The provincial and federal governments are providing a combined $60 million in funding to help Essar Steel Algoma upgrade its Sault Ste. Marie steel mill.
The funding will enable the company to adopt world-class technologies that will improve its production processes, and increase the range and quality of its steel sheet and steel plate products. This includes improving the company’s signature technology at its direct strip production complex, the only facility in Canada that converts liquid steel directly into steel coils.
These activities are part of a more than $240-million project being undertaken by the company. The project, anticipated to be completed by 2022, will ultimately lead to the development of transformative, unique-in-Canada products, while providing high-quality jobs at the steelmaker’s facilities in Sault Ste. Marie and throughout its supply chain.
Essar Steel Algoma is the second largest of 17 Canadian steel operations, spends $120 million in support of 670 local suppliers, and contributes $1.2 billion to Canada’s GDP every year.
By 2018, the company expects to increase the casting speed of its direct strip production complex (DSPC) by approximately 30 per cent to increase DSPC output to three million short tons of steel a year.
Essar anticipates that the project will create more than 200 jobs, while also supporting the maintenance of approximately 2,500 direct jobs and more than 5,000 indirect jobs.
“This investment makes it possible for Essar Steel Algoma to expand our product offering and satisfy emerging market opportunities, improving our productivity, making us more competitive and ultimately more sustainable,” Essar Algoma CEO Kalyan Ghosh said in a news release. “That will ensure we have a long-term future in Sault Ste. Marie, producing advanced steel and maintaining vital jobs that make our community stronger.”
Essar derives its revenues primarily from the manufacture and sale of hot and cold rolled steel products including sheet and plate. Its primary customers are in the automotive, light manufacturing, construction, shipbuilding, energy, mining, and steel distribution industries.
