Chair: SDI owes a lot to Romney company

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - One of northeast Indiana's most successful businesses is suddenly at the center of the presidential race.

As NewsChannel 15 first reported Monday, a new video released by Republican candidate Mitt Romney features Steel Dynamics. 

The web video talks about how Romney's firm, Bain Capital, invested millions of dollars into Steel Dynamics, commonly known as SDI, in the 1990s.

Tuesday, NewsChannel 15 got reaction from Steel Dynamics co-founder and former CEO Keith Busse, now chairman of the company, to get his thoughts.

"We were the smallest of 60 steel makers at the time we were born [in 1993]. Today, there's only 28 steel makers left," said Busse. "So half the field has left. And we're the fifth-largest steel maker in the country. So are we proud of it? Darn right we are. And we owe a lot of that to people like G.E. and Bain Capital."

Steel Dynamics now employs more than 6,500 people across the country.

Romney first mentioned his investments in Steel Dynamics during a presidential debate earlier this year. His new ad comes on the heels of an ad from President Obama's campaign that talks about Romney's role bankrupting a steel plant in Kansas City.

Busse said Romney's investment group did what it could to save the Kansas City plant, but that it was an uphill fight from the start.

"They're venture capitalists, and a lot of the deals that they look at are companies on the verge of bankruptcy and/or bankrupt," said Busse. "And so they invest capital in these companies in an effort to save them and to save the jobs, but that's not always the case."