UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 20-F
(Mark One)
REGISTRATION STATEMENT PURSUANT TO SECTION 12(b) OR (g) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
OR
ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the fiscal year ended March 31 , 2022
OR
TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the transition period from to
OR
SHELL COMPANY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
Date of event requiring this shell company report
Commission file number 001-40924
(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)
N/A
(Translation of Registrant’s name into English)
(Jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)
(Address of principal executive offices)
Algoma Steel Group Inc.
Tel: (705 ) 945-2351
(Name, telephone, email and/or facsimile number and address of Company contact person)
Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each class |
Trading Symbol(s) |
Name of each exchange on which registered | ||
Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:
None
Securities for which there is a reporting obligation pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Act:
None
Indicate the number of outstanding shares of each of the issuer’s classes of capital or common stock as of the close of the period covered by the Annual Report: At March 31, 2022, 147,957,787 common shares, without par value, were issued and outstanding.
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. ☐ Yes ☒ No
If this report is an annual or transition report, indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. ☐ Yes ☒ No
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. ☒ Yes ☐ No
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation Yes ☐ No
S-T
(§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files). ☒ Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a
non-accelerated
filer, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2
of the Exchange Act. Large Accelerated Filer |
☐ |
Accelerated Filer |
☐ | |||||
☒ |
Emerging growth company |
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If an emerging growth company that prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐
Indicate by check mark which basis of accounting the registrant has used to prepare the financial statements included in this filing:
U.S. GAAP ☐ |
Other ☐ | |||||||
by the International Accounting Standards Board |
☒ |
If “Other” has been checked in response to the previous question, indicate by check mark which financial statement item the registrant has elected to follow. ☐ Item 17 ☐ Item 18
If this is an Annual Report, indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule ☒ No
12b-2
of the Exchange Act). ☐ Yes (APPLICABLE ONLY TO ISSUERS INVOLVED IN BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDINGS DURING THE PAST FIVE YEARS)
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed all documents and reports required to be filed by Sections 12, 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 subsequent to the distribution of securities under a plan confirmed by a court. ☐ Yes ☐ No
Auditor Firm ID: |
Auditor Name: |
Auditor Location: |
Algoma Steel Group Inc.
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F-1 |
INTRODUCTION
Unless otherwise indicated, all references in this Annual Report on Form
20-F
(“Annual Report”) to “Algoma,” “we,” “our,” “us,” “the Company” or similar terms refer to Algoma Steel Group Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries. We publish our consolidated financial statements in Canadian dollars. In this Annual Report, unless otherwise specified, all monetary amounts are in Canadian dollars, all references to “C$,” mean Canadian dollars and all references to “$” or “US$” and mean U.S. dollars.
This Annual Report on Form
20-F
contains our audited consolidated financial statements and related notes for the years ended March 31, 2022, March 31, 2021 and March 31, 2020 (“Annual Financial Statements”). Our Annual Financial Statements have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”), as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board. Unless otherwise indicated in this Annual Report, all references to: “fiscal 2022” are to the
12-month
period ended March 31, 2022; “fiscal 2021” are to the 12-month
period ended March 31, 2021; and “fiscal 2020” are to the 12-month
period ended March 31, 2020. CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING
FORWARD-LOOKING
STATEMENTS This Annual Report contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and “forward-looking information” under applicable Canadian securities legislation (collectively, “forward looking statements”), that are subject to risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements include information about possible or assumed future results of our business, financial condition, results of operations, liquidity, plans and strategic objectives, Algoma’s expectation to pay a quarterly dividend, launch the SIB (as defined below), the expected timing of the EAF (as defined below) transformation and the resulting increase in raw steel production capacity and reduction in carbon emissions. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the words “believe,” “project,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend,” “strategy,” “future,” “opportunity,” “plan,” “pipeline,” “may,” “should,” “will,” “would,” “will be,” “will continue,” “will likely result” or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, intentions, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances contain forward-looking information. Statements containing forward-looking information are not historical facts but instead represent management’s expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events or circumstances. The statements we make regarding the following matters are forward-looking by their nature:
| • | future financial performance; |
| • | future cash flow and liquidity; |
| • | future capital investment; |
| • | our ability to operate our business, remain in compliance with debt covenants and make payments on our indebtedness, with a substantial amount of indebtedness; |
| • | significant domestic and international competition; |
| • | macroeconomic pressures in the markets in which we operate; |
| • | increased use of competitive products; |
| • | a protracted fall in steel prices resulting in impairment of assets; |
1
| • | excess capacity, resulting in part from expanded production in China and other developing economies; |
| • | low-priced steel imports and decreased trade regulation, tariffs and other trade barriers; |
| • | protracted declines in steel consumption caused by poor economic conditions in North America or by the deterioration of the financial position of our key customers; |
| • | increases in annual funding obligations resulting from our under-funded pension plans; |
| • | supply and cost of raw materials and energy; |
| • | impact of a downgrade in credit rating and its impact on access to sources of liquidity; |
| • | currency fluctuations, including an increase in the value of the Canadian dollar against the U.S. dollar; |
| • | environmental compliance and remediation; |
| • | unexpected equipment failures and other business interruptions; |
| • | a protracted global recession or depression; |
| • | changes in or interpretation of royalty, tax, environmental, greenhouse gas, carbon, accounting and other laws or regulations, including potential environmental liabilities that are not covered by an effective indemnity or insurance; |
| • | risks associated with existing and potential lawsuits and regulatory actions made against us; |
| • | impact of disputes arising with our partners; |
| • | the ability of Algoma to implement and realize its business plans, including Algoma’s ability to complete its transition to electric arc furnace (“ EAF |
