Battle lines drawn as steel producers push 'Buy Canadian' to fight tariffs and dumping

Calgary Herald

01-05-2025

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Steel industry insiders often liken their efforts to keep foreign-produced, unfairly priced steel out of Canada to a high-stakes game of Whack-a-Mole that is perhaps best exemplified by the decade-long war to stem the tide of rebar — the steel rods that are buried in cement in bridges, condos and other construction projects — from flowing into Canada.
Since 2014, the Canadian steel industry has accused more than 20 countries, beginning with China, South Korea and Turkey, and extending to Spain, the United Arab Emirates and many other countries, of dumping their rebar into Canada at artificially low prices.
The industry's trade group traces the root of the problem to a global overcapacity in steel production, which it said is most pronounced in China, but there is another problem much closer to home and it isn't the trade war initiated by United States President Donald Trump: as the steel industry pushes a ' Buy Canadian ' campaign, doing so often means paying more for the same products, which can be an economic deterrent all on its own.
'The challenge is that it's actually cheaper to source rebar from foreign markets, whether that's Asia or the U.S., than it is from steel mills in Central Canada just because of the cost of shipping it,' Chris Gardner, chief executive of the Independent Contractors and Business Association of British Columbia, said. 'That's a big factor.'
Although there is a mill in Edmonton that produces rebar, the majority of the domestically produced rebar originates in steel plants in Ontario and Quebec.
Gardner said the cost of shipping heavy steel rods across the country by rail or truck can be significant, as much as $200 per metric tonne, compared to $39 to $69 per tonne to bring rebar in from Asia or the Middle East by maritime shipping.
Moreover, contractors in the West say they sometimes can't obtain domestically produced rebar.
The challenge is that it's actually cheaper to source rebar from foreign markets
Chris Gardner, Independent Contractors and Business Association of British Columbia
As a result, homebuilders in Western Canada have turned to rebar imported from Asia, Washington or elsewhere, which he said helps keep the cost of construction down — a major concern as Canada continues to confront a housing crisis.
Since 2014, there have been double-digit increases in the benchmark home price in every province, with costs doubling or nearly doubling in many provinces. For example, there was an 85.9 per cent rise in the benchmark price of a home in British Columbia to $961,600 in 2024 from $517,000 in 2014, according to Canadian Real Estate Association data.
Gardner said it is unlikely anyone will build a rebar plant in B.C., in part because there's no obvious community that wants an industrial facility in their backyard. Building more rail lines or roads to make it cheaper to ship across the country is just as unlikely, he said.
'Talking about supply chains is like talking about calculus,' he said. 'People don't understand it, they roll their eyes, but it does have real costs. The fact that we can't ship product effectively and cost-efficiently across our country does have a cost for Canadians.'
Steel producers and workers can challenge the flow of those products into Canada if they think they are priced unfairly, but would-be buyers say the country is too big for mills in Ontario or Quebec to serve Western Canada.
Under World Trade Organization rules, it is considered 'dumping' when a foreign producer charges less than what it charges in its home market or less than its cost of production. The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) investigates whether foreign producers are dumping in Canada, and the CITT determines if the dumped steel is harming producers in Canada. If so, the CBSA assesses a levy.
Gardner's group has filed briefs advocating for more foreign imports, arguing that the domestic industry does not have the capacity to meet rebar demand in Western provinces. But Craig Logie, a lawyer who has represented unionized steelworkers in cases involving rebar dumping, said the opposite.
'The guys in B.C. just want a lower price,' he said. 'We've got spare capacity.'
Rebar as a commodity
Rebar's importance to the industry is grounded in steel mill economics. As a rule of thumb, steel mills have high fixed costs, which means that once steel production falls below an optimal volume, costs start to rise.
That's where rebar comes in. Although it is considered a low-margin product, industry insiders say producing it helps keep a mill's throughput higher, thereby spreading costs over a larger volume of goods and increasing efficiencies.
