Rolls of coiled coated steel at a Stelco facility in Hamilton.Peter Power/The Canadian Press
The federal government and the U.S.-based owner of Stelco Holdings Inc. have been locked in a war of words since the steelmaker announced it will lay off 500 workers in Southern Ontario.
Ottawa accuses Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. of breaking an employment agreement it signed when buying Stelco in 2024, while Cliffs chief executive officer Lourenco Goncalves pins part of the blame instead on Canada.
The Canadian market isn’t large enough to absorb galvanized steel produced domestically, as well as an “avalanche of imports” Ottawa has failed to adequately reduce, he said during a call with investors earlier this week.
The problem is, trade data don’t back up the assertion that Canada is in the midst of an onslaught of foreign galvanized steel.
On a year-to-date basis, the volume of imports of coated steel from outside the U.S. have plunged more than 30 per cent since 2025 to the lowest level since at least 2019, and are down about 60 per cent over two years, an analysis of Statistics Canada import data shows.
Cleveland-Cliffs did not respond to a request for comment.
Since the Trump administration slapped steep tariffs on steel imports – including from Canada – with the strong encouragement of Cliffs and other steelmakers, the federal government has imposed steep tariff-rate quotas to deter steel dumping in Canada. Ottawa has also mandated federally funded projects prioritize the use of Canadian steel.
Several countries whose steel exporters have faced Canadian dumping investigations have seen shipments plunge since before the start of the trade wars, with year-to-date imports from Turkey down 84 per cent from 2024 and down 87 per cent from the United Arab Emirates.
It’s not just trade data that raises questions about Mr. Goncalves’s reasons for idling Stelco’s galvanized steel operations. The move has baffled its customers, with some pointing out that amid supply restrictions, galvanized steel prices have surged this year.
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