reliance steel & aluminum co. (nyse:rs) headquartered in los angeles, california, is the largest metals service center company in north america. through a network of more than 300 locations in 39 states and 12 countries outside of the united states, the company provides value-added metals processing services and distributes a full line of over 100,000 metal products. these products include galvanized, hot-rolled and cold-finished steel, stainless steel, aluminum, brass, copper, titanium and alloy steel sold to more than 125,000 customers in a broad range of industries. some of these metals service centers provide processing services for specialty metals only. in the mid-1970's, the company began to establish specialty metals centers stocked with inventories of selected metals and equipped with automated materials handling and precision cutting equipment. beginning in the early 1990's, owners of successful service center companies started to sell these companies as they were reaching re