Hope Kiwanis Club Hears Program on New Millennium from Matt Rakestraw

By Mark Keith, 04/16/24 2:46 PM

The Hope Kiwanis Club heard from Matt Rakestraw on Tuesday (4-16).  Rakestraw is Manufacturing Development Manager at New Millenium.  Rakestraw told the club about a $13 million dollar expansion going on now at the plant.  He noted they had a ground-breaking for the new facility in December.  Currently the plant has a 3rd party which slits coils of sheet steel which cuts it into slits.  The new addition will mean a savings on $50 to $55 per ton of steel used.  Seven new jobs will be added at a base pay of $100,000 per year.  New Millenium will also add a rail spur at the rear of the plant.

Rakestraw said they hope to have the new facility online in November and full production should be by February of next year.  The equipment for the new facility is coming from Spain.

Rakestraw answered some questions about the production at the local plant.  He noted there are about 300 people working at the New Millennium plant in Oakhaven. He also explained the “ups and downs” of the pricing of steel.  Rakestraw also noted having the slitting done in-house will cause efficiency to increase.  He noted most of the coils that are slit are 23 tons each.  If there is a quality problem with the coil, it can be discovered quicker and the company can ship it back to one of their divisions to refabricate it.

The plant is doing well says Rakestraw.  He said when Amazon was building a lot of warehouses they were getting a lot of those during 2020.  Now they are working more on schools, churches, and independent stores.  They run about 350 tons a day and run up to 160,000 tons of steel this year.  He also noted they could use more engineers at the plant.  Rakestraw said Dallas, Texas is their biggest market.  The area this plant serves is Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma.  There are 7 New Millennium plants around the country.  The parent company, SDI, is the third largest steel company in the U.S.

The Kiwanians greatly enjoyed the program on this great, local plant.