Stupid is as stupid does

Vincent J. Curtis

31 July 21

RE: Feds give $400 million to phase out coal-fired steel making at plant.  Hamilton Spectator 31 July 21.

After all the self-congratulations are over, what are the wider implications of taking some of ArcelorMittal Dofasco’s primary steelmaking capacity of line?

Chinese steelmakers use more than twice the amount of coal as Canadian steelmakers do to make a ton of steel.  By taking Canadian primary steelmaking off the market, it leaves room for more, less efficiently made Chinese steel to be produced.  The net effect is to increase the amount of CO2 produced world-wide by primary steelmaking.  It just isn’t produced in Canada.

It also means the Canadian iron-ore produces have to find markets overseas.  Instead of Canada shipping steel abroad, she ships iron ore, reducing the value-added of exports and reducing Canada to the hewer of wood and drawer of water status.

An electric arc furnace produces about 150,000 tons of steel per year, while a basic oxygen furnace produces 2,000,000 tons per year.  The steel produced by the electric arc process tends to be less ductile than primary made steel because of the accumulation of alloying elements present in the scrap.  And primary made steel is essential for the electric arc furnace, since the arc furnace simply remelts scrap steel.

The federal and provincial governments giving hundreds of millions of dollars to one of the largest steel makers in the world is nothing but a vanity project for the politicians.  What primary steel isn’t made at Dofasco is switched to some other ArcelorMittal plant elsewhere in the world, and ArcelorMittal gets an arc furnace well below cost.

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