Algoma Steel Inc. (Algoma Steel) welcomes the Canada Border Services Agency’s (CBSA) decision today to initiate an anti-dumping investigation concerning hot-rolled heavy steel plate (Heavy Plate) exported from Chinese Taipei, Germany, South Korea, Malaysia and Turkey.

The five countries covered by today’s announcement have sold large volumes of Heavy Plate into Canada at very low prices. On April 6, 2020, Algoma Steel filed a complaint alleging that these goods were illegally dumped and causing injury to Canadian producers and workers.

Today’s announcement is a critical first step towards protecting the Canadian market from unfairly traded steel plate from these countries.

If CBSA makes a preliminary determination of dumping, provisional anti-dumping duties will be in force as of August 25, 2020, and may be imposed retroactively to today’s date.

If CBSA issues a final determination, and the Canadian International Trade Tribunal finds that these imports have injured domestic producers, anti-dumping duties will be in force as of December 2020 for an initial period of five years.

Algoma Steel CEO Michael McQuade commented on today’s development, “Algoma Steel has been successfully serving the Canadian market for over 100 years. On a level playing field, Algoma will compete with any producer in the world however, where exporters choose to dump steel into Canada, we will not hesitate to respond. Maintaining a strong Canadian trade defence system is especially critical in today’s volatile trading environment.”