| • | Algoma’s ability to operate the EAF; |
| • | the risks that higher cost of internally generated power and market pricing for electricity sourced from Algoma’s current grid in Northern Ontario could have an adverse impact on our production and financial performance; |
| • | access to an adequate supply of the various grades of steel scrap at competitive prices; |
| • | the risks associated with the steel industry generally; |
| • | economic, social and political conditions in North America and certain international markets; |
| • | changes in general economic conditions, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; or the conflict between Russia and Ukraine that commenced in February 2022; |
| • | risks associated with inflation rates; |
2
| • | risks inherent in the Corporation’s corporate guidance; |
| • | failure to achieve cost and efficiency initiatives; |
| • | risks inherent in marketing operations; |
| • | risks associated with technology, including electronic, cyber and physical security breaches; |
| • | projected increases in capacity liquid steel as a result of the transformation to EAF steelmaking; |
| • | projected cost savings associated with the transformation to EAF steelmaking; |
| • | projected reduction in carbon dioxide (“CO2”) emissions associated with the transformation to EAF steelmaking, including with respect to the impact of such reductions on the Green Steel Funding and carbon taxes payable; |
| • | construction projects are subject to risks, including delays and cost overruns; |
| • | our ability to enter into contracts to source scrap and the availability of scrap; |
| • | the availability of alternative metallic supply; |
| • | the Company’s to launch and complete the SIB; |
| • | the Company’s expectation to declare and pay a quarterly dividend; and |
| • | business interruption or unexpected technical difficulties, including impact of weather; counterparty and credit risk; labor interruptions and difficulties |
The preceding list is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all of our forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are based on our beliefs, assumptions and expectations of future performance, taking into account the information currently available to us. These statements are only predictions based upon our current expectations and projections about future events. There are important factors that could cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from the results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. In particular, you should consider the risks provided under “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report.
You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that future results, levels of activity, performance and events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or will occur. Despite a careful process to prepare and review the forward-looking information, there can be no assurance that the underlying assumptions will prove to be correct. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this Annual Report, to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations.
3
PART I
ITEM 1. |
IDENTITY OF DIRECTORS, SENIOR MANAGEMENT AND ADVISERS |
Not applicable.
ITEM 2. |
OFFER STATISTICS AND EXPECTED TIMETABLE |
Not applicable.
ITEM 3. |
KEY INFORMATION |
B. Capitalization and Indebtedness
Not applicable.
C. Reasons for the Offer and Use of Proceeds
Not applicable.
D. Risk Factors
Risks Related to our Business
Market and industry volatility could have a material adverse effect on our results. A protracted fall in steel prices, or any significant and sustained increase in the price of raw materials in the absence of corresponding steel price increases, would have a material adverse effect on our results.
The steel market is a cyclical commodity business with significant volatility in prices in response to various factors, including market demand, supply chain inventory levels, and imports. Factors specific to our business include a prolonged cyclical downturn in the steel industry, macroeconomic trends such as global or regional recessions and trends in credit and capital markets more generally. Market price volatility results in a high level of cash flow volatility with prolonged periods of negative cash flow. Steel prices are volatile and the global steel industry has historically been cyclical. During 2015, hot rolled coil prices fell sharply by approximately $200/ton to $354/ton in the North American market, as a result of a significant increase in imports, driven primarily by the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against other currencies. In 2018, hot rolled coil prices rose to over $900/ton over a short period then fell to under $500/ton in the fall of 2019. Hot rolled coil prices recovered slightly, but fell to under $500/ton once again as a result of the ). These significant market price fluctuations also affect the cost of our raw material inputs and thus affect our bottom line. Any miscorrelation between finished product pricing and raw material inputs can have a material affect on our profitability. Protracted pricing or volume declines in the future would adversely affect our cash flow and ability to pay for our fixed costs, capital expenditures and other funding obligations.
COVID-19
pandemic and the related global economic slowdown. Since that low in 2020, hot rolled coil prices rose to an all-time
high of $1,958/ton by the end of 2021. Subsequently prices fell to below $1,000/ton by March 2022. Thereafter prices increased and have settled around $1,200/ton so far in calendar 2022. (CRU U.S. Midwest
Hot-Rolled
Coil4
Steel production also requires the use of large volumes of bulk raw materials and energy, in particular iron ore and coal, as well as energy, alloys, scrap, oxygen, natural gas, electricity and other inputs, the prices of which can be subject to significant fluctuation. The prices of iron ore and coal can vary greatly from period to period and our results have historically been impacted by movements in coal and iron ore prices. Iron ore and coal prices have been volatile in recent years. In addition, to the extent that we have quoted prices to our customers and accepted customer orders for our products prior to purchasing necessary raw materials, we may be unable to raise the price of our products to cover all or part of the increased cost of the raw materials. Alternatively, we may be faced with having agreed to purchase raw materials and energy at prices that are above the then current market price or in greater volumes than required. The availability and prices of raw materials may also be negatively affected by new laws and regulations, allocation by suppliers, interruptions in production (including mining stoppages), accidents or natural disasters, changes in exchange rates, price fluctuations, the rate of inflation and the availability and cost of transportation. There can be no assurance that adequate supplies of electricity, natural gas, coal, iron ore, alloys, scrap and other inputs will be available in the future or that future increases in the cost of such materials will not adversely affect our financial performance.
Our largest input cost in the steel-making process is iron ore, which we purchase under our supply contracts with Cliffs Natural Resources (“Cliffs”) and United States Steel Corporation (“U.S. Steel”). We believe that our long-term agreements with Cliffs and U.S. Steel provide for the supply of iron ore pellets through to the close of the 2024 shipping season, but there can be no assurances that they will meet our needs or that we will be able to retain such long term contracts.
We face significant domestic and international competition, and there is a possibility that increased use of competitive products could cause our sales to decline.
