EMJ Announces Election of Andrew G. Sharkey III to Board

Earle M. Jorgensen Company (NYSE:JOR) today announced
that its board of directors elected Andrew G. Sharkey III to serve as
a director of Earle M. Jorgensen Company ("EMJ") and as a member of
the Compensation Committee and the Nominating and Corporate Governance
Committee of the board of directors, to serve until the next annual
meeting of stockholders. Sharkey currently serves as director,
president and chief executive officer of the American Iron and Steel
Institute ("AISI"), a non-profit association of North American
companies engaged in the iron and steel industries, positions which he
has held since he joined AISI in August 1993. Prior to that, Sharkey
served for 12 years as the president of the Steel Service Center
Institute, the predecessor of Metals Service Center Institute, a trade
association.
   EMJ, with headquarters in Lynwood, is a leading distributor of
metal bar and tubular products used by North American manufacturing
companies. EMJ inventories more than 25,000 different metal products
in large quantities from primary producers, including a broad mix of
carbon steel, stainless steel and aluminum bar. EMJ distributes its
broad range of metal products and provides its customers value-added
metal processing and inventory management services from its
distribution network of 35 strategically located service and
processing centers in the United States and Canada.

   (Code:JORG)