Stelco Inc. announced that it will idle its Hamilton, Ontario, plate mill in April. The company attributed the closing to a result of a continued surge in import plate volume at low prices.
According to the company, overall import plate volume has risen 38 percent in the first eleven months of 2002 with low-priced imports from offshore up 102 percent and prices down more than 10 percent.
The surge in low-priced plate imports follows the Canadian International Trade Tribunal's injury ruling in the safeguard investigation in 2002. The plate mill's operating rate was reduced to 25 percent of capacity in August 2002 due to a lack of orders and will continue to operate at that uneconomical level until it is idled in April.
J. C. Alfano, president and CEO, stated, "The import crisis in the Canadian plate market needs to be addressed with the imposition of effective tariffs against low-priced imports by our federal government immediately. It is only once order is restored to the Canadian plate market that we will be able to attract plate volume at the price level required to support a sustainable plate mill operation."
Alfano also stated that, "Plate is not the only product where the domestic market is being overrun by low-priced imports, and government action must also address the CITT's injury findings on four other products (cold rolled sheet, reinforcing bar, standard pipe and angles, shapes and sections). In addition, offshore imports of hot rolled and galvanized sheet steel have surged 39 percent and 100 percent respectively in the first eleven months 2002, indicating that the CITT's "no injury" finding must be readdressed by the federal government."
For the first eleven months of 2002, offshore steel import volume increased 29 percent, with overall imports representing 40 percent of Canadian steel consumption, up from 37 percent in 2001.