Return of 175 Stelco workers unconfirmed; recall plan tied to market improvement
Key Facts
There was no confirmation from a reliable open source available as of the date of the report that 175 workers had been recalled or production lines had resumed at Stelco’s Hamilton plant. The chief executive of Cleveland-Cliffs, Stelco’s owner, said he hopes to bring laid-off workers back before Christmas, but made that contingent on the success of a plan to increase sales in Canada. The Canadian Press quoted him as saying: "If our plan works, my intention is to bring all 175 workers back before Christmas." The statement makes the workers’ return a goal contingent on the sales plan, not an announcement that the recall has been carried out or a confirmed date for Hamilton’s lines to return. The chief executive also tied the workers’ return to Canadian customers buying steel made domestically.
The plan follows a period of weaker demand across the company’s markets, according to the Associated Press’s report on the second quarter. Demand in the markets Stelco serves fell about 25% compared with the average of the quarters in 2024, including a 10% decline in Canada. Those figures set a difficult backdrop for the push to increase domestic sales cited by Cleveland-Cliffs’ chief executive. They refer to the second quarter and a comparison with the 2024 average, however, and do not measure demand at the time of the chief executive’s remarks. Cleveland-Cliffs later said Canada’s hot-rolled steel market improved significantly in the third quarter.
In its third-quarter results, Cleveland-Cliffs said the improvement in Canada’s hot-rolled steel market made Stelco a positive contributor to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization during the quarter. The company also said Stelco’s total production would remain unchanged, with a focus on hot-rolled steel products, and that about 2,000 Canadian jobs were protected. These are company statements about production and employment plans, while its chief executive’s remarks tied the recall of the 175 workers to the success of the sales plan. The market improvement described in the third-quarter results alone does not establish that finishing lines or other operations at the Hamilton plant have resumed. The available evidence provided no details on the timing or scope of any renewed plant operations.
The employment issue comes against the backdrop of the terms of Stelco’s acquisition. The Canadian government approved Cleveland-Cliffs’ acquisition in October 2024, tying approval to binding employment commitments for five years. The commitments, according to the Associated Press and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, include maintaining at least the number of unionized employees and retaining the vast majority of non-unionized employees. The department said approval was conditional on "a substantial package of binding commitments for five years." These obligations establish a government framework running from the approval of the deal, while the available evidence provided no details on how the 175 workers are counted under those commitments.
Cleveland-Cliffs had said it decided to idle its galvanizing lines after anticipating no government action to address oversupply in the galvanized steel market. It added that affected employees would return to work when conditions improved, without specifying a date. In a letter to customers, the company expected cold rolling and coating operations in Hamilton to be idled indefinitely, citing trade disruptions and the impact of U.S. tariffs, according to Bloomberg. These statements provide context for decisions to scale back activity at the site, but do not confirm that the finishing lines mentioned in the circulating report have restarted. The next step cited by the company’s chief executive is an effort to increase Canadian sales, in the hope that it will allow the workers to return before Christmas.