Zekelman Industries

Zekelman Industries is a Canadian company owned by the Zekelman family, including billionaires Barry, Clayton, and Alan Zekelman. They own Atlas Tube, a steel tubing manufacturer in Canada and the US.^[1]

History

Atlas Tube was founded in 1984 by Harry Zekelman. A majority stake was sold to the Carlyle Group in 2006 for $1.5 billion CND.^[2]

In 2006–2008, the Carlyle Group purchased John Maneely Co (founded in 1877) for $550 million,^[3] then purchased Atlas Tube, and Sharon Tube (founded in 1929), forming them into JMC Steel Group under DBO Holdings. Carlyle and Zekelman nearly sold them to Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) for $3.5 billion in 2008, but the deal fell through in late 2008, with DBO/Carlyle suing NLMK for breach of contract.^{[3][4][2][5][6]} DBO/Carlyle and NLMK settled their lawsuit in 2009, with NLMK paying $234 million.^[7]

Picoma became part of JMC in 2009. Carlyle sold a majority stake to the Zekelman family in 2011.^[3] The company name was changed to Zekelman Industries in 2016.

Subsidiaries

Zekelman subsidiaries and locations include:^[8]

• Atlas Tube, Chicago, Illinois; Plymouth, Michigan; Blytheville, Arkansas; Harrow, Ontario; and Oak Bluff, Manitoba; naming of the Atlas Tube Centre
• Hayes Modular, Austin, Texas
• Picoma, Cambridge, Ohio
• Sharon Tube, Farrell, Pennsylvania and Niles, Ohio
• Western Tube, Long Beach, California, acquired in 2017
• Wheatland Tube (created as a subsidiary of John Maneely Co in 1931), Sharon, Pennsylvania and Wheatland, Pennsylvania
• Z Modular, based in Chicago; also Birmingham, Alabama; Killeen, Texas; Chandler, Arizona; and Kitchener, Ontario, created in 2016

Political involvement

Zekelman Industries provides steel tubing to the US-Mexico border wall.^[9] A Zekelman Industries subsidiary, Wheatland Tube, donated $1.75 million to the America First Action super-PAC to elect Donald Trump, a financial maneuver considered questionable for a foreign citizen.^[9][10] Barry Zekelman dined with Donald Trump at a private Trump Hotel DC dinner by America First Action. Zekelman lobbied Trump regarding steel tariffs, the border wall, and trucking regulations.^[10]

As a foreign business executive trying to buy influence through spending on American elections, the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint against Zekelman with the Federal Election Commission in 2019. In April 2022, the F. E C. fined Zekelman $975,000 in the case, one of the biggest penalties it has ever assessed.^[11]

Barry Zekelman

Barry Zekelman owns a million-dollar cigarette boat named Man of Steel.^[9][2] He also has owned several superyachts named Man of Steel; he previously owned a 2005 36.8 m (121 ft) Heesen 3700 named Man of Steel. He replaced this with a steel-hulled 50 m (160 ft) Heesen in 2008, the largest they had built at the time. It was sold and renamed Inception.^[12] The third "Man of Steel" superyacht was an aluminum-hulled 49.8 m (163 ft) Heesen purchased by Zekelman in 2019; it was previously named the Satori and then the Septimus.^[13][14] A third boat, described as a lake boat, is also named Man of Steel.^[9][2] In October 2021, it was confirmed that Zekelman was the purchaser of Steven Spielberg's former 282 ft yacht Seven Seas, built by Oceanco in 2010, which he renamed Man of Steel.

See also

• Franklin Center (Chicago)
• List of wealthiest families

References

1. . 18 August 2008. Archived from the original on 18 August 2008. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
2. "Windsor's man of steel bends to market forces". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 8 February 2020.
3. Reuters Editorial. "UPDATE 1-Carlyle says to sell JMC Steel stake". U.S. Retrieved 8 February 2020. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
4. "Carlyle steel unit sale to Russian firm collapses". Reuters.com. Retrieved 8 February 2020. DBO Holdings
5. "Former Atlas Tube part of Novolipetsk deal". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 8 February 2020. The company, with 2,100 employees in the United States and Canada, operates through its Wheatland and Atlas Tube divisions and has estimated 2008 sales of around $3-billion.
6. Roknick, Michael (25 October 2006). "Wheatland Tube's owner merging with Atlas Tube in $1.5 billion deal". The Herald. Retrieved 8 February 2020.
7. "Carlyle Will Get $234 Million Settlement For Failed Deal With Novolipetsk Steel". Global Custodian. Retrieved 8 February 2020.
8. "Locations | Zekelman Industries". Zekelman Industries. Retrieved 8 February 2020.
9. "He's One of the Biggest Backers of Trump's Push to Protect American Steel. And He's Canadian". nytimes.com. Retrieved 25 January 2020. Barry Zekelman, a Canadian billionaire whose business is mostly in the United States, is not a guy who likes to lose — or go slow. On days off, he likes to race his Ferrari 488 sports cars. Or he might climb aboard his Gulfstream IV jet to fly to the Bahamas to visit his 121-foot superyacht, which he named "Man of Steel" in a nod to his role as chief executive of Zekelman Industries, North America's largest steel-tube manufacturer.
10. "Tape Made Public of Trump Discussing Ukraine With Donors". nytimes.com. Retrieved 25 January 2020. Mr. Zekelman, a Canadian citizen who owns a steel tube manufacturing company that donated $1.75 million to the political action committee supporting Mr. Trump, pushed the president on what he saw as the top two challenges facing his company: cheap steel tube imports from Asia and new federal rules that make it harder to find truck drivers.
11. "Donations Steered to Trump Super PAC by Canadian Are Found to Be Illegal". nytimes.com. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
12. "Inception". superyachttimes.com. Retrieved 8 February 2020.
13. "Man Of Steel". superyachttimes.com. Retrieved 8 February 2020. Septimus
14. "Price Drop on Heesen Motor Yacht Man of Steel". Boat International. Retrieved 8 February 2020.