Company type | Public |
---|---|
TSX: ASTL Nasdaq: ASTL | |
Industry | Steel |
Founded | 1902 |
Founder | Francis Clergue |
Headquarters | Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada |
Number of employees | 3500 (2008) |
Website | www.algoma.com |
Algoma Steel Inc. (formerly Algoma Steel; Essar Steel Algoma) is an integrated primary steel producer located on the St. Marys River in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. Its products are sold in Canada and the United States as well as overseas. Algoma Steel was founded in 1902 by Francis Clergue, an American entrepreneur who had settled in Sault Ste. Marie. The company emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2004. In April 2007, Algoma Steel was purchased by India's Essar Group for US$ 1.63 billion, continuing operations as a subsidiary known as Essar Steel Algoma Inc. It was purchased again in 2017, by a group of US investors.
In May 2021, it was announced that Algoma "was to become a public company again" as it had agreed a merger with New York–based acquisition firm Legato Merger Corp, which is a NASDAQ-listed special-purpose acquisition company. The deal would give Algoma just over $1.1 billion US worth of new shares in Legato. [1]
Construction of the steelworks started in February, 1901. On February 18, 1902, the first Bessemer converter was put in operation using pig iron made from the Helen mine, owned by Algoma. The first rails were produced by the complex in May 1902. However, blast furnaces for pig iron manufacture were not completed at the site until 1904. Unlike most other steel producers, Algoma had no access to local coal, forcing it to import coal and coke from the United States. The Bessemer process was felt to produce steel that was well-suited to manufacture of rails, which was the Algoma complex's primary product for the first two decades of its existence.
Shortly after founding Algoma, Clergue's various financial operations suffered reverses, having to shutter operations in 1903, causing the 1903 Consolidated Lake Superior riot. After restructuring, he lost control of the Sault Ste. Marie complex, being replaced as general manager in 1903 and by 1908 was no longer on the company's board of directors. Initially the company specialized in manufacture of rails for Canadian railways, but this soon became a dead-end as railway construction passed its peak.
During the First World War Algoma made steel for artillery shells but after the war continued to rely on rail production. The necessity of importing ore and coal from the United States due to the low quality of Canadian iron ore, as well as the absentee owners' greater interest in annual dividends than building a viable industrial complex, held back Algoma during the 1920s. At the height of the Great Depression, the company was insolvent and in receivership until Sir James Dunn gained control in 1935 and restored it to profitability. Dunn's policy of never paying a dividend to stockholders, coupled with extensive modernization and expansion during the Second World War, and an extended period of steel demand up until the mid-1950s, allowed Algoma to expand and become a more balanced steel producer.
From 1988 to 1991 Algoma was owned by Dofasco, making the combined company the largest steel producer in Canada. However, a strike at Algoma and other Dofasco subsidiaries in 1990 caused Dofasco to abandon ownership.
The high value of the Canadian dollar coupled with competition from mini mills, lower-cost and currency-strong Asian countries and dumping by Japanese companies has hurt Canadian primary steel producers. In 2002, the company emerged from bankruptcy protection for the second time in a decade, having previously gone into bankruptcy in 1990. Denis Turcotte, the President and CEO, was largely credited with Algoma's resurgence, making it one of the most efficient steelmakers in North America. [2]
Algoma Steel announced on August 3, 2005, that the company was no longer for sale after a $64.7 million second quarter profit. The company stated that they are going to focus on value-enhancing, non-sale alternatives. Algoma also announced a special dividend of $6.00 per share payable on August 31, 2005, to shareholders of record on August 17, 2005, and a normal course issuer bid for up to 3.3 million shares.
On February 8, 2006, Algoma Steel announced a $55 million profit for their fourth quarter ending December 31, 2005. As a result of this and redemption of their 11% notes on January 9, 2006 the company declared themselves debt free and had an operating surplus of over $400 million in cash. This cash surplus attracted the attention of some shareholders who wanted to see the cash distributed as dividends, echoing Algoma's historic problems almost exactly a century earlier.
In October 2006, Algoma Steel was awarded a power purchase agreement by the Ontario Power Authority to build, own and operate a co-generation power plant utilizing by-product fuels such as blast furnace gas (BFG) and coke oven gas (COG); Algoma Steel has founded a limited partnership company called Algoma Energy LP to own and operate the co-generation facility. The facility's contract capacity was said to be 63MW.
On 15 April 2007, Essar Global made an offer to acquire Algoma Steel Inc. for 1.85 billion CAD in cash. [3] It was announced on 20 June that Essar had completed its purchase of all outstanding shares. [4]
On June 23, 2008, following its purchase by Essar Group, Algoma Steel Inc. announced that its name had been changed to Essar Steel Algoma Inc. This came along with a logo change to the Essar Steel company logo.
On May 26, 2017, Essar Steel Algoma was rebranded once again, simply called Algoma. The announcement was made in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. For legal purposes, the factory will remain "Essar Steel Algoma Inc." until the company emerges from insolvency protection. [5]
In May 2021 Algoma had a yearly production capacity of 2.8 million tonnes of steel, for which it employed around 2,700 people. [1]
Algoma currently[ when? ] has a capacity of 4 million tons per year. Primary steel making facilities include two blast furnaces, three coke batteries, two 260 short ton basic oxygen furnaces, with two ladle metallurgy stations for refining and alloying. Algoma has a direct strip production complex manufactured by Danieli of Italy, which casts strip directly and then rolls it to finished strip in the range of 0.047 inches to 0.625 inches in thickness, and widths to 64 inches. Algoma also operates a hot strip mill, a plate mill, and a cold strip mill. Algoma also manufactures welded structural beams.[ citation needed ]
Algoma currently is the second largest steel producer in Canada. It is the largest employer in Sault Ste. Marie and currently has 2800 employees at the main plant. Algoma now produces hot and cold rolled steel (i.e. sheet and plate).
