COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, May 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Michael H. Hoffman, deputy chairman of South Africa's Macsteel Group as well as president, CEO and co-chairman of Macsteel Service Centers USA, Newport Beach, California, has been elected the next chairman of the Metals Service Center Institute, effective July 1.

Hoffman, who has been a vice chairman of the trade association, succeeds Bill Jones, vice chairman of O'Neal Industries of Birmingham, Alabama, who has been chairman for the last two years.

A native of Cape Town, South Africa, Hoffman is a chartered accountant. He worked for a short period of time in the accounting and finance profession before joining Israel Aircraft Industries. He returned to South Africa in 1983 and joined Gulf Steel, a wholly owned subsidiary of Macsteel Group. He was named managing director of Gulf Steel in 1984 and deputy chairman of the Macsteel Group in 1991.

As an MSCI vice chairman, Hoffman has been responsible for member recruitment and served as chairman of the Forward magazine Editorial Advisory Board.

"Michael has been an important volunteer leader within MSCI for many years," said M. Robert Weidner, III, MSCI's president and CEO. "As a vice chairman, he has been directly responsible for, and highly successful at, recruiting new members during a difficult economic period. As chairman of the Forward editorial advisory board, he has contributed substantially to the publication's success as a business thought-leadership forum. He is an outstanding businessman and seasoned business leader. His global perspective and experiences will greatly benefit the institute. "

Founded in 1909, the Metals Service Center Institute has more than 370 members operating from about 1,200 locations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and elsewhere in the world. Together, MSCI members constitute the largest single group of metals purchasers in North America, amounting each year to more than 55 million tons of steel, aluminum, and other metals, with about 300,000 manufacturers and fabricators as customers. MSCI's membership also includes almost all ferrous and non-ferrous industrial metals producers in North America. Metals service centers inventory and distribute metals and provide first-stage fabrication services.

SOURCE Metals Service Center Institute