Latest news with #Evraz
CTV News
6 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
Sask. steel workers call on feds to restrict foreign steel as U.S. tariffs intensify
Saskatchewan steelworkers are calling on the federal government to implement measures that would protect steel industry jobs. It follows U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to increase tariffs on steel and aluminum to 50 per cent. The United Steel Workers Union says Canada should follow suit with tariffs on foreign steel being imported into the country. Saskatchewan-made steel destined for the U.S. likely won't be leaving the Evraz plant yard in Regina, according to USW Local 5890 President Mike Day. 'With the impact of the 50 per cent, everything's at a halt right now. Nothing will be going. No slabs will be shipped to our Portland plant,' he told reporters Wednesday. The U.S. doubling its tariffs on steel imports officially went into effect 12:01 Wednesday. It's a move Trump's believes will protect the American steel industry. The steel workers union discussed the impact of the tariffs at a leadership meeting in Watrous Wednesday – reiterating the need for the federal government to restrict foreign steel. 'When you have private industry that's willing to bring in cheap Mexican, Indian, Korean, Chinese pipe, steel and it gets on our shores, they've got to be looking out for the Canadian steel industry and they don't seem to be doing that,' Day explained. The NDP Opposition made an appearance at the union meeting. It called on the province to use Saskatchewan-made steel in government projects. 'There are things that we think the province should be doing, continued prioritization of Saskatchewan steel, cancelling American contracts at a time when we have the American president of the United States kicking our workers and our industries,' MLA Aleana Young explained. Regina's Evraz steel plants was operating at less than full capacity prior to the imposition of the tariffs. The union fears that layoffs will be inevitable unless government takes steps to protect Canada's steel industry.
CTV News
08-05-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Evraz Inc. NA Canada fined $575K for 2022 incident that left Regina worker with serious injuries
Evraz Inc. NA Canada has been fined $575,000 for a 2022 incident in Regina that saw a worker suffer serious injuries while inspecting the underside of a sheet metal as it was mechanically moving through a metal slitting machine. The company pleaded guilty in Regina provincial court on April 29 to one violation of The Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, 2020, according to the province. 'The company was fined for contravening clause 10-4 (1) (a) of the regulations (being an employer, failed to provide an effective safeguard when a worker may contact a dangerous moving part of a machine, resulting in the serious injury of a worker),' the news release read. A fine of $410,714.29 with a surcharge of $164,285.71, for a total amount of $575,000 was imposed by the court. One other charge was withdrawn, according to the province.
CBC
18-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
Sask. government touts steel deal and pushes for pipeline amid U.S. tariffs
Social Sharing SaskPower is buying 10,000 tons of steel amid U.S. tariffs, but Saskatchewan's minister of Crown corporations says the long-term answer is to build more pipelines. The 10,000-ton SaskPower steel order announced Tuesday comes after the United States slapped Canada with a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum on Mar. 12. Jeremy Harrison, Saskatchewan's minister of Crown investments corporation, said steel is one of the industries that the government can move on because of its Crown corporations. "SaskPower was going to be procuring steel over, you know, a number of years into the future for needs," Harrison said. "What we really did was move up those procurements such that we would do this at the very front end and then be able to utilize that resource over the longer term." The minister also noted that only about three per cent of steel bought by the province's Crowns is from the United States. The province said Evraz is also working on a steel order from SaskEnergy. "EVRAZ is working on an order from SaskEnergy, which purchased 125 kilometres of steel pipe through Gateway Tubulars LTD. for the Aspen Power Station project, a new 370-megawatt natural gas power plant near Lanigan," a news release said. Calgary-based Gateway Tubulars LTD is a partially owned subsidiary of the Houston-based Marubeni-Itochu Tubulars America. Pipelines wanted in the long term Harrison said that while the province is able to move forward on the steel procurement, he wants long-term pipeline plans. "We have been advocating tirelessly as a government to get pipelines built," he said at the Evraz facility. "East, north, west, south, I don't care what direction. All of the above. We need to get pipelines built in this country again." That message was echoed by United Steelworkers local union president Mike Day, who said there needs to be more infrastructure built. "We used to be the number 1 producer of large diameter pipe in North America. We need to get back to that," Day said at the news conference. Day said it has been a rough go for the workers in the tubular division at the plant for the last four to five years and the recent tariff chaos hasn't helped. "Whether you're conservative, whether you're Democrat, we need to gather, get together and come up with more of these infrastructure projects to build the economy," he said. Harrison said he was optimistic about a "change in tone" from the federal Liberal party in regard to energy infrastructure. Evraz sale In 2022, the Russian steel and mining company Evraz PLC announced it planned to sell its North American assets, which include the steel plant in Regina. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the United Kingdom and Canada sanctioned Roman Abramovich, the Russian oligarch who holds a 28 per cent ownership stake in Evraz. "Everyone knows our company in North America is for sale," said Hunter. "I have no comments on the sale or the process because we're in the middle of it." Evraz North America is headquartered in Chicago, Ill., and has Canadian operations in Regina and Alberta. It has said it is a subsidiary and operates independently of Evraz PLC.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Sask. government touts steel deal and pushes for pipeline amid U.S. tariffs
