YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Area manufacturers are playing an increasing role in the growth of data centers, with one local manufacturer being recognized recently by one of its customers that serves the data center industry.
Electrification has always represented significant business for Hynes Industries, a Youngstown-based custom roll form and metal fabrication manufacturing business, CEO Rick Organ said. That has grown in recent years, particularly as it relates to data centers. Components that it manufactures for data centers include busways and busbars, which distribute power, as well as cabinets and flooring.
“Because cooling is so important in those data centers, they run a lot of their cooling equipment beneath the floors, so they’re on elevated floors,” he said. “So we make the stringers that are supporting the equipment in data centers as well.”
ClarkDetrich’s Warren plant manufactures several products that go into data centers, said Jennifer Edgar, vice president of marketing. Those include the BlazeFrame RipTRAK wall joint system, MaxTrak deflection track system, clips, connectors and structural steel studs. The company has been supplying data centers as long as they have been being built, she said.
The company offers a comprehensive lineup of products and services for cold-formed steel framing and drywall/plastering finishing systems, according to its website.
“We expect sales to be steady with increased sales for our specialty product lines made in Warren,” she said. “Data centers require an enormous amount of structural steel, so we see uptick in that product line as well.”
Recently, Legrand, a global specialist in electrical and digital building infrastructures, including for data centers, named Hynes Industries a recipient of its Rising Star Supplier of the Year Award. The selection was based on its work supporting Starline, part of Legrand’s data, power and control divisions and a critical supplier to the buildout of data centers, according to a Hynes news release.
Hynes currently supplies clients tied to the data center industry through the continental United States, and its first shipment is going to Mexico this month, Organ said. He expects to be shipping to Europe eventually as well.
Out of 120 million pounds of materials – which include copper and steel – that Hynes will process for its various customers this year, roughly 30 million will be for data centers, he estimated. That compares with perhaps 5 to 7 million pounds for data centers just four years ago.
“We built capacity back in February that we already find ourselves in a position where we’re needing to add additional capacity,” he said.
Kevin Kykoff, head of engineering, has been with Hynes just over a year.
“Since I’ve been here, the volume has picked up dramatically on several of the highrunners,” and production has increased significantly, he said. “It’s an incredible thing to see in terms of that market and our ability to produce product and support it.”
That need for additional capacity has necessitated purchasing existing equipment, which Hynes is scouring the world to find now, to quickly stand up to meet its customers’ needs.
“We don’t have the luxury of waiting a year because if we go out and spec it out today, in order for us to get it, it’s going to be 36 to 52 weeks,” Organ said. “We don’t have 36 to 52 weeks. We’ve got 16 weeks maybe, so that forces us to look within our own organization redeploying assets, which we’re doing, but in addition to that, looking into what’s available in the secondary market.”
Overall, he estimated Hynes would spend more than $15 million on additional equipment this year. “Over the course of the past four years, we’ve put over $50 million into this business,” he said.
Much of the equipment Hynes is considering was previously used for other purposes and will be repurposed for data center work, he said. It also is having to import some specialty equipment from overseas, including a pair of specially designed saws from Turkey that cost $250,000 each. The company had to have them shipped via air freight for $100,000 because arrival by boat would have taken too long.
That wasn’t inexpensive, he acknowledged.
“This whole phenomenon that has taken place here has really forced us to kind of think differently about how we go about standing up new equipment,” he said. “A lot of this is about getting our own people to wrap their heads around the idea of no, you don’t have 50 weeks here; you don’t have 40 weeks here. … We need to be in production to support our customers’ requirements by the end of December.”
Accommodating demand also requires more production space and personnel. While the company has considered an additional location, that isn’t the “No. 1 preference,” Organ said.
“There’s a lot of additional costs that come with adding another facility,” he said.
Instead, the company is redeploying space at its Youngstown plant, where the data center-related production work is focused.
“So among the things we’re doing here is we’re moving equipment and assets to our other facilities to make space available here at Youngstown to be able to accommodate the additional equipment that we’re installing here,” he said. Hynes is clearing out a 70,000-square-foot bay that will be dedicated to supporting data centers.
That also means adding shifts and people to its plants in Painesville and Kokomo, Ind., to support the business that is being reallocated there, Organ said. He expects Hynes to have added more than 50 people at the Youngstown plant by the end of 2026.
Edgar declined to say what adjustments, including capital expenditures, ClarkDietrich is making at its local plants to accommodate increased business from data center work.
“We are always hiring for our Warren and Vienna locations,” she said. “We currently run three shifts at each location.”
Pictured at top: Rick Organ, CEO of Hynes Industries.