Mr. John Reid reports

RUSSEL METALS CLOSES ACQUISITION OF ASSETS FROM SAMUEL

Russel Metals Inc. has closed the acquisition of seven service centres located in Western Canada and the Northeast United States from Samuel, Son & Co. Ltd.

John Reid, president and chief executive officer, commented, "We have worked very closely with the Samuel team over the past several months in co-ordinating for an orderly transition, and we now welcome the Samuel employees to the Russel family."

About Russel Metals Inc.

Russel Metals is one of the largest metals distribution companies in North America, with a growing focus on value-added processing. It carries on business in three segments: metals service centres, energy products and steel distributors. Its network of metals service centres carries an extensive line of metal products in a wide range of sizes, shapes and specifications, including carbon hot rolled and cold finished steel, pipe and tubular products, stainless steel, aluminum, and other non-ferrous specialty metals. Its energy products operations carry a specialized product line focused on the needs of energy industry customers. Its steel distributors operations act as master distributors selling steel in large volumes to other steel service centres and large equipment manufacturers mainly on an as-is basis.