Southern Cast Products

Serving Rail, Oil & Gas, Marine, Defense, and Mining Industries

Fitting Our System to Your Needs

The eastern span replacement of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay bridge was a construction project to replace a seismically unsound portion of the Bay Bridge with a new self-anchored suspension bridge. It was the most expensive public works project in California history, costing $6.5 billion. Part of that money wound up in Meridian, MS, because of the work of Southern Cast Products. They made the cable sockets. The new, iconic Crimson Arch Bridge in Tuscaloosa, AL, at the McFarland Boulevard/US Highway 82 interchange, costing $83.4 million is another project in which Southern Cast was involved. Another economic boost for Meridian. San Francisco cable car wheels, tank car lids, Caterpillar parts, all made in Meridian at SCP. 

Southern Cast Products is a steel foundry, a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified and cooled. They pour the liquid metal at 3000 degrees. Heating the metal requires a lot of energy. In fact, the foundry uses the same amount of electrical power in one day that you would use at your house in two years! The advantages of metal casting are (1) being able to produce complex shapes, and (2) components can be easily reproduced from a single pattern. Foundries are also significant recyclers, melting and recasting millions of tons of scrap metal every year to create new goods. 

In 1973, Fred Wile, founder of SCP, came to Newton, MS to manage the ESCO plant. He was a mechanical engineer from UC-Berkeley who previously worked in Oregon. He fell in love with MS and got married, moved to Meridian and raised his family here. Fred wanted to start his own company and in 1979, established Southern Cast Products. SCP was the first business to open in the Northeast Industrial Park and has been there for 42 years. To overcome the challenges of entrepreneurship, he says, “You have to really like what you are doing when you start a new business.”

Daniel Wile, Fred’s son, came to work at SCP in 2011 and was named president in 2014. “Daniel is analytical; perfecting processes already in place,” adds Fred. “And that’s what you need to grow a company. To take that next step, expanding on the original plan for the business.” Daniel, also a mechanical engineer, worked in Savannah, GA after college for an aerospace manufacturer. Daniel enjoys the interaction with employees and customers that his role at Southern Cast Products provides. “Engineers at large aerospace companies were too far away from the end-product. Specializing on a particular part of an airplane didn’t allow you to be involved in the total production of the plane. Here at Southern Cast Products, there’s just something about seeing your product from start to finish that is very rewarding.”

Why is Southern Cast Products a member of the EMBDC? “We don’t have a lot of customers in this area, but we live here and want to see the area prosper,” Daniel says. “EMBDC works to see that continue to happen.” Daniel feels that Southern Cast Products is fortunate to be in a region where many people have strong personal values. “The work ethic, pride, and spirit of loyalty is not something you find all over,” he says. “People take pride in this place and take pride in their work.”

Southern Cast is one of very few foundries in the southeastern United States, with more than 100 employees and shipping 8 – 10 million pounds of castings. Southern Cast is a jobbing foundry, working to produce products to each customer’s specific requirements. Since 1979, Southern Cast Products, Inc. has been an extension of their customers’ businesses, providing foundry, metallurgical expertise, and custom solutions. 

Southern Cast Products
1010 Wile Rd., Meridian, MS