Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves said Wednesday he bought Stelco because he could not afford to keep having it “flooding the market” in the United States.
CBC News host David Cochrane asked whether the 2024 purchase was a “defensive acquisition.” On-screen text said Goncalves told him Cliffs has honoured the “serious commitments” it made to Canada in the deal.
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly told reporters Tuesday that Cliffs broke six of its binding promises. One is a five-year pledge to hold union and most non-union headcount at the level it had when the deal closed. Cliffs wrote back Monday night that it meets all 34 of its undertakings. Goncalves said “the facts are clear” and blamed galvanized steel imports for squeezing the Canadian market.
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Cliffs has asked to meet Joly. She will sit down with Goncalves only after she sees a plan and timeline to bring laid-off workers back. Stelco will refresh its compliance report October 31. It expects at least 1,879 union employees against a floor of 1,766, and at least 627 salaried employees against a floor of 603.
The floors measure annual averages, and Stelco argues the undertakings do not bar layoffs. It is cutting up to 500 jobs at Hamilton and Lake Erie Works in Nanticoke and began idling Hamilton’s cold-rolled and coated lines October 9. Goncalves calls the layoffs temporary and says workers could return at once if Ottawa limited galvanized imports.
Read: Joly Quotes Stelco Job Floors for First Time in Second Letter, Sets 15-Day Deadline for Cliffs
Joly’s October 22 letter gave Cliffs 15 days, into early November, to reverse the layoffs or prove compliance. Ottawa says a court could force a sale, order compliance, fine Cliffs $10,000 a day or strip its voting rights. The letter also cites Goncalves’s January testimony to a congressional steel caucus, where he backed Section 232 tariffs on Canada and called the country a “steel dumping machine.”
Goncalves has said he would consider selling Stelco for a good offer.
