Stelco's steel production facility in Hamilton. Ottawa has warned the steelmaker's U.S.-based owner, Cleveland-Cliffs, against laying off workers in Canada.Nick Iwanyshyn/The Canadian Press
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. CLF-N chief executive Lourenco Goncalves on Monday criticized Prime Minister Mark Carney for “snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory” in trade and extended “kudos” to U.S. President Donald Trump, as the U.S. steelmaker remains locked in conflict with Ottawa over hundreds of job losses in Canada.
On Sept. 28, Cliffs subsidiary Stelco Inc. announced that it was laying off up to 500 workers in Hamilton and Nanticoke, Ont.
The federal government says that by proceeding with layoffs, Cliffs has breached legally binding job commitments from when it acquired Stelco in 2024, including maintaining at least the same number of unionized employees in Canada for five years.
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Cliffs says it can no longer compete in galvanized steel in Canada, owing to both the trade war with the United States and Ottawa not doing enough to prevent a flood of cheap imports.
In a conference call on Monday, after the release of Cliffs’s third-quarter earnings, Mr. Goncalves said that while a crackdown by Ottawa on foreign steel imports has helped Stelco considerably in hot-rolled steel, it hasn’t been nearly enough in the galvanized sector. That market is too small to accommodate two domestic producers, Stelco and ArcelorMittal Dofasco, as well as low-priced imports, he said.
“And when the Prime Minister goes on a world trip and says, ‘Come to Canada, we’re open for business,’ they’re basically inviting new imports into the market.”
Mr. Goncalves drew a direct line between the Prime Minister’s efforts to diversify Canada’s auto sector internationally and the loss of steel jobs. With Mr. Carney earlier this year permitting China to sell a limited number of electric vehicles in Canada, “he was basically snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory,” Mr. Goncalves said.
“And the punishment was not on companies like Stelco or even Cleveland-Cliffs, the punishment was on Canadian workers.”
After the Stelco layoffs were announced, Mr. Carney said that Cliffs had “betrayed” its Canadian work force.
The Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
Mr. Carney previously made it clear that Mr. Goncalves’s history of backing Mr. Trump’s trade policies irked him. On Sept. 29, he pointed out the Cliffs CEO had previously “applauded President Trump for putting those tariffs on.”
On the Monday conference call, Mr. Goncalves once again heaped praise on Mr. Trump, saying his imposition last year of up to 50-per-cent tariffs on most U.S. imports of steel has helped boost profits at Cliffs, allowed it to invest with confidence and is bringing manufacturing back to the U.S.
“Kudos to President Trump, [Commerce] Secretary Howard Lutnick, and others, USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer,” Mr. Goncalves said.
“Now the United States is the third-largest producer of steel in the world, ahead of Japan,” he said.
Mr. Goncalves on Monday renewed his call for Ottawa to stamp out cheap imports of galvanized steel, a measure he said should allow his company to bring back laid-off Ontario workers.
The Canadian government already took aggressive action last year to reduce foreign imports of steel to help Canadian producers weather the trade war.
This year, countries without a trade agreement with Canada are only allowed to sell 20 per cent of their 2024 volumes tariff-free, with anything above that facing a levy of 50 per cent. Countries that have a free trade agreement with Ottawa can export 75 per cent of 2024 levels to Canada tariff-free. A 50-per-cent tariff will apply for anything above that. (The U.S. and Mexico are excluded.)
But more needs to be done to protect the Canadian galvanized steel sector, Mr. Goncalves said.
“The last piece of the puzzle to be addressed by the Canadian government is galvanized steel,” he said. “And then we would be able to bring the workers back and restart production.”
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly has repeatedly warned Cliffs that if it doesn’t honour promises it made under the Investment Canada Act, it could be sued by the government, subject to fines or possibly forced to divest Stelco.
In an Oct. 9 letter to Ms. Joly, Stelco argued it was in compliance with its ICA undertakings, saying that employment commitments did not apply to every single day of the five-year period.