About Us
Company
We are a commodity and specialty steel trader, purchasing globally from leading carbon, alloy, stainless and high nickel alloy manufacturers. Our company has traded steel internationally for over 100 years.
We have a multi-generational track record of bringing new products from a multitude of sources to the world market. Through our alliances with leading financial institutions, we offer favorable terms to mills and customers.
We are privately held and owner operated, and therefore able to react quickly to changing market conditions. We have representatives in numerous countries that monitor market trends and manage order fulfillment and quality control.
Philosophy
Kurt Orban Partners philosophy revolves around the concept of being a world-class, full service trading company.
Kurt Orban Partners strives to maintain positive, long-term relationships with its partner suppliers and customers by providing them with the best quality information, market know-how, and service possible.
Our Values
-
Resilience
We welcome adversity and learn from it. -
Grit
We practice fortitude and perseverance. -
Family
We treat each other with genuine care.
-
Teamwork
We look for opportunities to help each other. -
Hustle
We love what we do and it shows through our results. -
Achieve
We make impossible things happen every day.
Leadership
K. Matt Orban CEO
Kurt Matthew Orban is the Chairman and CEO of this fourth-generation steel services company. He began his career at age 5, standing on a box at the copy and telex machines, helping Dad with business, eventually becoming a steel salesman when he turned 15. After graduating from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in Economics, he joined his father’s company full time. He became President of KOP in 2001, and upon Kurt senior’s passing in 2006, assumed the role of Chairman and CEO.
From the company’s early focus on Long Products, Matt has developed Kurt
Matt is a long-time member of the National Association of Pipe Distributors, for which he served as a Board Member, and the American Institute for International Steel, an organization promoting global free trade that his father was instrumental in founding.
John Foster, President
The President of Kurt Orban Partners, John Foster, has a long business association with the company, having worked with Kurt Orban Sr. on joint venture projects on behalf of Ferrostaal Metals Corporation in the 1990’s. John eventually joined KOP as President in 2012 after a long and illustrious career in various capacities in the steel industry.
He graduated from Marietta College with a BA in Business and Economics, and later earned an MBA from the University of Colorado in conjunction with the University of San Francisco’s McLaren School of Business.
His steel career began in 1974 at J&L Steel Corporation (later LTV Steel, ISG and now Arcelor Mittal Steel), where he had marketing assignments covering the full line of J&L products, from carbon and stainless flat-rolled through pipe, bar, rod and wire. In 1980 he joined CF&I Steel (now Evraz-Rocky Mountain Steel) in marketing, and expanding into production planning and then general management of the bar, rod and wire mills in Pueblo, CO. In 1990, he moved to Ferrostaal Metals Corporation, which was then a joint venture with Kurt Orban Partners in San Francisco, to manage the Wire Division. The steel trading arm of Ferrostaal eventually merged into what is today Coutinho & Ferrostall GmbH & Co KG. Mr. Foster served as CEO and Executive VP-Commerical for the sector of the Group that oversees the Americas as well as President and CEO of the company’s North American Division.
He has served as Chairman for the Texas Free Trade Coalition during the Section 201 sanctions under the Bush Administration, and is a long time member and presenter to the American Wire Producers Association and the Wire Association International.
Global Reach
We have a multi-generational track record of bringing new products from a multitude of sources to the world market. Through our alliances with leading financial institutions, we offer favorable terms to mills and customers.
Founder
Kurt Orban
Kurt Orban apprenticed in the steel trade while growing up in Germany. Over the years, he became known and respected worldwide for his pioneering involvement in and development of the steel industry, as well as his support for free trade.
His many accomplishments include:
He introduced the products of over 100 mills to the world market, including the United States, Japan, Germany, South Korea, and numerous other countries. Click for a partial list of Products that Kurt brought into the world market.
He was a founder of what is now the American Wire Producers Association, a creator of the American Institute for International Steel, of which he was president from 1969-1972 and 1977-1980, and a President of the American Association of Exporters and Importers.
Kurt Orban Partners is now run by his son, K. Matt Orban.