Algoma Steel: Difference between revisions

 

==History==

[[Image:One_of_the_blast_furnaces_at_Essar_Steel_Algoma.JPG|thumb|right|250px|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 furnace]]s 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 (fuel)|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's primary product for the first two decades of its existence.

 

[[Image:Algoma Steel.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Essar Steel Algoma from North St. Mary's Island]]

 

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 interest in annual [[dividend]]s 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 [[World War II|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.