Adam Parr, a spokesperson for Brazil-headquartered Gerdau SA, which manufactures rebar at facilities in Whitby, Ont., Cambridge, Ont., and Selkirk, Man., said producing rebar means less downtime at the mill.
'It tends to be a flex product,' he said. 'Ideally, you operate 24/7, and rebar is a fairly commoditized product. It's a good way to keep your mill operating efficiently.'
There are at least four other companies producing rebar in Canada: ArcelorMittal Long Products Canada GP is the largest rebar producer with three facilities in Quebec; AltaSteel Inc. manufactures rebar at a facility in Edmonton; and there are two other facilities in Ontario. Collectively, the companies employ thousands of people.
Steel industry lawyers say having a steel industry is important for the health of the nation. It's a way to keep citizens employed and it feeds other advanced manufacturing industries, such as the automobile, aviation and defence sectors, all of which are important economic exports.
China's overcapacity
Many industry executives lay the blame for steel dumping on China, saying it overbuilt its production capacity years ago and has been searching for new markets to export steel as its own economy has slowed down.
The country's overcapacity has ripple effects because as it exports to new markets, the steel producers in those countries must then search for new markets for their own products.
There is some research to support those claims.
Last month, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) brought together delegates from 41 major steel-producing countries to review how excess capacity is disrupting international markets and leading to trade cases, such as the anti-dumping actions at the CITT.
The OECD pinned a lot of the blame on China, which it said subsidizes its steel industry and then exports more steel than is produced in North America.
'The committee reviewed its latest subsidy monitoring work, concluding that significant Chinese subsidization in 2024, including grants, tax incentives, differentiated electricity pricing and below-market borrowing to steel companies in China and other countries, will worsen steel excess capacity problems and trigger further trade disruptions for Steel Committee members going forward,' the OECD said.
Excess steel capacity is expected to increase to 721 million tonnes globally by 2027, up from an estimated 602 million tonnes in 2024, 'putting enormous pressures on the viability of even highly competitive steelmakers,' the OECD said.
China accounted for 47 per cent of steel production in 2023, according to the OECD, while India, the next largest steel-producing economy, accounted for six per cent.
The global steel industry is facing a massive excess capacity problem
Adam Parr, steel producer Gerdau SA
Canada, which has accounted for around 1.5 per cent of global steel exports in recent years, most of which go to the U.S. and Mexico, has already sought to block China from flooding its market.
'The global steel industry is facing a massive excess capacity problem,' Parr said of Gerdau. 'It is critical that Canada's trade laws are enforced to protect the domestic steel industry and its workforce. Canada cannot be the dumping ground for the world's overcapacity.'
In October, the federal government applied 25 per cent tariffs to a range of Chinese steel products as part of a widening trade war in which China retaliated last month with tariffs on Canadian canola oil, pork and other products. In March, Canada applied 25 per cent tariffs on a list of U.S. steel products in retaliation for its tariffs on Canadian steel.
Since then, the federal government has closed a 30-day consultation and is currently considering what trade measures it can take to protect against steel products being diverted into third countries and then into the Canadian market as a result of the 25 per cent tariffs that the U.S. placed on all steel products from all countries.
But the Canadian Steel Producers Association (CAPA) is now asking to expand steel tariffs on many other countries.
'The immediate step we're looking for is that we expand the tariff regime in Canada, quickly and urgently, to cover a much broader range of products and countries,' Catherine Cobden, CAPA's chief executive, said in early March.
She declined to comment further for this article.
That position is not likely to go uncontested. A letter submitted to the federal government by B.C. Economic Development Minister Diana Gibson last week asked for special relief for her province from some of the federal trade remedies affecting steel.
She asked that as the federal government develops a trade response to steel diversion from the U.S. to Canada, it provide 'a rebate or full exemption' for steel imports used in public projects in B.C. and a 'temporary full exemption' for steel imports for other B.C. users, as long as steel imports do not exceed historical levels. She also asked for federal funds to pay for additional transportation costs of steel across the country.
