A Black Country steel stockholding business has fallen into administration, placing up to 170 jobs under threat.

Allan Graham and Matthew Ingram, from financial services firm Duff & Phelps, were appointed joint administrators of Meridian Metal Trading yesterday.

The company was founded in 1987 and supplies a variety of steel products.

It is headquartered in Dudley, where it operates a 150,000 sq ft warehouse, and also has service centres in Guildford and Sheffield and sales offices in Bolton and Newport, South Wales.

It is not clear at this stage how many of its 170 staff are based in Dudley but administrators stressed that company continued to trade as usual.

No reason is given in the statement from Duff & Phelps as to why the business had appointed administrators but last month it was reported that Meridian Metal Trading had been in discussions with a string of investors for weeks.

Mr Graham said: "Meridian is one of the largest, fully independent steel stockholders and processors in the UK and one of the best known stockholders in the sector.

"The company processes steel sheet and coil and supplies close to 250,000 tonnes of steel to hundreds of customers annually.

"It is our intention to continue to trade the business until a buyer is found, a process that we do not think will take long as there are already a number of expressions of interest.

"There have been no redundancies and it is very much business as usual.

"We are receiving great support from the experienced workforce, suppliers and customers to find a positive outcome."