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<\/p>\nNORTH LIMA, Ohio \u2014 The job might have consisted of placing an HVAC unit atop a building. Or, the task could have called for the relocation and installation of a piece of heavy machinery for a large industrial customer, or even the construction of a steel frame of an entire building.<\/p>\n
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As Dave Collins drives around the Mahoning Valley, he sees hundreds of structures that his company \u2013 Diamond Steel Construction Co. of North Lima \u2013 has helped build or improve in the 90 years it\u2019s been in business.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve touched so many things,\u201d says Collins, Diamond Steel\u2019s president. Indeed, after nearly a century, there are countless projects dating from the late 1920s to the present \u2013 office buildings, churches, steel mills \u2013 that still bear the company\u2019s fingerprints.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been quite a story,\u201d he says, reflecting on the people and their work that have left this legacy.<\/p>\n
Diamond Steel is among the premiere businesses that operate large boom crane trucks, the toughest of which is capable of handling 275 tons, Collins says.<\/p>\n
Today, the company has more than 100 on the payroll and boasts a fleet of 27 mobile boom cranes that it uses for heavy-duty projects.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a long journey from 1928, when Clarence Smith Sr., a former ironworker, decided to establish his own structural steel company.<\/p>\n The name Diamond Steel is actually derived from the central square in downtown Youngstown \u2013 at that time known as the \u201cDiamond,\u201d Collins says. \u201cThose were the boom times before the bust,\u201d he notes \u2013 referencing the speculative period predating the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression of the 1930s.<\/p>\n \u201cMr. Smith would go downtown and pick up his employees,\u201d Collins says, since the union hall was on the southwest corner of the Diamond. \u201cNo one had a car or a phone, so you went downtown to see who was there, picked them up and took them out to work. That\u2019s how it all started.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith Sr. ran the business until the early 1950s, and retired after suffering health problems. His son, Clarence Smith Jr. \u2013 who would go on to establish Compco Industries and numerous other companies across the region \u2013 took charge from there and was responsible for bringing Collins\u2019 father, Arnold, an accountant, into the company.<\/p>\n The addition of Arnold Collins helped usher in a long-standing friendship with the Smith family, as the elder Collins went on to become vice president at Compco.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s kind of how I got involved with the Smith family,\u201d Collins recalls, who joined Diamond Steel in 1976. Collins purchased the controlling shares of Diamond from Smith in 2005, officially transferring ownership on downtown\u2019s central square, where the papers were signed.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was my idea to do it there,\u201d Collins remembers. \u201cI said, \u2018It started here, it needs to transfer here.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n Throughout its history, Diamond Steel has helped build or has worked on countless iconic structures.<\/p>\n Diamond provided the structural steel and manpower used to construct the original downtown Youngstown post office in 1932 \u2013 today used to house the city\u2019s municipal courtrooms.<\/p>\n More recently, the company\u2019s boom cranes were used in the renovation of the landmark, 13-story Stambaugh Building as it was converted into the DoubleTree by Hilton.<\/p>\n Still, the crux of Diamond Steel\u2019s success has come in the industrial sector \u2013 providing the equipment necessary for operators and tradesmen to perform maintenance work in the region\u2019s large steel mills.<\/p>\n One of the company\u2019s major customers was R.G. Steel., the former WCI Steel in Warren. About six years ago, R.G. Steel liquidated its Warren assets, closed the mill, and the sprawling site is today mostly vacant land. The last blast furnace in the region was demolished there last year.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was our home for years,\u201d Collins says. \u201cWe really had to regroup when they closed. That was a tough time.\u201d<\/p>\n Lessons were learned from the experience, Collins says. \u201cWe were lucky enough to diversify our customer base \u2013 we still do quite a bit of work in the steel industry, NLMK in Sharon has been a good customer for us \u2013 and we\u2019ve moved into the titanium industry,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The buildings all require maintenance, and Diamond Steel has established a strong relationship with the industrial trades \u2013 particularly the operating engineers, ironworkers, millwrights and teamsters.