We compete with numerous foreign and domestic steel producers. Significant global steel capacity growth through new and expanded production in recent years has caused and may continue to cause capacity to exceed global demand, which has resulted and may result in lower prices and steel shipments. Some of our competitors have greater financial and capital resources than we do and continue to invest heavily to achieve increased production efficiencies and improved product quality. We primarily compete with other steel producers based on the delivered price of finished products to our customers. Our costs are generally higher than many foreign producers; however, freight costs for steel can often make it uneconomical for distant steel producers to compete with us. Foreign producers may be able to successfully compete if their higher shipping costs are offset by lower cost of sales.
Although we are continually striving to improve our operating costs, we may not be successful in achieving cost improvements or gaining operating efficiencies that may be necessary to remain competitive on a global scale.
The North American steel industry has, in the past, experienced lengthy periods of difficult markets due to increased foreign imports. Due to unfavorable foreign economic conditions, excess foreign capacity and a stronger U.S. dollar compared to global currencies, imports of steel products to U.S. and Canadian markets have occasionally reached high levels.
5
In addition, in the case of certain product applications, steel competes with a number of other materials such as plastic, aluminum, and composite materials. Improvements in the technology, production, pricing or acceptance of these competitive materials relative to steel or other changes in the industries for these competitive materials could cause our net sales to decline. There is ongoing research and technological developments with respect to the various processes associated with steel production which have the potential to reduce costs and improve quality and operational efficiency. Such research and technological developments could substantially impair our competitive position if other companies implement new technology that we elect not to implement or are unable to implement.
A number of steel producers have completed successful restructurings, through which they have made production improvements, achieved lower operating costs and been relieved of legacy obligations, including environmental and pension and retiree obligations. As a result, these entities may be able to operate with lower costs and cause us to face increased competition.
There has been a significant increase in new EAF steelmaking capacity commissioned in North America. EAF producers typically require lower capital expenditures for construction and maintenance of facilities, and may have lower total employment costs. In addition, the market pricing for our hot rolled steel is more correlated to scrap steel as the main material for EAF producers. While our transformation to EAF steelmaking is currently in process, the EAF transformation may never be completed or may only be completed after significant delays or at a substantially greater cost than anticipated. Failure to complete, or delays and/or cost overruns in completing the EAF transformation could adversely affect our results of operations and ability to compete in our industry.
Macroeconomic pressures in the markets in which we operate, including, but not limited to, the effects of inflation, and
COVID-19
may adversely affect consumer spending and our financial results. To varying degrees, our products are sensitive to changes in macroeconomic conditions that impact pricing for consumer products and consumer spending. As a result, consumers may be affected in many different ways, including for example:
| • | Whether or not they make a purchase; |
| • | Their choice of brand, model or price-point; and |
| • | How frequently they upgrade or replace their products containing steel, such as appliances and automobiles. |
Real GDP growth, consumer confidence, the
COVID-19
pandemic, inflation, employment levels, oil prices, interest rates, tax rates, housing market conditions, foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, costs for items such as fuel and food and other macroeconomic trends can adversely affect consumer demand for the products that we offer. Geopolitical issues around the world and how our markets are positioned can also impact the macroeconomic conditions and could have a material adverse impact on our financial results. 6
Economic, social and political conditions in North America and certain international markets could adversely affect demand for the products we sell.
Sales of our products involve discretionary spending by consumers as well as our customers. Unfavorable economic conditions due to economic, social and political conditions in North America and certain international markets could result in less discretionary purchases by consumers, and discretionary project spending by our customers. Consumer spending may be affected by many economic and other factors outside of the Company’s control. Some of these factors include consumer disposable income levels, consumer confidence in current and future economic conditions, levels of employment, consumer credit availability, consumer debt levels, inflation, political conditions and the effect of weather, natural disasters, public health crises, including the recent outbreak of
COVID-19
and the related reduced consumer demand, decreased sales and widespread temporary closures. Adverse economic changes in any of the regions in which we sell our products could reduce consumer confidence and adversely affect our ability to sell our products. The outbreak of
COVID-19
and the downturn in the global economy caused a sharp reduction in worldwide demand for steel. A protracted global recession or depression will have a material adverse effect on the steel industry and therefore our business and operations. Our activities and financial performance are affected by international, national and regional economic conditions. The and work-from-home orders, mandatory business closures, cessation of certain construction activities, public gathering limitations and prolonged quarantines. These efforts and other governmental and individual reactions to the pandemic have led to lower consumer demand for goods and services and general uncertainty regarding the near-term and long-term impact of the
COVID-19
pandemic, which began during the first quarter of calendar year 2020, has had a profound impact on economies world-wide, with various levels of governments implementing border closings, travel restrictions, mandatory stay-at-home
COVID-19
pandemic on the domestic and international economy and on public health. The manufacture of steel was deemed to be an essential service by the government of Ontario, and we continued to operate during the
COVID-19
pandemic, in part with funds we received from government assistance programs. In spite of our continued operations, as the pandemic spread, slowdowns and disruptions in the operations of our customers led to a reduction in demand that had a negative impact on our business and operations. There is uncertainty regarding the full impact of the COVID-19
pandemic on our business and operations, or if any other similar epidemic or pandemic, will impact our business and operations in the future. There is no assurance that there will not be a renewed spread of COVID-19,
including the spread of new variants, and, in such event, that efforts to contain the virus (including, but not limited to, voluntary and mandatory quarantines, vaccines, restrictions on travel, limiting gatherings of people, and reduced operations and extended closures of many businesses and institutions) will not materially impact our business, financial performance and financial position. Disruptions in our business activities, and costs incurred by us in response to changing conditions and regulations and reduction in demand for the steel products that we manufacture, could have a material adverse impact on our business, operating results and financial position. To the extent the COVID-19
pandemic, or any other similar epidemic or pandemic, adversely affects our businesses, it may also have the effect of exacerbating many of the other risks described in this Annual Report, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and operations. 7
A significant and prolonged recession or depression in the United States, Canada or Europe, or significantly slower growth or the spread of recessionary conditions in emerging economies that are substantial consumers of steel (such as China, Brazil, Russia and India, as well as emerging Asian markets, the Middle East and the Commonwealth of Independent States) would exact a heavy toll on the steel industry. Financial weakness among substantial consumers of steel products, such as the automotive industry and the construction industry, or the bankruptcy of any large companies in such industries, would have a negative impact in market conditions. Protracted declines in steel consumption caused by poor economic conditions in North America or by the deterioration of the financial position of our key customers would have a material adverse effect on demand for our products and our operational and financial results.
