September, 2025- As the COVID pandemic remained front-page news in April 2021, Joseph T. Ryerson & Son Inc. launched a podcast, Cup O’ Joe, co-hosted by Mike Carrozzo and Nick Webb.
Carrozzo joined Ryerson in 2018 and is the company’s content manager. “I handle content for marketing and thought leadership. Before that, I worked for trade magazines covering construction and manufacturing and worked for marketing agencies,” he says.
Webb joined Ryerson in 2014. He was hired to lead risk management and hedging, “using financial contracts to mitigate risk for Ryerson and our customers.” Before that, “I was a commodities broker with Wells Fargo and worked at NewEdge and Jeffries, a mid-market investment bank.”
Carrozzo and Webb are supported by Jason Pounders, marketing manager for the service center network, and they frequently invite guest speakers, who are often product or market experts within the company.
Founded in 1842 and based in Chicago, Ryerson processes, fabricates and distributes carbon and stainless steels and aluminum products from coil, sheet and plate to pipe and tube, structural sections and bars to extrusions. Industries served include automation, data centers, fabricators and machine shops, manufacturers of heavy equipment, transportation, automotive and many more.
The idea for Cup o’ Joe—named, naturally, for founder Joseph Ryerson—was sparked by an internal online conference called Engauge, during which Webb provided a commodities market update for participants, according to Pounders.
“[Ryerson executives] saw the reaction we got from the conference—providing this content and analysis. Customers really enjoyed it. It let leadership know it’s worthwhile,” Carrozzo says.
As of mid-August, the podcast has more than 3,400 YouTube subscribers. Pounders says the audience consists of customers, producers, Ryerson shareholders and internal staff. “It’s a broad mix of the metals community.”
KEEPING IT FRESH
The podcast occurs the first Thursday of each month, and Webb says the content varies depending on what’s deemed to be the most pertinent issue of the day.
“We try to keep it fresh. If the podcast is at 2:30 p.m., I am preparing content up to two hours before,” he says. “The information is coming out so quickly—on metals, on macroeconomics, on politics. In terms of content, we focus on whatever is relevant. One month, it might be stainless steel,” another, pricing, and so on.
“Depending on what’s happening, we bring in internal or external people to be subject matter experts. We must have the right people” to speak on each topic, Webb notes.
Carrozzo says Ryerson, which employs about 4,200 people across over 100 locations, has “such a deep pool of talent—vertical market experts, product experts.” For example, “a lot has been going on with Mexico, so we brought on Oscar Rivera, one of our general managers for Ryerson in Mexico,” for the Aug. 10 podcast.
While planning each episode, “Nick and Jason and I will talk about trends and who we should ask to join,” Carrozzo says.
The Cup O’ Joe podcast guests dive into the markets for different product lines.
EDUCATION & ENTERTAINMENT
The trio has three primary goals with Cup O’ Joe. First, says Webb, is “to keep colleagues and customers informed. Education is power. To the extent that our people have information, they can make better buying decisions.”
Carrozzo adds, “We saw this as a way to be transparent with customers, to let them know what is going on in the market. There is so much noise out there,” and the information provided can perhaps through cut through that.
“Ryerson might be an old company, but we like to have fun,” Webb says.
Jason Pounders
“We try to keep it lighthearted,” Carrozzo says. On one episode, “Nick cut his hair on camera to settle a bet. We don’t want to be stodgy.”
Guest speakers will often liven things up, too, with quips and asides.
METALS LANDSCAPE
Asked to opine on the market as of mid-August, Webb says, “Demand is kind of squishy and supply is meeting softened demand. We see some robust growth with data center and AI buildouts. Other markets like agricultural equipment, construction and energy are somewhat soft. It’s a matter of the haves and have-nots.”
Seeing that lower demand, “we are seeing capacity utilization rates constrained across all the metals.”
Century Aluminum announced Aug. 7 that it would restart its Mount Holly, South Carolina, smelter, which has 500,000 tons of capacity. “It looks like they are bringing on production that had been shuffered,” Webb says. In addition, “Aluminum Dynamics is coming on line.” The operation, in Columbus, Mississippi, will have 650,000 metric tons of capacity
Nick Webb
Mike Carrozzo
TARIFFS & SUPPLY CHAIN
U.S. tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum products is not particularly problematic for Ryerson, according to Webb.
“We highlighted this in the discussion with our Mexico GM [Rivera]. As an institution, we are scaffered across North America, so we are somewhat indifferent as to where our customers set up their supply chains.
“We are in a position to provide material where they land and where they source material,” says Webb. “We have strong relationships with domestic suppliers and good relationships with foreign sources. In terms of what tariffs mean for Ryerson, it has added complexities and so we do educate ourselves and our customers. It changes how we approach markets and how tariffs affect both buying and selling decisions.”
Short term, “there is an impact to business,” says Pounders. “We try to help our customers understand this, and help them make important decisions in an important time, to stay on top of a situation that may change daily.”
Webb acknowledges that the tariffs did create “a headwind effect to manufacturing operational decisions. Some have been sitting on the sidelines” with regard to production volumes. “It feels like the rules are in flux and predictions are difficult. We hope for more clarity and certainty, and then demand could open up.”
Are the tariffs encouraging any reshoring of manufacturing activity? “We do see supply chains rerouting a bit and production relocating,” says Webb. In May, “Generac Power Systems, based in Wisconsin, said they would bring all manufacturing operations back to America. Interestingly, when we spoke with [Rivera], he sees companies doing risk assessment about moving some of their operations to Mexico”in other words, nearshoring.
CURVEBALLS
Pounders notes that the podcast is live “so we give the listeners a chance to ask questions and we don’t filter the questions. I think that is a unique aspect. If anyone wants to participate, they can join us,” he says.
According to Webb, “the live Q&A can throw curveballs, which is both fun and scary. That’s a unique element. You can ask about metals, the economy or politics. All that keeps it interesting.”
Ryerson Co., 855/793-7766, ryerson.com.
