Stelco Holdings laid off 85 employees at the end of last week, according to union leader Ron Wells. The week before, he says the company issued 90 layoff notices.

While the U.S.-owned steelmaker insists its plan to lay off up to 500 workers in Hamilton and Nanticoke, Ont., is only a temporary consequence of the Canada-U.S. trade war, new technologies and demand dynamics are working in concert with tariff-related headwinds to compress the industry’s once-robust workforce.

According to Statistics Canada, direct employment in Canada’s primary steel manufacturing industry has slipped from nearly 29,000 workers in 2003 to about 14,000 workers as of July. 

Wells, president of United Steelworkers Local 1005, and a 47-year veteran of Stelco, says the workforce at Stelco alone was about 14,000 strong when he started working for the company.

“To make a ton of steel nowadays, you need a lot fewer people,” Wells told CBC News. “Now, it’s a lot more streamlined.”

According to U.S. regulatory filings, the total workforce of Cleveland-Cliffs — the Ohio-based owner of Stelco and North America’s largest producer of flat-rolled steel — shrank from about 30,000 employees to roughly 25,000 between Dec. 31, 2024, and Dec. 31, 2025. 

This year of job cuts included about 600 layoffs in Dearborn, Mich., as Cleveland-Cliffs idled a massive blast furnace. CEO Lourenco Goncalves blamed soft demand from North American automakers. 

The move prompted another 600 cuts in Minnesota to align the company’s raw ore output with reduced blast furnace demand.

An aerial image of Stelco’s facility in Nanticoke, Ont. (Patrick Morrell/CBC)

In late September, three months after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order applying up to 50 per cent tariffs on certain steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Stelco announced up to 500 layoffs at its two Ontario operations.

That provoked the current clash between the company and the federal government over Stelco’s obligations under the Investment Canada Act to maintain a certain number of workers in Canada. 

But Stelco’s workforce isn’t the only cohort of Ontario steel workers facing job uncertainty. 

Last December, Algoma Steel issued layoff notices to about 1,000 workers, nearly a third of its workforce. While the Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.-based company blamed U.S. tariffs for crushing its export competitiveness, the announcement coincided with plans to fast-track its transition to greener and less labour-intensive electric-arc furnace production.

That came after ArcelorMittal Long Products Canada announced the permanent shutdown of its Parkdale wire-drawing facility in Hamilton in June 2025. The company is a subsidiary of ArcelorMittal S.A., the world’s second-largest steel and mining company.

“Despite our best efforts, the ongoing economic challenges, increased steel imports in Canada and market conditions made it clear that we needed to reduce our operating footprint,” company spokesperson Jean-Philippe Grou told CBC News at the time.

Calls to address cheaper foreign steel imports

In a letter to Industry Minister Mélanie Joly obtained by The Canadian Press, Stelco president Paul Simon complained that imports of cold-rolled and coated steel accounted for 45 per cent of market share for those products.

Wells says Ottawa is not doing enough to shield Canadian producers from cheaper foreign imports. He wants tariff-rate quotas increased to impede the flow of foreign steel competing with Canadian supply.

“There’s too much capacity coming from offshore,” he said. “It dilutes the price in Canada.” 

WATCH | Joly talks to media about Stelco negotiations:

‘Everything is on the table’ in Stelco negotiations, says industry minister

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly says a change in market conditions cannot be used by Stelco to breach its commitments to the government and workers of Canada. Possible outcomes from negotiations could include ‘financial penalties’ or ‘forced divestiture’ by the U.S. owners, said Joly.

A new forecast from research firm Wood Mackenzie shows the contrast between the steel industry in the U.S. versus Canada. It predicts U.S. steel production will rise about 4.5 per cent this year, even as demand in America shrinks. Senior research analyst Tiago Vespoli sees a different reality in store for Canada.

“The increase in U.S. steel tariffs to 50 per cent has significantly disrupted … established trade flows, creating a situation in which U.S. steelmakers can increase production and market share, while Canadian producers face growing pressure on export volumes and capacity utilisation,” he wrote on Thursday.

Wells says he’s encouraged by a recent uptick in spot prices for galvanized steel — a product Stelco is pivoting away from in Hamilton.

“Galvanized steel is now at $1,800 a ton in Canada, which is a vast improvement from six months ago. That’s why we find these layoffs and the idling of the cold mill and coated [steel] quite puzzling. It seemed like [prices for] coated products were starting to rebound. That’s why we believe this layoff is partially to get Carney to act and get a trade agreement,” he said. 

“We think it’s to get Trump to look good in the midterms, that his tariffs are working, Canadian steel workers are getting laid off.”

Goncalves has openly supported Trump’s tariff agenda, a fact that has prompted blunt criticism from Joly and Prime Minister Mark Carney.

With a courtroom clash between Cliffs and Ottawa looking increasingly likely, Wells says he continues to hold onto hope that Stelco will recall the workers being laid off.

“It’s hard to take them at their word anymore, to be honest with you,” he said.

“I strongly believe these layoffs are temporary. I think this trade situation will get sorted out soon and our members will get back to work.”