Steel companies have significant fixed costs, which are difficult to reduce in response to reduced demand. However, we could implement a variety of measures in response to a market downturn and a decline in demand for steel products. These measures might include: curtailing the purchase of raw materials; spreading raw material contracts over a longer period of time; reducing capital spending; negotiating reduced pricing for major inputs, reducing headcount through temporary layoffs, limiting overtime and reducing use of contractors; managing fixed costs with changes in production levels; improving operational practices to reduce lead time; and venturing into export markets in order to increase capacity utilization. However, these initiatives may not prove sufficient, in terms of cost reduction or in realigning our production levels with reduced demand, to achieve profitability and maintain cash flow necessary to pay for capital expenditures and other funding needs.
Failure to complete, or delays in completing, our EAF transformation could adversely affect our business and prospects. There are significant risks and uncertainties associated with, and we may fail to realize the anticipated benefits of, the EAF transformation.
The EAF transformation may never be completed or may only be completed after significant delays and/or cost overruns. Failure to complete, or delays in completing, the EAF transformation, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, financial performance or prospects.
In addition, the EAF transformation will require significant capital expenditures and divert the attention of management from our business. The EAF transformation will also require a number of permits, including environmental compliance approvals in respect of sewage works and air/noise, as well as indigenous consultations and the adoption of site specific standards under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (“CEPA”), none of which are guaranteed to be granted or adopted. If we are not successful at integrating the EAF and related technology and equipment into our business, our cost of production relative to our competitors may increase and we may cease to be profitable or competitive. The EAF transformation may be more costly than expected to complete and entails additional risks as to whether the EAF and related technology and equipment will reduce our cost of production sufficiently to justify the capital expenditure to obtain them. Additionally, there is no guarantee that the EAF transformation will allow us to achieve our emissions targets. If such risks were to materialize, the anticipated benefits of the EAF transformation may not be fully realized, or realized at all.
8
Construction projects are subject to risks, including delays and cost overruns, which could have an adverse impact on our liquidity and results of operations.
As part of our growth strategy with electric arc steelmaking, we must contract for the procurement of technology and construction services. Our construction projects are subject to the risks of delay or cost overruns inherent in any large construction project, including costs or delays resulting from the following:
| • | Unexpected long delivery times for, or shortages of, key equipment, parts and materials; |
| • | Shortages of skilled labor and other shipyard personnel necessary to perform the work; |
| • | Unforeseen increases in the cost of equipment, labor and raw materials, particularly steel; |
| • | Unforeseen design and engineering problems; |
| • | Unanticipated actual or purported change orders; |
| • | Work stoppages; |
| • | Latent damages or deterioration to equipment and machinery in excess of engineering estimates and assumptions; |
| • | Failure or delay of third-party service providers and labor disputes; |
| • | Disputes with fabricators and other suppliers; |
| • | Delays and unexpected costs of incorporating parts and materials needed for the completion of projects; |
| • | Financial or other difficulties of suppliers; |
| • | Adverse weather conditions; and |
| • | Inability to obtain required permits or approvals. |
If we experience delays and costs overruns in the construction of the EAF furnaces due to certain of the factors listed above, it could also adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our exposure to the higher cost of internally generated power and market pricing for electricity sourced from the current grid in Northern Ontario may have an adverse impact on our production and financial performance if we are able to complete the EAF transformation.
Electricity is a significant input required in EAF steelmaking, and competitor EAF producers typically enter into fixed-price electricity contracts. Our exposure to the higher cost of internally generated of power and market pricing for electricity sourced from the current grid in Northern Ontario may have an adverse impact on our production and financial performance if we are able to complete the EAF transformation. We have limited access to power from the current grid in Northern Ontario. As a result, we are planning to upgrade our internal natural gas power plant in order to supply sufficient power in combination with the available grid power to operate EAF furnaces. Delays in acquiring the specialized power equipment and associated specialty services may impact our timing to complete the EAF transformation. Furthermore, operating an internal power plant subjects us to planned and unplanned outages to maintain and/or repair the equipment, which would result in an associated outage of the steelmaking production.
9
The Ontario provincial regulator, Independent Electricity System Operator (“IESO”), plans for the resources needed to meet Ontario’s future electricity needs. This includes accounting for Ontario’s forecasted electricity requirements, and carrying out integrated resource planning for energy efficiency, generation and transmission infrastructure to meet those requirements. This process is not within our control. We will need to operate our internal natural gas power plant until regional power system upgrades are determined and recommended by the IESO for installation. In the long-term, in order to operate EAF furnaces from grid power alone, we will require regional power system upgrades, with new transmission wires outside the city providing for more power to Sault Ste. Marie. These regional power system upgrades may not be completed until 2029 or later.
