steel algoma inc. type corporate industry steel founded 1902 headquarters sault ste. marie ontario canada key people sir francis clergue founder number of employees 3500 2008 parent essar group website www.essarsteelalgoma.com essar steel algoma formerly algoma steel is an integrated primary steel producer located on the st. marys river in sault ste. marie ontario canada . its products are sold in canada and the united states as well as overseas . algoma steel was founded in 1902 by francis clergue an american entrepreneur who had settled in sault ste. marie . the company emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2004 . in april 2007 algoma steel was purchased by india s essar group for us 1.63 billion continuing operations as a subsidiary known as essar steel algoma inc. contents 1 history 2 steel making facilities 3 current status 4 references 5 external reference 6 see also history edit one of the blast furnaces of essar steel algoma construction of the steelworks started in february 1901 . on february 18 1902 the first bessemer converter was put in operation using pig iron made from the helen mine owned by algoma . the first rails were produced by the complex in may 1902 . however blast furnaces for pig iron manufacture were not completed at the site until 1904 . unlike most other steel producers algoma had no access to local coal forcing it to import coal and coke from the united states . the bessemer process was felt to produce steel that was well suited to manufacture of rails which was the algoma complex primary product for the first two decades of its existence . essar steel algoma from north st. mary s island shortly after founding algoma clergue s various financial operations suffered reverses and he lost control of the sault ste. marie complex being replaced as general manager in 1903 and by 1908 was no longer on the company s board of directors . initially the company specialized in manufacture of rails for canadian railways but this soon became a dead end as railway construction passed its peak . during the first world war algoma made steel for artillery shells but after the war continued to rely on rail production . the necessity of importing ore and coal from the united states due to the low quality of canadian iron ore as well as the absentee owners greater interested in annual dividends than building a viable industrial complex held back algoma during the 1920s . at the height of the great depression the company was insolvent and in receivership until sir james dunn gained control in 1935 and restored it to profitability . dunn s policy of never paying a dividend to stockholders coupled with extensive modernization and expansion during the second world war and an extended period of steel demand up until the mid 1950s allowed algoma to expand and become a more balanced steel producer . from 1988 to 1991 algoma was owned by dofasco making the combined company the largest steel producer in canada . however a strike at algoma and other dofasco subsidiaries in 1990 caused dofasco to abandon ownership . artificially inflated value of the canadian dollar coupled with competition from mini mills lower cost and currency strong asian countries and dumping by japanese companies has hurt canadian primary steel producers . in 2002 the company emerged from bankruptcy protection for the second time in a decade having previously gone into bankruptcy in 1990 . denis turcotte the president and ceo was largely credited with algoma s resurgence making it one of the most efficient steelmakers in north america . 1 algoma steel announced on august 3 2005 that the company was no longer for sale after a 64.7 million second quarter profit . the company stated that they are going to focus on value enhancing non sale alternatives . algoma also announced a special dividend of 6.00 per share payable on august 31 2005 to shareholders of record on august 17 2005 and a normal course issuer bid for up to 3.3 million shares . on february 8 2006 algoma steel announced a 55 million profit for their fourth quarter ending december 31 2005 . as a result of this and redemption of their 11 % notes on january 9 2006 the company declared themselves debt free and had an operating surplus of over 400 million in cash . this cash surplus attracted the attention of some shareholders who wanted to see the cash distributed as dividends echoing algoma s historic problems almost exactly a century earlier . in october 2006 algoma steel was awarded a power purchase agreement by the ontario power authority to build own and operate a co generation power plant utilizing by product fuels such as blast furnace gas bfg and coke oven gas cog ; algoma steel has founded a limited partnership company called algoma energy lp to own and operate the co generation facility . the facility s contract capacity was said to be 63mw . on 15 april 2007 essar global made an offer to acquire algoma steel inc. for 1.85 billion cad in cash . 2 it was announced on 20 june that essar had completed its purchase of all outstanding shares . 3 on june 23 2008 following its purchase by essar group algoma steel inc. announced that its name had been changed to essar steel algoma inc. this came along with a logo change to the essar steel company logo . steel making facilities edit essar steel algoma from wallace terr . sault ste. marie algoma currently has a capacity of 4 million tons per year . primary steel making facilities include two blast furnaces three coke batteries two 260 short ton basic oxygen furnaces with two ladle metallurgy stations for refining and alloying . algoma has a direct strip production complex manufactured by danieli of italy which casts strip directly and then rolls it to finished strip in the range of 0.047 inches to 0.625 inches in thickness and widths to 64 inches . algoma also operates a hot strip mill a plate mill and a cold strip mill . algoma also manufactures welded structural beams . current status edit algoma currently is the second largest steel producer in canada . it is the largest employer in sault ste. marie and currently has 2800 employees at the main plant . algoma now produces hot and cold rolled steel i.e. sheet and plate . algoma s products are used in the automotive construction energy manufacturing pipe and tube and steel distribution industries . 4 on june 15 2009 essar steel algoma successfully started up a new 70 mw cogeneration facility to produce electricity and steam from the by products of the coke making and iron making processes . 5 it features two 375 000 lb hr boilers and a 105mw turbine combined with other related components such as a generator a blast furnace gas holder condensate and feed water systems a water treatment plant a cooling tower a transformer and a distributed control system . essar has set a precedent as the first integrated steel manufacturer in canada to construct a co generation facility fueled with by product gas from the operation . 5 references edit joe castaldo . top ceo 2006 denis turcotte algoma steel inc. innovation canadian business online . canadianbusiness.com . retrieved 2010 12 01 . big conglomerate buys algoma steel . sootoday.com . 2007 02 14 . retrieved 2010 12 01 . concerning algoma steel . sootoday.com . 2007 06 20 . retrieved 2010 12 01 . 1 archived october 17 2009 at the wayback machine . a b item not found . sootoday.com . retrieved 2010 12 01 . external reference edit duncan mcdowall steel at the sault francis h. clergue sir james dunn and the algoma steel corporation 1901 1956 university of toronto press toronto 1988 isbn 0 8020 6736 0 algoma production facilities algoma siag press release new name for algoma steel sootoday.com 23 june 2008 . see also edit algoma word algoma v t e essar group companies essar steel essar steel india limited essar shipping essar oil essar energy essar hypermart the mobilestore equinox realty and infrastructure private limited notable non indian companies essar steel algoma minnesota steel llc retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title essar steel algoma & oldid 698667894 categories steel companies of canadaessar groupcompanies based in sault ste. marie ontariomanufacturing companies established in 19021902 establishments in canadahidden categories articles with wayback machine links navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages italiano edit links this page was last modified on 7 january 2016 at 14 53 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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