SaskPower is buying 10,000 tons of steel amid U.S. tariffs, but Saskatchewan's minister of Crown corporations says the long-term answer is to build more pipelines. The 10,000-ton SaskPower steel order announced Tuesday comes after the United States slapped Canada with a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum on Mar. 12. Jeremy Harrison, Saskatchewan's minister of Crown investments corporation, said steel is one of the industries that the government can move on because of its Crown corporations. "SaskPower was going to be procuring steel over, you know, a number of years into the future for needs," Harrison said. "What we really did was move up those procurements such that we would do this at the very front end and then be able to utilize that resource over the longer term." The minister also noted that only about three per cent of steel bought by the province's Crowns is from the United States. The province said Evraz is also working on a steel order from SaskEnergy. "EVRAZ is working on an order from SaskEnergy, which purchased 125 kilometres of steel pipe through Gateway Tubulars LTD. for the Aspen Power Station project, a new 370-megawatt natural gas power plant near Lanigan," a news release said. Calgary-based Gateway Tubulars LTD is a partially owned subsidiary of the Houston-based Marubeni-Itochu Tubulars America. Pipelines wanted in the long term Harrison said that while the province is able to move forward on the steel procurement, he wants long-term pipeline plans. "We have been advocating tirelessly as a government to get pipelines built," he said at the Evraz facility. "East, north, west, south, I don't care what direction. All of the above. We need to get pipelines built in this country again." Jeremy Harrison is the minister of Crown investments corporation. He announced on Tuesday that Sask Power would be purchasing 10,000 tons of steel from Evraz. (CBC) That message was echoed by United Steelworkers local union president Mike Day, who said there needs to be more infrastructure built. "We used to be the number 1 producer of large diameter pipe in North America. We need to get back to that," Day said at the news conference. Day said it has been a rough go for the workers in the tubular division at the plant for the last four to five years and the recent tariff chaos hasn't helped. "Whether you're conservative, whether you're Democrat, we need to gather, get together and come up with more of these infrastructure projects to build the economy," he said. Harrison said he was optimistic about a "change in tone" from the federal Liberal party in regard to energy infrastructure. Evraz sale In 2022, the Russian steel and mining company Evraz PLC announced it planned to sell its North American assets, which include the steel plant in Regina. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the United Kingdom and Canada sanctioned Roman Abramovich, the Russian oligarch who holds a 28 per cent ownership stake in Evraz. Evraz Canada senior vice president Don Hunter was present at Tuesday's news conference, but stayed tight-lipped about the potential sale. "Everyone knows our company in North America is for sale," said Hunter. "I have no comments on the sale or the process because we're in the middle of it." Evraz North America is headquartered in Chicago, Ill., and has Canadian operations in Regina and Alberta. It has said it is a subsidiary and operates independently of Evraz PLC.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Armor plates for U.S. military vehicles produced in Russian-owned plant never passed inspection: Report
Employees at a Russian-owned steel plant operator in Oregon falsified inspection results on armored plating, including some used for U.S. Army vehicles, according to a new report. An internal investigation, whose results were obtained by Bloomberg, detailed how workers at the steel plant operator Evraz North America bypassed mandatory hardness tests and inserted fake results for about 12,800 armor plates during incidents spanning from 2017 through 2019 at a facility in Portland. The plates were then labeled as tested and approved. Evraz launched its internal probe following allegations of bypassed requirements in the quality control procedures, . The Independent has reached out to Evraz for comment. Oshkosh Defense, a 'primary customer' of the plates, according to Bloomberg, has been awarded contracts by the U.S. Army for Joint Light Tactical Vehicles. The United Kingdom, Israel, Romania and other countries also use the vehicles. Oshkosh has built more than 22,000 of the vehicles as of 2024, and each are supposed to last about 20 years, according to Bloomberg. The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle has 'consistently demonstrated its ability to fill critical capability gaps for U.S. and international militaries,' Oshkosh Defense's website states. Evraz's 2019 internal findings found that beginning in November 2017, some employees failed to consistently use a machine to measure the hardness of the armored plates, circumventing a requirement, and then inputted fake results manually, Bloomberg reported. 'Armor plate does require 100% hardness testing,' the internal report noted. Still, falsifying data was a 'widespread' practice, the company investigation concluded. Four employees admitted to falsifying hardness ratings; some even said there wasn't enough time to complete the test for each plate due to the demands to keep the process moving, Bloomberg reported. 'That's how I was trained,' one employee said in the report. Even though his supervisors denied knowing he was doing this, the report determined it was 'highly likely' that they all 'were aware of the practice.' One manager admitted that he understood false data was sometimes recorded. 'When you're thrown in the fire, you gotta do what you gotta do to keep the line rolling,' he was quoted in the internal report. It's not immediately clear how many Joint Light Tactical Vehicles were equipped with untested plates. The Independent has contacted the U.S. Army for more information. An Evraz official, however, identified the untested plates as part of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicles program, as well as bing used on another armored vehicle produced by Oshkosh, Bloomberg reported. The steel operator stopped deliveries of armored plating for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicles program once management was made aware of the situation, according to Bloomberg. Evraz told Bloomberg that the company follows 'strict compliance with all industry standards,' adding that its armored plates passed 'independent testing by a government approved facility.' The steel operator said it has not received complaints from customers about its products. The alleged problems at the facility arose two years after the U.S. Army awarded Oshkosh a $6.7 billion contract to procure nearly 17,000 vehicles for the Army and the Marines. It's not immediately clear if Oshkosh was aware of the falsified data or of the internal report. Evraz says Oshkosh was aware of its findings. The Independent has reached out to Oshkosh Defense for comment. Law enforcement is now investigating the falsified tests, Bloomberg reported. FBI agents were visiting several of the steel operator's facilities, Fox 21 noted last July. Evraz said it was fully cooperating with the agency's requests. Evraz North America is a subsidiary of Evraz Plc. No evidence obtained by Bloomberg suggested that the skipped tests, false data or Evraz's Russian ownership were related to the U.S. efforts to fight Russia in its war against Ukraine.