Due to our limited access to power from the current grid in Northern Ontario, our plan is to adapt our number 7 blast furnace (“Blast Furnace No. 7”) to run at a lower rate in order to feed liquid iron into the EAFs to reduce our power requirements and to balance the amount of power expected to be available from internal generation and available grid power. Operating the blast furnace at a reduced rate subjects us to planned and unplanned outages in order to maintain and/or repair the equipment, which would result in associated outages in steelmaking production.
Operating the blast furnace together with EAF steelmaking while using internal power generation from natural gas (“Hybrid Mode”) presents both an operating risk and a market risk, as we would be running the facilities at suboptimal levels and are subject to outages with internal power generation. Furthermore, the presence of ice and/or snow in steel scrap materials as they are introduced to EAF steelmaking could result in explosions which may result in further unplanned outages and/or health and safety consequences.
We are pursuing a local electricity transmission infrastructure upgrade and technical contingency solution to allow us to access more power sooner from the current grid into Sault Ste. Marie. Delays in designing, approving, and installing these local infrastructure upgrades may result in a delay or inability to access more power from the grid. This may result in a disruption to our steelmaking operations and/or failure to grow our business.
In connection with the EAF transformation, our access to an adequate supply of the various grades of steel scrap at competitive prices may result in a disruption to our operations and/or financial performance.
The principal raw material of our transformation to EAF steelmaking operations will be scrap metal derived from internal operations within our steel mills and industrial scrap generated as a manufactured goods such as automobiles, appliances, and machinery; and demolition scrap recovered from obsolete structures, containers and machines. Scrap is a global commodity influenced by economic conditions in a number of industrialized and emerging markets throughout Asia, Europe and North America.
by-product
of manufacturing; obsolete scrap recovered from end-of-life
The markets for scrap metals are highly competitive, both in the purchase of raw or unprocessed scrap, and processed scrap. As a result, we will need to compete with other steel mills in attempting to secure scrap supply through direct purchasing from scrap suppliers. Any failure to secure access to an adequate supply of the various grades of steel scrap at competitive prices may result in a disruption to our operations and/or financial performance.
10
We will also need to supplement our EAF operations with higher-purity substitutes for ferrous scrap which may be sourced from higher-quality-lower-residual prime scrap, or iron units such as pig iron, pelletized iron, hot briquetted iron, direct reduced iron, and other forms of processed iron. Any failure to secure access to an adequate supply of the substitutes for ferrous scrap at competitive prices may result in a disruption to our operations and/or financial performance. Furthermore, we may not be able to source competitive modes of freight transportation for inbound scrap and other materials.
Many variables can impact ferrous scrap prices, including the level of Canadian steel production, the level of exports of scrap from the United States and Canada, and the amount of obsolete scrap production. Canadian ferrous scrap prices generally have a strong correlation and spread to global pig iron pricing. Generally, as Canadian steel demand increases, so does scrap demand and resulting scrap prices. The reverse is also typically true with scrap prices following steel prices downward when supply exceeds demand, but this is not always the case. When scrap prices greatly accelerate, this can challenge one of the principal elements of an EAF based steel mill’s traditional lower cost structure – the cost of its metallic raw material.
Even if we are able to complete the EAF transformation, we may fail to achieve the anticipated benefits due to reduced product qualities.
Even if we are to complete the EAF transformation, we may fail to achieve the anticipated benefits. For example, as a result of residual chemistry attributes of steel from the EAF processing of scrap, we may be limited in our ability to produce a full range of product types and qualities. This may result in an inferior product or a more limited range of products we are able to produce, either of which could result in reduced sales and have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and/or adversely affect our reputation with existing and potential customers.
The recent Russia-Ukraine conflict and the consequent wave of international sanctions against Russia are expected to reduce the supply of steelmaking raw materials and steel products in international markets.
Armed conflict commenced between Russia and Ukraine in February 2022. In response, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, among others, have imposed a wave of sanctions against certain Russian institutions, companies and citizens. As a result of the conflict and related sanctions, energy prices have continually climbed and foreign trade transactions involving Russian and Ukrainian counterparties have been severely affected.
The extent and duration of the conflict, resulting sanctions and resulting future market disruptions are impossible to predict, but could be significant. Algoma’s board of directors is monitoring the potential impacts of the conflict in Ukraine on Algoma’s business overall and in particular, risks related to cybersecurity, sanctions and market disruptions.
Although we do not have business operations or customers in Russia or Ukraine, sanctions, an increase in cyberattacks and increases in energy costs, among other potential impacts on regional and global economic environment and currencies, may cause demand for our products and services to be volatile, cause abrupt changes in our customers’ buying patterns, interrupt our ability to obtain raw materials from those regions. In addition, in challenging economic times, our current or potential future customers may experience cash flow problems and as a result may modify, delay or cancel plans to purchase our products.
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Russia has a significant participation in the international trade of steel slabs, iron ore, pig iron, metallurgical coal and pulverized coal for injection and alloys. In addition, Ukraine has a significant participation in the international trade of pig iron, steel slabs and iron ore. The availability and pricing of these inputs in the international markets are expected to be volatile and could result in limitations to our production levels and higher costs, affecting our profitability and results of operations. As a result of the economic sanctions imposed on Russia, we may be required to purchase raw materials at increased prices.
In addition, there may be an increased risk of cyberattacks by state actors due to the current conflict between Russia and the Ukraine. Any increase in such attacks on us or our systems could adversely affect our operations. Although we maintain cybersecurity policies and procedures to manage risk to our information technology systems, continuously adapt our systems and processes to mitigate such threats, and plan to enhance our protections against such attacks, we may not be able to address these cybersecurity threats proactively or implement adequate preventative measures and we may be unable to promptly detect and address any such disruption or security breach, if at all.
We have a recent history of losses and may not return to or sustain profitability in the future.