<\/p>\n \u201cWe use all of these people everyday,\u201d Collins says.<\/p>\n Business has increased considerably since 2016, Collins says, as projects that once were on hold moved forward.<\/p>\n On average, Diamond Steel is accustomed to having between 30 and 35 on the payroll during peak construction season. But now, the company has more than 100 workers in the field \u2013 and that number still isn\u2019t enough to satisfy demand.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re letting some work go because we just don\u2019t have the manpower,\u201d says Ryan McBride, vice president. \u201cGrowing pains hurt a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n McBride, a former R.G. Steel employee, joined Diamond Steel five years ago. In this time, the company has moved into other fields and is doing work for the plastics industry, the food industry, power generation plants and other business sectors.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re moving monuments for churches, sculptures, work for the hotel downtown,\u201d he says. \u201cMy thought is to bring more diversification to take you through when one sector is down.\u201d<\/p>\n As far as steel is concerned, about half of Diamond\u2019s customers should benefit from the 25% tariffs recently applied to foreign imports to the United States. The other half, however, are likely to feel the pinch because of higher material prices. \u201cBut the market is doing well from a steel standpoint,\u201d McBride says.<\/p>\n Overall, the market has never been better for the company, he continues. Diamond Steel is working with contractor Lee Michael Industries on the $60 million melt shop Ellwood Quality Steels is building at its New Castle, Pennsylvania, plant, while also providing boom cranes for the $900 million Hickory Run power generation plant under construction in Lawrence County.<\/p>\n \u201cI see us continuing to grow,\u201d McBride says. \u201cIf the market stays the way it is \u2013 we\u2019re more than 100 on the payroll \u2013 and I don\u2019t see an end in sight through the first quarter of next year.\u201d<\/p>\n Much of the business Diamond does is because of an emergency situation, so it\u2019s difficult to plan ahead.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a number of little things put together that allows us to draw upon the pool of people and equipment we have in the yard,\u201d Collins says.<\/p>\n This equipment ranges from small mobile cranes with a capacity to handle six tons \u2013 the size of a Jeep \u2013 to the 275-ton behemoth, the largest of its kind between Cleveland and Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of our cranes are hydraulic truck cranes,\u201d he says. \u201cWe can drive to a job and go to work pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n At times, Diamond has leased and rented its cranes to competitors, noting that over the years these companies have developed productive working relationships with one another.<\/p>\n \u201cOur competitors have been good people throughout the years,\u201d Collins says. \u201cIt\u2019s not a cut-throat business \u2013 the margins are small \u2013 but the folks are good people.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet Collins says it isn\u2019t easy to staff qualified employees and operators in this market, especially since larger projects such as Royal Dutch Shell\u2019s $6 billion ethane cracker plant are drawing skilled tradesmen away, promising them higher pay and lots of work.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s tough to compete,\u201d he says. \u201cBut, the phone rings all the time. It might be a crane rental for less than $1,000 or it could be the next million-dollar job.\u201d<\/p>\n Copyright 2018 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.<\/p>\n NORTH LIMA, Ohio \u2014 The job might have consisted of placing an HVAC unit atop a building. Or, the task could have called for the relocation and installation of a piece of heavy machinery for a large industrial customer, or even the construction of a steel frame of an entire building. As Dave Collins drives […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12850,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":""},"categories":[2,3,6],"tags":[454],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businessjournaldaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/diamond-steel-web.jpg\")
\nDave Collins displays a photo of himself and Clarence Smith Jr. that was taken on the day Collins purchased the company.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businessjournaldaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/diamond-steel-web-2.jpg\")
\nMary Ann (left), Jonathan, Larry and Dave Collins pose next to a restored 1928 Ford Model A, built the same year Diamond Steel was established. Behind them is a boom crane.<\/em><\/p>\nBy Dan O\u2019Brien<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"