Ontario Construction News staff writer
Montreal-based Nova Steel is calling on the federal government to strengthen trade protections and introduce measures to support Canadian steel producers as it prepares to temporarily lay off 36 employees at its Saint-Patrick facility.
The layoffs take effect Friday, Nov. 13, as the company faces declining orders for standard steel pipe amid what it describes as a surge of unfairly priced imports.
Nova Steel is urging the federal government to strengthen trade policy and enforcement to limit the impact of dumped imports, adopt a North American fortress approach to steel, and strengthen and enforce Buy Canada requirements for government projects at all levels, including provincial and municipal. It is also calling for incentives to encourage private-sector projects to purchase Canadian steel.
The company said it has been dealing with the impact of steel pipe imports for several years and has pursued trade cases in an effort to address the issue. Despite investing more than $200 million in new technology and modern facilities, Nova Steel continues to hold less than 25 per cent of the Canadian market.
The Montreal-based company is Canada’s only producer of standard steel pipe, which is used in plumbing and heating, fire protection, mining, water well casing and fencing.
Scott Jones, president and CEO of Nova Steel, said the company uses Canadian-produced hot-rolled steel coils in its manufacturing operations and will not switch to imported materials to compete with lower-priced imports.
“We are a proud supporter of the domestic steel industry and use Canadian produced hot rolled coils to make our standard steel pipe. We will not engage in a race to the bottom and resort to purchasing imported hot rolled coils to compete with unfairly traded imports. We will only invest in products that can be supported by domestic steel in both Canada and the United States. Today, with our standard steel pipe backlog plummeting due to a surge of unfairly priced imports, we must take the unfortunate decision to cut shifts and lay off employees at a very difficult time of year,” said Jones.
The company described the 36 layoffs as temporary but warned that they could become permanent if additional measures are not introduced within the next two to three months.
“These pressures on our company have real consequences for our colleagues and their families,” Jones said. “The layoffs are temporary for now, but if no new measures to address unfairly traded imports are taken in the next 2 or 3 months, they could become permanent and lead to more layoffs”.
