Rajat Marwah, Algoma Steel’s plain-spoken new president and chief executive officer, shot straight from the hip during a Wednesday-morning address to investors.
Talking about the effect tariffs have had recently on his company, Marwah credited them for having “reinforced the strategic value of Canadian steelmaking capacity in ways that were far less visible even two years ago.”
Last night, the Sault steelmaker reported that tariffs directly cost his company $27.4 million during the first quarter of 2026, compared to $10.5 million during the same quarter last year.
The following is excerpted from Marwah’s remarks during this morning’s teleconference:
I want to be direct about something.
Algoma is more exposed to tariffs than virtually any steel company in North America.
We are Canada’s only independent steelmaker and that reality has made Sault Ste. Marie a focal point of the trade disruption that has reshaped the steel industry over the past year.
We are not going to understate that impact, nor are we going to minimize the challenge it has created.
But this is what we would ask investors to focus on. The investments Algoma has made in a state-of-the-art electric arc furnace platform and the modernization of Canada’s only discrete plate mill have positioned the company at the centre of Canada’s emerging industrial and defence strategy.
Industrial sovereignty requires domestic steelmaking capability.
Armoured vehicles require ballistic steel.
National infrastructure programs are strengthened by structural steel produced domestically by Canadian workers for Canadian supply chain.
Algoma is uniquely positioned to support these priorities alongside our customers, partners and peers across the broader Canadian industrial base.
The Rochelle Algoma Defence JV and the Hanwha Ocean Beam memoranda of understanding are not peripheral initiatives or aspirational concepts.
They are tangible evidence of where industrial policies and strategic demands are moving.
Canada is actively seeking to reduce reliance on foreign supply chain for critical material and defence grade products and Algoma is participating directly in that effort, working alongside government customers and industrial partners to help build resilient domestic capacity.
Importantly, the current tariff environment, while undeniably challenging, has accelerated the urgency around domestic sourcing and industrial self-sufficiency.
In many respects, it has reinforced the strategic value of Canadian steelmaking capacity in ways that were far less visible even two years ago.
We are managing through the tariff headwinds at the same time we are building the company Canada increasingly needs.
Those are not competing narratives.
They are fundamentally the same story.