Essar Steel Algoma asks city council for help

Essar Steel Algoma wants the city of Sault Ste. Marie to help with concerns the steelmaker has over unfair trade practices.

Essar Steel Algoma President and CEO Kalyan Ghosh, in a letter to Mayor Christian Provenzano, writes the steelmaker has acted as the lead on several antidumping complaints against unfairly priced imports of steel plate and hot rolled sheet from 13 countries.

Currently of big concern to Essar Steel Algoma is a request by the Independent Contractors and Business Association (ICBA) and the province of British Columbia for a Public Interest Inquiry (PII) seeking a regional exemption under the Special Imports Measures Act (SIMA) and the World Trade Organization which would allow cheap imports of steel products into that area of the country.

The letter to Provenzano states the exemption, if granted, would set a dangerous precedent in the trade system and ultimately impact steel plate and hot rolled sheet production at Essar Steel Algoma and hurt the economy of Sault Ste. Marie.

"This could be damaging for the local steel industry…the local steel industry is very concerned with this," said Ward 2 Councillor Terry Sheehan at Monday's council meeting.

The steelmaker is asking the city of Sault Ste. Marie (Mayor and Council) to support Essar Steel Algoma by writing a letter of protest to the exemption request and submit it to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) by July 6, 2015 (and possibly, participate in CITT tribunal hearings July 27 to 31 in Vancouver).

A similar letter with the same concerns, dated May 19, has been forwarded to Provenzano by David McHattie, Tenaris Canada vice president of institutional relations. 

Mayor Provenzano and interim CAO Nuala Kenny told council staff is going over the correspondence and will provide a recommendation to council soon.