbon fiber around for a while and i keep saying steel i mean i think it's accepted that aluminum i'm talking about aluminum stainless steel and you know you know, ferrous and non-ferrous metals that we all talk about. But, you know, you have the carbons, you have the other synthesized materials. What are you seeing? Anything new that's coming into the picture? Yeah, I think, you know, some of the newer things that you're starting to see out there is, you know, ZAM has talked about. So, you know, I think the coatings that go on the steel is where I think some of the next growth is going to be. What are the different coatings that go on the steel to make it more durable? And then even from there, right, the finishes. So I see, you know, pre-painted just continuing to grow, and I think we're seeing that across. I mean, the U.S. I actually had a friend of mine that lives not far here from your studio. He's on the Illinois side, Averageville, Illinois. And he's got a house and he put a metal painted roof on his house after the last hailstorm. He did. And so you're starting to see this go into residential. It's going into commercial. It's going everywhere. So, you know, I think it. the different coatings that go on the steel and then plus painted is going to be where this thing really starts to continue to take off. Because it just becomes like architecturally speaking, it's more aesthetically, it's better looking and people are going to, are going to put it into neighborhoods, uh, with higher frequency. And, uh, well, look at the 3d printing. I mean, look at what's going on with some of these 3d prints and how they look. I mean, uh, you know, and, and again, right. I, you know. I don't work for some of these companies, right? But, I mean, Steel Dynamics, for instance, you know, put up this amazing-looking 3D printing that they've kind of figured out. And, you know, I just seen a clubhouse for a golf course in Ohio for some charity outing I was at here recently, and they built it all out of that 3D -printed steel. And when you're looking at it from a distance, it just looks like a wood building. Really? And then you walk up and you're like, holy crap, this is steel. This is awesome. And it's that 3D printing that's going on. So I think that's the next part is a lot of people, like you said, look at steel like it's dirty. It's, you know, it rusts. It looks rough. It's, you know, oh, it's gross. And now with this 3D printing, I mean, you can print anything on it. You can make it look like brick. You can make it look like wood. You can make it look like water. I mean, whatever you want it to look like. I've seen the one, maybe you've seen the cement one. Yeah. That one's pretty cool where they go around and they're just like. around the perimeter, the inner side walls, and they're just dumping cement. I could write that in there. But same idea, just large, massive-scale printers that have, like, gantry printing going on. Yeah, so, like, STI's got it right. They do, like, a 3D print in the line, so the steel goes through it, and they put that 3D print on, but it's bonded to the steel, so you can roll, form it, bend it, and put it into your building. Now you have a more sustainable building, but you can still get the look that you want for, you know, maybe it's your community. Maybe your HOA says, you know, hey, this has to have a stucco look to it. Okay, well, we'll print stucco on the side of this metal building. That's just turning of a dial. Like, we got that. No big deal. That would be, if that catches on, I know that there are some things that need to be sort of, it needs to be. Suddenly it's easier to deploy. We're early, I would say, as far as its commercial ability. But the fact that that's occurring is Ð and what does that mean for a mill, by the way? In the future, are you selling just canisters of ingredients to people like a distributor and someone orders something and you just print out that beam for them? Yeah, who knows? Right then and there and then ship it. i mean how far away is something like that yeah uh yeah i don't know how far away that is i mean but again right we're seeing 3d printing with concrete so uh you know who knows where that technology is but uh you know uh i mean we keep training ai i'm sure it'll teach us how to how to make it yeah well i'm sure it'll probably at least try to tell us how to do it and it's something to maybe think about uh so what other projects are majestic are you guys uh leaning towards, I know we've talked about this a little bit, but like kind of leaning towards a certain direction as far as, you know, where you're seeing the industry going? Are you just really kind of staying where you are right now? And, you know, I've got your hands full with, you know, let's get AI totally squared away. And, you know, we have tariffs and, you know, what's going to be happening at the next turn of election. Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, one of the big things we've been focused on here recently was, you know, our Arkansas facility that we built on Newport's campus. You know, it's a 515,000 square foot facility, state of the art, brand new. How big is 550? Is that like an Amazon building I see when I go down the highway? Is that like? I think those are probably closer to a million depending on what they are. Some of those are 600. I mean, but this is by far the largest service center in a. probably a thousand mile radius and you know i don't know the top of my head but i mean we're and we're on campus the cool thing is though we're climate controlled and so the entire building is climate controlled so like when you're in that kind of an area in the midwest you know we get these temperature swings and coil sweats happen i mean people you can lose inventory fast in a coil sweat our building is protected so we're able to protect our customers steel and our material as well inside of there because it's all climate controlled And so, you know, that's been a focus of getting that thing up and going. And it's running. I mean, it's running, you know, almost around the clock now and going. But the cool thing about it is how clean it is. So, you know, we talk about the dirty side of steel. So the cool thing about us being on that Nucor Arkansas campus is that, you know, customers will go take a mill tour or even Big River. They'll go to Big River, take a mill tour, and then they'll come and see our facility. And it's like. you know, holy cow, I just left and I couldn't touch a handrail. And now it's, you know, I can eat off the floor. And so that's done. Yes. When did you guys finish that one? Yeah. I mean, constructionally finished in 23. And then, you know, we've been slowly, you know, getting all the equipment installed and then ramped up. That's a massive project. Yeah. Massive project that was built over a hundred million dollars invested there in Arkansas. So, yeah, it's amazing. It's an amazing facility that I encourage people to. to do business with and go check out and just see. And the cool thing for us in that area is, you know, people will, you know, they might work somewhere else. And then, you know, they come there and they're like, man, I don't have to sweat to death all day and I don't have to get super dirty. There is a benefit for associates to want to work there compared to some of the other industries around us. You know, especially, you know, that Arkansas heat and humidity can get pretty bad. Well, perhaps they don't think about it too much currently where they're working. But you start to think about it when you know it's not enough. Like, you don't have to do that. You actually don't have to be sweating all day long. You know? I mean, I'd probably be sweating, but, like, either way. But it's just, you know, personal stuff. But, well, I've got to say thank you for coming in today. This has been a great conversation, learning more about Majestic. And what's the website for Majestic? How do people find you guys? Yeah, MajesticSteel.com, you know, or just Google Majestic Steel. We're on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and, of course, our website that kind of goes through and shows all of that. And, yeah, I mean, we've got, like I said, locations from California to Houston to Tampa. Arkansas back up to Ohio. And so we're, you know, we're very well positioned east to west to take care of people and take care of our customers and our clients and service the industry. But like I said, I think, you know, some people come because they can't find steel anywhere else and they stay because of the technology and the service that we provide that you just don't get anywhere else. But yeah, that's where you can go find us and look us up. And then, like I said, don't forget about the quick and steel and steel homes as well. all right well thank you for coming in today it's been a great conversation i appreciate it yeah thank you all right