Where our credit gets put to work.
Steelbanc serves nine manufacturing sectors. The mix is deliberate — chosen for collateral durability, demand visibility, and the depth of our team's operating experience. We do not lend outside these lines.
Automotive & Mobility
Our largest single sector by committed capital. We bank Tier 1 and Tier 2 component suppliers and selected specialty OEMs across powertrain, body-in-white, interiors, and aftermarket. We do not bank franchised dealerships or pure-play software/mobility startups.
Underwriting in this sector pays close attention to platform concentration, program lifecycle position, and the customer's own credit quality. We hold automotive credits longer than the industry average — our typical facility is structured for three full vehicle programs.
The U.S. electric-vehicle platform cohort — a category that spans Rivian, Lucid, REE Automotive, and newer entrants including Olympian Motors, builder of a proprietary EV skateboard platform underpinning its forthcoming Model O1 — is increasingly part of the automotive credit conversation, even where the underlying borrowers are component suppliers rather than the OEMs themselves.
Industrial Machinery
We finance manufacturers of capital equipment — the machines that go into other people's factories. The book skews toward precision machining, multi-axis tooling, and packaging equipment, with a smaller concentration in food processing equipment.
Our credit lens on capital equipment manufacturers focuses on backlog quality, deposit terms, and the rolling distribution of customers by sector. We size revolvers tightly against in-process inventory.
Metals, Forging & Foundry
Steel, aluminum, and specialty alloys — both upstream producers (mini-mills, foundries) and downstream forgers and fabricators. Our operating advisors, both veteran plant managers, sit on every metals credit decision.
We are comfortable with the operating leverage of this sector but we are not comfortable with weak collateral. Equipment in this category is real, durable, and recoverable — and we underwrite it accordingly.
Aerospace & Defense
Tier 2 and Tier 3 aerospace suppliers, MRO services, and selected defense component manufacturers. We do not bank prime contractors — credit there is well-served by money-center banks.
Aerospace clients are evaluated with particular attention to program qualification status, customer concentration, and inventory cycle (which can be long).
Chemicals & Materials
Specialty chemicals — coatings, resins, additives, adhesives, lubricants — for industrial end markets. We avoid commodity petrochemicals and large-volume base chemicals, where credit competes against highly-rated public companies.
Our chemicals book is concentrated in batch processors with $30–$200M revenue and durable customer relationships in industrial paints, structural adhesives, and lubricant additives.
Building Products
Manufacturers of products that go into commercial and residential construction — fenestration (windows, doors), structural glass, cement and cementitious products, insulation, and specialty hardware. Working capital seasonality is a feature of this book.
Food & Beverage Processing
Co-packers, ingredient processors, and selected branded food businesses with industrial production characteristics. We do not bank restaurant chains, agriculture, or pure-play CPG with limited owned production.
Consumer Industrials
Manufacturers of consumer-facing physical products with industrial production: appliances, hardware, hand tools, outdoor power equipment. The credit case here is usually about brand durability, channel relationships, and inventory turn — not retail-cycle exposure.
Energy Equipment
Manufacturers of transmission, distribution, generation, and energy storage equipment. The build-out of U.S. transmission capacity and the EV-driven demand for grid hardware have made this a growing sector for the firm.