Canada cannot be the dumping ground for the world's overcapacity
Adam Parr, steel producer Gerdau SA
In 2024, B.C. imported $4-billion worth of steel, with China providing 31 per cent, the U.S. 21 per cent and South Korea, Taiwan and Japan providing an additional 28 per cent combined, she said in the letter.
Although Gibson said B.C. supports the federal response to tariffs and the importance of national unity, she also issued a warning.
'Any trade remedies being considered with respect to possible foreign steel diversion must not worsen the already fragile construction and manufacturing industries, exacerbate housing affordability, harm the economic interests of producers and workers located here, or significantly increase the costs of our public projects,' she said.
Gibson was not available for comment prior to publication.
The global steel market is inherently geopolitical. In February, Edward Sim, a lawyer in Washington, D.C., wrote to the CITT to request a 'public interest inquiry' into the nearly 16 per cent anti-dumping duty that it applied to Bulgarian rebar earlier this year.
He said his client is a Ukrainian steel conglomerate that sent steel billets to a mill in Bulgaria to be made into rebar and that it is losing money in its home market because the plant there is 80 kilometres from the frontlines of the war with Russia. As a result, its workers have been drafted and killed, it has faced drone and missile attacks, and it has experienced energy disruptions.
The war has also cut off certain shipping routes, so there are limited markets to ship the goods to, which necessitates selling at a lower price.
To support Ukraine, Canada has lifted certain duties, so its anti-dumping duty contradicts this policy, Sim said.
'We asked for the public interest hearing so the CITT can review whether it really is in the Canadian interest to impose these dumping duties,' he said.
In recent years, the steel industry in Canada has embarked on a $1.77-billion project to install electric arc furnaces at two facilities in Ontario that would drastically reduce carbon emissions by switching out coal power for electricity, thereby making Canadian steel among the cleanest in the world.
There was and still is a good market in Canada
Lawrence Herman, a trade lawyer in Toronto
Lawrence Herman, a trade lawyer in Toronto who spent years representing steel companies, said dumped foreign rebar weakens the domestic sector.
'There was and still is a good market in Canada,' he said. 'Look at Toronto. Every crane on the skyline involves huge volumes of rebar at the base of that crane.'
After a decade of fighting over rebar, the only countries still seeking to ship rebar to Canada are doing so at fair market price, Tim McMenamin, president of Jebsen & Jessen Hamburg GmbH, the largest rebar importer in Canada, said.
He said the CITT recently rejected Canadian steel producers' anti-dumping case against Thailand.
'They want a little more of a captive market,' he said about domestic producers. 'But our backs are against the wall with inflation, with housing costs, with costs of living; the more protections we have on steel, the higher it costs to build bridges, roads, homes, so what are we protecting?'
Logie, the lawyer representing steelworker unions, said there are a lot of jobs at stake.
Like others in the domestic industry, he said the current process requires using the CITT and the CBSA to keep out dumped products, which is both time-consuming and expensive. A single case targeting a few countries can take anywhere from several months to more than a year from the beginning of an investigation until anti-dumping duties are imposed, and it can cost millions of dollars.
'It's too cumbersome — it's Whack-a Mole — where we take a country or two at a time,' Logie said. 'It's essentially taken us 10, 15 years to protect this industry, and plants go out of business in that time.'
With the U.S. imposing tariffs on global steel imports, he and others believe that dumping in Canada is likely to grow worse as countries look for other lucrative markets to sell their steel.
In the past, he said the federal government hasn't always been on the side of steelworkers; for example, in 2018, it granted a duty remission, so that fabricated industrial steel components from China could be imported to B.C. at a lower cost for use in a major energy project, despite protests from domestic steel producers and workers.
But with the latest protectionist trade policies in the U.S., there is an emerging bipartisan consensus that Canada must carve a new path for itself that reduces its dependence on the U.S.
Steel has a big role to play in any future economy, Logie said.
'These mills are not running anywhere near full capacity,' he said, 'and they could be — they could ramp up that capacity and they will — if they keep the dumped stuff out of the market, but that dumped stuff has been taking up a huge share.'