Tenaris to taper production at Canadian mill

The North American division of Luxembourg-based steelmaker Tenaris SA reportedly will reduce output at its electric arc furnace (EAF) pipe mill near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

According to an online report from Reuters, Tenaris is temporarily laying off workers and adjusting production at its plant in Ontario, and the company is citing “uncertainty in the steel market following tariffs imposed by the United States.”

The plant in Ontario melts ferrous scrap to produce steel pipe used primarily in oil and gas exploration, drilling, transport and refining applications.

The Reuters report refers to the 40 people being laid off at Tenaris’ Ontario mill as “the first publicly disclosed job losses in the Canadian steel industry since the Trump administration’s metal tariffs were disclosed in March.”

The article quotes a Tenaris vice president as saying the implementation of the tariff “has created an unsustainable market to serve our U.S. customers.”

In mid-June, Tenaris announced it would be adding employees at a pipe heat-treating facility in Texas. The Reuters report indicates, however, that the nation’s oil and gas sector is largely importing needed steel pipe from Asia.

The news agency reported in late June that oil field steel pipe and tube imports have “flooded into Canada this spring, as Trump’s steel tariffs forced producers from Asia to seek new markets, threatening jobs in the Canadian pipe-making sector.”

Canadian customs figures point to a 90 percent increase in such imports in April 2018 compared with a year earlier, according to Reuters.