Although we were profitable in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022, we have incurred net losses in recent reporting periods, as recently as for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021, when we had a net loss of approximately C$76.1 million. This history of our business incurring significant losses, among other things, led predecessor operators of our business to seek creditor protection and/or to complete corporate restructuring proceedings. See “– ” We may not maintain profitability in future periods, our earnings could decline or grow more slowly than we expect and we may incur significant losses in the future for a number of reasons, including the risks described in this Annual Report.
Predecessor operators of our business have sought creditor protection and completed corporate restructurings on a number of occasions.
Our cost and operational improvements plan may not continue to be effective.
Our cost and operational improvements strategy has resulted in reduced costs. However, there can be no assurance that we will continue to achieve such savings in the future or that we will realize the estimated future benefits of these plans. Moreover, our continued implementation of these plans may disrupt our operations and performance. Additionally, our estimated cost savings for these plans are based on several assumptions that may prove to be inaccurate and, as a result, there can be no assurance that we will realize these cost savings.
Our utilization rates may decline as a result of increased global steel production and imports.
In addition to economic conditions and prices, the steel industry is affected by other factors such as worldwide production capacity and fluctuations in steel imports/exports and tariffs. Historically, the steel industry has suffered from substantial overcapacity. If demand for steel products was to rapidly decline, it is possible that global production levels will fail to adjust fully. If production increases outstrip demand increases in the market, an extended period of depressed prices and market weakness may result.
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China is now the largest worldwide steel producing country by a significant margin and has significant unused capacity. In the future, any significant excess capacity utilization in China and increased exports by Chinese steel companies would depress steel prices in many markets.
We expect that consolidation in the steel sector in recent years should, as a general matter, help producers to maintain more consistent performance through the down cycles by preventing fewer duplicate investments and increasing producers’ utilization and therefore efficiency and economies of scale. However, overcapacity in the industry may
re-emerge.
Increased imports of
low-priced
steel products into North America and decreased trade regulation could impact the North American steel market, resulting in a loss of sales volume and decreased pricing that could adversely impact our operating results and financial position. Imports of flat-rolled steel to the U.S. accounted for approximately 6% of the U.S. market for flat-rolled steel products in 2021. Imports of flat-rolled steel to Canada accounted for approximately 19% of the Canadian market for flat-rolled steel products in 2021 (). Increases in future levels of imported steel to North America could reduce future market prices and demand levels for steel products produced in those markets and reduce our profitability.
Statistics Canada, American Iron and Steel Institute, Phoenix SPI
In addition, our business has historically been affected by “dumping” – the selling of steel into Canadian or U.S. markets at prices below cost or below the price prevailing in a foreign company’s domestic market. Dumping may result in injury to steel producers in Canada or the U.S. in the form of suppressed prices, lost sales, lower profits and reductions in production, employment levels and the ability to raise capital. Some foreign steel producers are owned, controlled or subsidized by foreign governments. Decisions by these foreign producers to continue production at marginal facilities may be influenced to a greater degree by political and economic policy considerations than by prevailing market conditions and may further contribute to excess global capacity. Although trade legislation to limit dumping has had some success, it may be inadequate to prevent future unfair import pricing practices which individually or collectively could materially adversely affect our business. If Canadian or U.S. trade laws are weakened, an increase in the market share of imports into the U.S. and Canada may occur, which would have a material adverse effect on our business and financial performance.
The Canadian steel industry has worked with the Canadian government to modernize the Canadian trade remedy system to provide the appropriate tools to respond to unfair trade. These changes came into force in 2017, 2019 and again in 2022, through a number of amendments to the Special Import Measures Act and related trade remedy regulations to strengthen the trade remedy system, while remaining aligned with international trade rules. Although the Government of Canada continues to work with industry to respond to unfair trade practices, there can be no assurance that such measures will sufficiently offset any resulting loss caused to us by such unfair practices, and there can be no assurance that the protective measures put in place by the Government of Canada and/or the Canadian International Trade Tribunal will be kept in place and, as a result, such unfair trade practices may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results or operations and cash flow.
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Tariffs and other trade barriers may restrict our ability to compete internationally.
We have a significant number of customers located in the United States. For the year ended March 31, 2022, 63% of our revenue was from customers located in the United States. Our ability to sell to these customers and compete with producers located in the United States could be negatively affected by tariffs and/or trade restrictions imposed on our products.
On April 20, 2017, the United States issued an executive order directing the United States Department of Commerce to investigate whether imports of foreign steel are harming U.S. national security. The directive falls under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which allows the U.S. president to restrict trade of a good if such trade is determined to be harmful to U.S. national security. On February 16, 2018, the United States Department of Commerce released its report regarding the Section 232 investigation. The recommendations in that report include options regarding tariffs and/or quotas that are intended to adjust the level of steel imports into the United States as it has been determined that those imports are an impairment to national security. Subsequently, the United States announced tariffs of 25% by presidential proclamation dated March 8, 2018 on steel and aluminum imports. Canada, Mexico and certain other countries were granted temporary exemptions, which expired on May 31, 2018. As a result, Canadian steel producers became subject to 25% tariffs on all steel revenues earned on shipments made to the United States effective as of June 1, 2018. Effective on July 1, 2018, Canada began imposing a series of counter tariffs on certain U.S. goods, including steel products. The Canadian government has also announced various relief measures aimed to helping companies affected by the tariffs and counter tariffs on goods imported from the United States.
The United States lifted these tariffs as they relate to Canadian imports effective May 2019, subject to a mutual understanding with Canada on maintaining certain trade levels into the United States. The Canadian government subsequently lifted counter tariffs on goods imported from the United States. As the trade understanding is between countries, there is no assurance that the Canadian domestic steel industry will maintain adherence to the trade level guidelines set out in the understanding. As a result, there can be no assurance that the United States will not once again levy tariffs on our products shipped to customers in the United States.