Algoma's products are used in the automotive, construction, energy, manufacturing, pipe and tube, and steel distribution industries. [6]
On June 15, 2009, Essar Steel Algoma successfully started up a new, 85 MW cogeneration facility, to produce electricity and steam from the by-products of the coke making and iron making processes. [7]
It features two 375,000 lb/hr boilers and a 105MW turbine combined with other related components such as a generator, a blast furnace gas holder, condensate and feed-water systems, a water treatment plant, a cooling tower, a transformer, and a distributed control system. Essar has set a precedent as the first integrated steel manufacturer in Canada to construct a co-generation facility fueled with by-product gas from the operation. [7]
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Francis Hector Clergue was an American businessman who became the leading industrialist of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, at the turn of the 20th century.
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The Algoma Central Railway is a railway in Northern Ontario, Canada, that operates between Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst. It used to have a branch line to Wawa. The area served by the railway is sparsely populated, with few roads.
Algoma may refer to:
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The GFL Memorial Gardens, formerly the "Essar Centre", is a 4,928 seat sports and entertainment centre in downtown Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. It opened on September 29, 2006, replacing the now demolished Sault Memorial Gardens. The new building was constructed directly next door to the former Memorial Gardens and incorporated its most distinctive feature, the Memorial Tower, into its plans. The block surrounding the arena is called "Memorial Square."
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The Station Mall, is a shopping mall located in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. With 97 stores and 555,000 square feet (51,600 m2) of retail space, it is the second largest shopping mall in Northern Ontario, trailing just behind the New Sudbury Centre in Greater Sudbury in area. Built in 1973, the mall has since undergone two major expansions. Its major tenants include 52,000 square feet (4,800 m2) Galaxy Cinemas movie theatre complex. The mall is located on the waterfront in downtown Sault Ste. Marie, and is roughly five minutes away from the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge to the United States. The Sault Ste. Marie railway station is located in the mall's parking lot.
Sault Ste. Marie Transit Services is a local public transportation service serving the city of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario providing seven major bus routes and two community bus routes serviced by a fleet of 27 buses and 2 minibuses. The Parabus service consists of 11 vehicles.
David Ellis is a Canadian architect ,based in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. He is perhaps best known for his winning entry for the World Bank's Malaysian Health Development Project Design Competition along with his countless architectural designs built in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. "Design is not a product, but a process", David Ellis stated this phrase to explain his view of architectural philosophy through his commitment to architecture, planning and interior design. This philosophy led into his design specialty for buildings that have complex academic innovation as well as attention to the human condition. His vision included revitalizing Northern communities and bringing technology and detail to the human condition. Many of David Ellis' design choices come from a relationship between building and environment, "Everyone needs to have a relationship with their environment".
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Sault Ste. Marie is a city in Ontario, Canada. The third-largest city in Northern Ontario after Sudbury and Thunder Bay, it is located on the St. Mary's River on the Canada–US border. To the southwest, across the river, is the United States and the Michigan city of the same name. The two cities are joined by the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge, which connects Interstate 75 on the Michigan side to Huron Street on the Ontario side. Shipping traffic in the Great Lakes system bypasses the Saint Mary's Rapids via the American Soo Locks, the world's busiest canal in terms of tonnage that passes through it, while smaller recreational and tour boats use the Canadian Sault Ste. Marie Canal.
The Algoma Eastern Railway was a railway in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. Originally known as the Manitoulin and North Shore Railway (M&NS) with a charter dating back to 1888, the full mainline was opened to traffic in 1913, serving the area along the north shore of Lake Huron between Sudbury and Little Current on Manitoulin Island. It and its sister railway, the Algoma Central, were originally owned by the Lake Superior Corporation, a conglomerate centered on Sault Ste. Marie which was founded by the American industrialist Francis Clergue. Despite ambitious plans to expand across Lake Huron to the Bruce Peninsula using a railcar ferry, the company failed to develop further and was acquired by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1930. With freight traffic low during the Great Depression, Canadian Pacific soon abandoned much of the Algoma Eastern mainline in favor of its own Algoma Branch. Remaining sections of the Algoma Eastern line were turned into spurs, with the longest surviving section operated as a branch line known as the Little Current Subdivision.
Christian Provenzano is a Canadian politician, who was elected mayor of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, in the 2014 municipal election. He served as mayor until 2022.
James Watson Curran was a newspaper publisher and editor who settled in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario after purchasing a local weekly newspaper in 1901. He went on to publicize and promote the city and the Algoma District. He played a leadership role in the formation of the Rotary Club of Sault Ste. Marie in 1918 and was actively involved in local history and tourism promotion.
The Ermatinger Clergue National Historic Site is a historic site and museum located in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada.
The 1903 Consolidated Lake Superior riot occurred on 28–30 September 1903 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, as a result of layoffs and unpaid wages. Two police officers and four protesters were injured, the headquarters was looted, and the army was called in to quell the riot.