Tell Steel

What Tell Steel does

Tell Steel is a privately held, family-owned metal service center and distributor founded in 1959 by Tell D. Tuffli and headquartered in a 100,000-square-foot, multiple-bay facility at 2345 W. 17th Street in Long Beach, California. The company distributes carbon steel, stainless steel (grades 304, 310, 316, 17-4), and aluminum (grades 6061-T6, 6063-T52, 5052-H32, 3003, 5086) in forms including bars, sheets, plates, pipes, tubes, structural shapes, expanded and perforated metal — holding approximately 17 million pounds (8,500 tons) of inventory across 4,000+ SKUs. Its core differentiator is vertical integration: in addition to distribution, Tell Steel operates 7 industrial-grade processing machines providing waterjet, plasma, oxyfuel flame (up to 15-inch thickness), band saw (10 machines), blanchard rotary grinding, plate/sheet shearing, miter cutting (up to 60 degrees), laser cutting, CNC punching, CNC drilling, and galvanizing services in-house.

The company generates revenue through transactional metal product sales (priced by unit/weight via quote) and value-added processing services. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed; customers access the business through a toll-free phone line (800-734-8355), an online RFQ system at tellsteel.com, and direct pickup at the Long Beach facility, with next-day delivery available for most orders. Tell Steel employs 51–100 people and serves a horizontally diversified customer base spanning construction, transportation, maritime shipping, aviation, machine shops and fabricators, government municipalities, private small businesses, and individual DIY customers across Southern California and select national accounts. The business is sales-led, with marketing driven primarily by organic search visibility, direct customer engagement, and word-of-mouth referrals built over six decades of "First in Service" brand positioning.

Name

Tell Steel

Legal name

Tell Steel

Website

https://tellsteel.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1959

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Tell Steel is a family-owned metal service center in Long Beach, California, founded in 1959, distributing carbon steel, stainless steel, and aluminum across 4,000+ SKUs and providing in-house cutting, grinding, and fabrication processing to construction, maritime, aviation, manufacturing, and government customers in Southern California.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Industrial Metal Distribution & Processing

NAICS

Steel Product Manufacturing from Purchased Steel (3312), All Other Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing (33299)

SIC

Sheet Metal Work (3444), Miscellaneous Fabricated Metal Products (3490)

akta.pro primary industry

Steel Service Centers & Processing (Slitting, Cut-to-Length, Blanking, Leveling) (IMAKABAL)

Keywords

• Metal distribution services
• Steel service center
• Industrial metal supply
• Metal processing services
• Metal fabrication services

Headquarters

HQ city

Long Beach

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Operations, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Metal Product Sales: Sale of metal products including carbon steel, stainless steel, and aluminum in various forms (bars, sheets, plates, pipes, tubes, structural shapes). Transaction-based sales model where customers purchase metal materials by unit/weight.
2. Metal Processing Services: Revenue generated from in-house metal processing capabilities including waterjet cutting, plasma cutting, flame cutting, band saw cutting, blanchard grinding, plate shearing, miter cutting, CNC punching, CNC drilling, laser cutting, and galvanizing services.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Tell Steel is a full-line metal service center distributing carbon steel, stainless steel, and aluminum products in over 4,000 SKUs and 17 million pounds of inventory. The company provides in-house metal processing services including waterjet cutting, plasma cutting, flame cutting, band saw cutting, blanchard grinding, plate/sheet shearing, miter cutting, laser cutting, CNC punching, CNC drilling, and galvanizing from its 100,000-square-foot Long Beach, California facility.

Product overview

Tell Steel is a metal service distributor offering a comprehensive portfolio of metal products and metal processing services. The company operates as a single unified offering combining inventory distribution with in-house processing capabilities. Core product categories include Carbon Steel (beams, channels, bars, plates, sheets, pipes, tubes, structural shapes, alloys), Stainless Steel (grades 304, 310, 316, 17-4 including sheets, plates, bars, pipes, tubes, structural shapes, expanded/perforated metal), and Aluminum (grades 6061-T6, 6063-T52, 5052-H32, 3003, 5086 including bars, sheets, plates, pipes, tubes). Metal processing services include waterjet cutting, plasma cutting, flame cutting, plate/sheet shearing, blanchard grinding, band saw cutting, laser cutting, CNC punching, CNC drilling, galvanizing, and miter cutting. Value-added tools include metal weight calculators and an online RFQ system. The company maintains 8,500 tons of metal on hand with over 4,000 products and 17 million pounds of inventory, serving industries including construction, maritime shipping, aviation, machine shops, and fabricators.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Carbon Steel Products Carbon steel products including beams, channels, bars, plates, sheets, pipes, tubes, and structural shapes in various grades such as A-36, A572, A514, A516, A588, and alloy steels, sold to industrial, construction, maritime, aviation, and manufacturing customers.
• Stainless Steel Products Stainless steel products in grades 304, 310, 316, and 17-4, including sheets, plates, bars, pipes, tubes, structural shapes, expanded metal, and perforated metal, sold to industrial customers including maritime and marine applications.
• Aluminum Products Aluminum products in grades 6061-T6, 6063-T52, 5052-H32, 3003, and 5086, including bars, sheets, plates, pipes, tubes, expanded metal, and perforated metal, sold to industrial customers including marine and aerospace applications.
• Waterjet Cutting Services

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 65 years of continuous operation serving Southern California since 1959
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles6 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Kloeckner Metals: National steel service center and metals distributor offering carbon steel, stainless, and aluminum with extensive in-house processing (cutting, machining, fabrication). Directly comparable business model and product breadth to Tell Steel, though at much larger national scale.
• Metal Supermarkets: Franchise-based metal service center chain offering small-quantity sales of steel, stainless, and aluminum to SMB and DIY customers. Closely comparable customer segment and product mix, though with smaller-format stores.
• TW Metals: Specialty metals service center focusing on stainless steel, aluminum, and alloy products with value-added processing. Comparable product specialization and customer base in industrial and aerospace markets.
• EMJ Metals: Metal service center distributing steel, aluminum, and stainless products with processing capabilities (cutting, machining). Comparable regional service-center model serving industrial and manufacturing customers.

Broad incumbents

• Ryerson: One of the largest North American metal service centers with broad carbon steel, stainless, and aluminum offerings plus value-added processing. Operates at far greater scale and national footprint than Tell Steel but in the same product/service category.
• Reliance Steel & Aluminum: Largest U.S. metals service center company with a network of service centers offering the same product mix and processing capabilities as Tell Steel (cutting, processing, fabrication). Public company with multi-billion-dollar scale.
• Olympic Steel: National metal service center with comparable product portfolio (carbon steel, stainless, aluminum) plus value-added processing. Public company operating at significantly larger scale across multiple regions.
• Worthington Industries: Diversified metal processing company with steel processing operations. Overlaps with Tell Steel in flat-rolled steel processing and conversion services but operates at much larger industrial scale.
• Commercial Metals Company: Vertically integrated steel manufacturer and metals recycler with downstream service-center operations. Comparable metals processing capabilities and customer end-markets, though at much larger integrated scale.

Emerging players

• Online Metals: E-commerce-first small-quantity metals distributor serving hobbyist, SMB, and prototype customers. Direct competitor for Tell Steel's DIY/SMB segment via a digital-native model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/tell-steel

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Tell Steel