All of our operations are currently conducted at one facility using one blast furnace and are subject to unexpected equipment failures and other business interruptions.
Our manufacturing processes are dependent upon critical steelmaking equipment such as furnaces, continuous casters, rolling mills and electrical equipment (such as transformers), and this equipment may incur downtime as a result of unanticipated failures. In particular, as a single blast furnace operation, any unplanned or prolonged outage in the operation of the blast furnace and/or steelmaking facility may have a material adverse effect on our ability to produce steel and satisfy pending and new orders, which will materially impact our revenues, cash flows and profitability. We have insurance coverage for property damage and business interruption losses after a specified minimum damage. Our business interruption insurance, which is subject to specific retentions, provides coverage for loss of gross profit resulting from the interruption of business operations.
Our predecessor, Essar Steel Algoma Inc. (“Old Steelco”), experienced plant shutdowns or periods of reduced production as a result of such equipment failures.
On January 21, 2011, Blast Furnace No. 7 experienced significant water leakage and this ultimately led to the chilling of the furnace. Production of raw steel was halted for 23 days with production returning to normal after 33 days.
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During fiscal year 2012, a substantial number of stack plate coolers were replaced and a leak detection system was installed at Blast Furnace No. 7. This program has continued into the current fiscal year. The purpose of these measures is to detect and prevent incidents of water into the furnace hearth.
During April 2019, we experienced an unplanned outage that disrupted production in our Blast Furnace No. 7 as a result of an operator error causing a chemistry imbalance of certain materials. The resulting lost production led to a shipping volume reduction during the three-month period ended June 30, 2019, of over 100,000 tons. During April 2019, we recorded a capacity utilization adjustment of C$32.7 million to cost of steel products sold.
On October 18, 2019, there was a rupture of a steam drain line which was located below an electrical room in our cokemaking
by-products
plant (“BP”), which resulted in a loss of power to the BP. In accordance with our emergency procedures, the coke oven gas bleeders were lit to flare the coke oven gas. Additionally, the loss of power caused the cokemaking south raw liquor tank and the tar running tanks to overflow. Raw liquor was conveyed to the main water filter plant (“MWFP”) via a sewer located in the BP. This resulted in effluent exceedances at the MWFP for phenol, ammonia and total cyanide and a toxicity failure for rainbow trout. The incident remains under investigation by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (“MECP”). As a single blast furnace operation, our ability to curtail our operating configuration in response to declining market conditions is very limited.
Unexpected interruptions in production capabilities and unexpected failures in our computer systems would adversely affect productivity and financial performance for the affected period. No assurance can be given that a significant shutdown will not occur in the future or that such a shutdown will not have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position or financial performance.
It is also possible that operations may be disrupted due to other unforeseen circumstances such as power outages, explosions, fires, floods, pandemics, states of emergency declared by governmental agencies, environmental incidents, accidents, severe weather conditions and cyberattacks. To the extent that lost production could not be compensated for at unaffected facilities and depending on the length of the outage, our sales and our unit production costs could be adversely affected.
We could incur significant cash expenses for temporary and potential permanent idling of facilities.
We perform strategic reviews of our business, which may include evaluating each of our plants and operating units to assess their viability and strategic benefits. As part of these reviews, we may idle, whether temporarily or permanently, certain of our existing facilities in order to reduce participation in markets where we determine that our returns are not acceptable. If we decide to permanently idle any facility or assets, we are likely to incur significant cash expenses, including those relating to labor benefit obligations, supply agreements and accelerated environmental remediation costs, as well as substantial
take-or-pay
non-cash
charges for impairment of those assets. If we elect to permanently idle material facilities or assets, it could adversely affect our operations, financial results and cash flows. In the past, certain of our facilities have been idled as a result of poor profitability. 15
For any temporarily idled facilities, we may not be able to respond in an efficient manner when restarting these to fully realize the benefits from changing market conditions that are favorable to integrated steel producers. When we restart idled facilities, we incur certain costs to replenish raw material inventories, prepare the previously idled facilities for operation, perform the required repair and maintenance activities and prepare employees to return to work safely and resume production responsibilities. The amount of any such costs can be material, depending on a variety of factors, such as the period of time during which the facilities remained idle, necessary repairs and available employees, and is difficult to project.
The North American steel industry and certain industries we serve, such as the automotive, construction, appliance, machinery and equipment, and transportation industries, are cyclical, and prolonged economic declines would have a material adverse effect on our business.
The North American steel industry is cyclical in nature and sensitive to general economic conditions, including the
COVID-19
pandemic. The financial position and financial performance of companies in the steel industry are generally affected by macroeconomic fluctuations in the Canadian, U.S. and global economies. Due mainly to our product mix, we have a higher exposure to spot markets than most of our North American competitors. We are therefore subject to more volatility in selling prices. In addition, steel prices are sensitive to trends in cyclical industries such as the North American automotive, construction, appliance, machinery and equipment, and transportation industries, which are significant markets for our products. Recent economic situations resulting from the COVID-19
pandemic have negatively impacted our performance. In addition, many of our customers are also affected by economic downturns, including as a result of the
COVID-19
pandemic, which may in the future result in defaults in the payment of accounts receivable owing to us and a resulting negative impact on our financial results and cash flows. There can be no assurance that economic or market conditions will be favorable to the steel industry or any of the
end-use
industries that we intend to serve in the future. Economic downturns, a stagnant economy or otherwise unfavorable economic or market conditions may adversely affect our business, financial performance and financial position. The lag between the time an order is placed and when it is fulfilled can have a material impact on our financial results, which could be adverse.
