Cleveland-Cliffs Bought Stelco to Neutralize It — Now Canadian Workers Pay the Price

A US steel giant lobbied for 50% tariffs on Canadian steel, then blamed those same tariffs for laying off 500 Canadian workers. The CEO admitted on camera he bought Stelco to stop it competing with his US plants.

Chelsey Masteij spent years breaking into Hamilton's steel industry, trained on cranes and coke ovens, and thought she'd retire from Stelco. On October 9 she got a call telling her not to come back. She is one of up to 500 workers facing layoffs after Cleveland-Cliffs announced temporary shutdowns at its Hamilton and Nanticoke plants.

The American owner's stated reason: Trump's 50 percent tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium, which doubled in June 2025, have cratered demand. Stelco says Canadian exports of cold-rolled and coated steel to the US fell 58 percent in Q2 2026 versus pre-trade-war averages. Canadian auto manufacturing — the Hamilton plant's primary customer — is itself reeling from tariff impacts. Assistant professor Colin Mang of McMaster University confirms demand is genuinely down. But the layoff narrative collapses under the weight of Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves's own words. In January testimony to US lawmakers, he argued no country including Canada should be exempt from steel tariffs. He told Politico he was "very happy" with 50 percent tariffs, adding "I have my fingerprints on that 50 percent." Then, in a CBC interview, he said the quiet part out loud: "I bought Stelco because I could not afford anymore having Stelco flooding the market here in the United States to the detriment of my own company." The man who helped engineer the trade barrier is now using it as cover to idle the competitor he acquired. The financial picture sharpens the contradiction. Goncalves reported Cleveland-Cliffs' strongest quarter since the Stelco acquisition. Canadian Industry Minister Melanie Joly pointed directly at the earnings: "He's never made so much money." Meanwhile, Goncalves's claim that Canadian steelmakers face "an avalanche of imports" is undercut by Mang's analysis — nearly 80 percent of Canada's cold-rolled steel imports come from the US itself, much of it from Cleveland-Cliffs' own American operations. The strategic logic, once you strip the PR, is straightforward. Goncalves wants sealed-off domestic markets in both countries, with his company dominant in each. He lobbied for US tariffs against Canadian steel to protect his American plants. He bought Stelco to remove a competitor. He now pressures Ottawa to impose import restrictions that would further consolidate his Canadian market position — while threatening to idle the plants if Ottawa doesn't comply. United Steelworkers Local 1005 president Ron Wells offered to help lobby Ottawa alongside the company; Cleveland-Cliffs never responded. Ottawa gave Cleveland-Cliffs a 15-day deadline from October 22 to honor commitments made during the 2024 acquisition — maintaining unionized jobs, keeping operations running, and advocating for Canadian steel interests. When the deadline expired November 6, Industry Minister Joly asked Canada's Competition Bureau to investigate the acquisition and whether the company's conduct violated competition law. She has signaled Ottawa could force a divestiture of Stelco's Canadian assets. For Hamilton, the stakes are existential. The city's identity has been built around steelmaking for over a century. Workers nearing retirement face job markets they haven't navigated since the pre-digital era. Some are already looking at relocating to western Canada. Masteij, who spent two weeks barely getting out of bed after her layoff, now sits at home collecting employment insurance, cutting expenses. "We are losing tradesmen," she said. The community that formed around those 12-hour shifts — the one she called family — is dispersing.