Why are so Many North American Commercial Heat Treaters Closing?

If it seems like commercial heat treatment firms in North America have been dropping like flies over the past year you can certainly be forgiven for thinking so. Over the course of the past year “The Monty Heat Treat News” has mentioned at least 12 firms that have closed, with at least two more to be mentioned in the next few weeks. This prompts the question “Why Ae So Many North American Commercial Heat Treaters Closing”?
 
There are three schools of thoughts on this rather depressing trend; the first holds that manufacturers are bringing more heat treating in house leading to lower volumes going to commercial operations. The second suggests that uncertainty in the automotive sector and an overcapacity in the commercial heat treat industry is leading commercial treaters to adjust to these new realities. And the 3rd school of thought offers that large government subsidies during the Covid Pandemic kept many commercial operations afloat long after they should have closed down.
 
(To bolster the views of those in the first camp who believe manufacturers are bringing more heat treating in house leading to a decline in volumes for commercial heat treaters we would suggest this article; “More Manufacturers Bringing Heat Treating in House?” written by Mr. Marco Baretti of vacuum furnace builder “TAV”. Granted Marco wrote this from a European heat treat perspective but we believe that many of the thoughts are applicable to North America also). 
 
The list below shows some but not all of the commercial heat treaters in North America which have closed in the past year-the team at “The Monty”looked at each one to determine why they closed down and we came to some very interesting conclusions-basically that there are a wide variety of reasons why heat treats close down. Our conclusions are below this list (please note that two firms on this list will be announcing their closures in the next few weeks, at this point in time we choose not to identify them). 
 
Commercial Steel Treating, Michigan; https://themonty.com/another-usa-commercial-heat-treater-closes-its-doors/?no_cache=1
 
American Steel Treating, Ohio: https://themonty.com/substantial-us-heat-treater-to-close-april-1-2025/
 
Cambridge Heat Treating, Ontario; https://themonty.com/cambridge-heat-treating-celebrates-40th-anniversary/
 
Weiss Industries, Ohio; https://weissind.com/
 
Elm Plating, Michigan; https://themonty.com/us-company-to-exit-commercial-heat-treating/ Elm Plating
 
AMAC Industries, Ohio; https://themonty.com/ohio-usa-metal-processing-company-to-temporarily-slow-down-halt-production/
 
Bodycote, California; https://themonty.com/usa-commercial-heat-treat-facility-to-close/
 
Texas Heat Treater
 
Ohio Heat Treater
 
Diamond Heat Treat, Illinois; https://themonty.com/thermal-process-holdings-consolidates-plants/
 
Missouri Heat Treat, Missouri; https://themonty.com/another-usa-commercial-heat-treat-closes-its-doors/   
 
MT Heat Treat/Quality Steels/Metallurgical Services; https://themonty.com/what-the-heck-is-happening-to-heat-treating-in-ohio-usa/
 
Commercial heat treats close down for any number of different reasons, using the above examples these are the conclusions we came to;
 
Retirement; In the case of two of these firms including “Cambridge Heat Treating” the owners with no family members to take over the business and unable to find a buyer decided to liquidate the businesses. In both cases hard assets such as land, building and equipment was greater than the value of the business as a going concern.
 
Tariffs; One of the companies on this list closed because new US tariffs meant their largest customer found it made more sense to keep the heat treating in Canada as opposed to sending it to the US.
 
Consolidation; Three of these closures were the result of multi-location commercial heat treaters consolidating operations.
 
Older Technologies; We always had a high opinion of Amercian Steel Treating in Perrysburg, Ohio which at one time was an industry leader in automated pusher furnaces. However the firm never moved beyond what has become an older technology and that combined with the fact that their fortunes were tied to the auto industry proved to be too large a challenge for the company.
 
Lack of Profits; In a couple of cases firms found that their margins on heat treating were so small that the decision was made to pivot away from commercial heat treating in favor of other business units.
 
Stupidity & Incompetence; And of course in at least one case sheer incompetence lead to the demise of what was once a good business model.
 
While it would appear to be doom and gloom in the commercial heat treat industry in North America, at the end of the day we can’t lose track of the fact that there are over 500 commercial heat treat locations in North America and a failure of even 15 commercial heat treats represents a very tiny % of the overall market.
 
For more information about commercial heat treating in North America we would suggest; “52 Largest North American Commercial Heat Treaters 2025
 
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