As we have a substantial portion of spot-based sales, orders are priced at current prices, subject to discounts, incentives and other negotiated terms, for production and delivery in the future. Generally, there is a lag of approximately six to eight weeks between when an order is booked and ultimately delivered. At certain times, particularly in rapidly increasing price environments, lead times could grow even longer based on increased customer demand and orders. As a result, our financial performance generally lags changes in market price, both positive and negative. Furthermore, in the circumstances where market prices are falling, our customers may seek to cancel orders or seek to renegotiate more favorable pricing to reflect the changes in market price. Our financial position and financial performance could be materially adversely affected in such circumstances.
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Predecessor operators of our business have sought creditor protection and completed corporate restructurings on a number of occasions.
Old Steelco’s predecessor company initiated a bankruptcy proceeding in 1990 and subsequently emerged from bankruptcy protection by way of a C$60 million bridge loan from the Government of Ontario. As a result of business, operational and financial challenges, Old Steelco’s predecessor company later filed for protection under the Canadian Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (the “CCAA”) in April 2001 and emerged from creditor protection in 2002 following the completion of a corporate restructuring.
In 2014, as a result of depressed steel prices, a legacy iron ore supply contract that contained above-market pricing terms, substantial pension funding obligations and a significant amount of debt and related interest expense, all of which negatively impacted Old Steelco’s operations, financial position and liquidity, Old Steelco implemented an arrangement under section 192 of the Canada Business Corporations Act (“CBCA”). The CBCA proceedings enabled Old Steelco to restructure its unsecured notes, refinance its secured debt and obtain a significant capital infusion. Old Steelco also commenced a recognition proceeding in the United States under Chapter 15 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, in order to recognize and enforce the arrangement in the United States. On September 15, 2014, the Canadian court issued a final order approving the arrangement, which order was recognized by the U.S. court on September 24, 2014. The arrangement was completed in November 2014.
On November 9, 2015, Old Steelco sought and obtained CCAA protection as a result of, among other things, a dispute with a critical supplier of iron ore, a significant decrease in steel prices, an inability to comply with payment and other obligations under its credit agreements, and operational cost issues. Old Steelco carried out a sale and investment solicitation process that ultimately resulted in Opco’s (as defined below) acquisition of substantially all of the operating assets of Old Steelco on November 30, 2018 (the “Purchase Transaction”). The transaction resulted in a significant capital structure deleveraging and negotiated arrangements with a number of labor, pension, and governmental stakeholders. The CCAA proceedings and our acquisition of the business were given effect in the United States pursuant to a recognition proceeding under Chapter 15 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.
There can be no assurance that we will not experience serious financial difficulties in the future that would necessitate the commencement of restructuring proceedings, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, financial performance and prospects and the legal and economic entitlements of our stakeholders.
We are reliant on information technology systems, including cyber security systems, and any failure or breach of such systems could disrupt our operations.
We are reliant on the continuous and uninterrupted operation of our Information Technology (“IT”) systems. User access and security of all sites and corporate IT systems can be critical elements to our operations. Protection against cyber security incidents, cloud security and security of all of our IT systems are critical to our operations. Any IT failure pertaining to availability, access or system security could result in disruption for personnel and could adversely affect our reputation, operations or financial performance.
We may fall victim to successful cyber-attacks and may incur substantial costs and suffer other negative consequences as a result, which may include, but are not limited to, a material disruption in our ability to produce and/or ship steel products, excessive remediation costs that may include liability for stolen assets or information, repairing system damage that may have been caused, and potentially making ransom payments in connection with a cyber-attack. We and our business partners maintain significant amounts of data electronically in locations on and
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off our site. This data relates to all aspects of our business, including current and future products, and also contains certain customer, consumer, supplier, partner and employee data. We maintain systems and processes designed to protect this data, including operating in the Cloud and contracting with third-party system security providers, but notwithstanding such protective measures, there is a risk of intrusion, cyber-attacks or tampering that could compromise the integrity and privacy of this data. In addition, we provide confidential and proprietary information to our third-party business partners in certain cases where doing so is necessary to conduct our business. While we obtain assurances from those parties that they have systems and processes in place to protect such data, and where applicable, that they will take steps to assure the protections of such data by third parties, nonetheless those partners may also be subject to data intrusion or otherwise compromise the protection of such data. Any compromise of the confidential data of our customers, consumers, suppliers, partners, employees or ourselves, or failure to prevent or mitigate the loss of or damage to this data through breach of our information technology systems or other means could substantially disrupt our operations, including production delays or downtimes, harm our customers, consumers, employees and other business partners, damage our reputation, violate applicable laws and regulations, subject us to potentially significant costs and liabilities and result in a loss of business that could be material.
Increased global information technology security requirements, vulnerabilities, threats and a rise in sophisticated and targeted cybercrime pose a risk to the security of our systems, our information networks, and to the confidentiality, availability and integrity of our data, as well as to the functionality of our automated and electronically controlled manufacturing operating systems and data collection and analytics capabilities, which our management believes are important and are expected to contribute to our ability to efficiently operate and compete. Although we have adopted procedures and controls, including operating in the Cloud and contracting with third-party system security providers, to protect our information and operating technology, including sensitive proprietary information and confidential and personal data, there can be no assurance that a system or network failure, or security breach, will not occur. This could lead to system interruption, production delays or downtimes and operational disruptions and/or the disclosure, modification or destruction of proprietary and other key information, which could have an adverse effect on our reputation, financial results and financial performance.
Changes to global data privacy laws and cross-border transfer requirements could adversely affect our business and operations.
Our business depends on the transfer of data between our affiliated entities, to and from our business partners, and with third-party service providers, which may be subject to global data privacy laws and cross-border transfer restrictions. While we take steps to comply with these legal requirements, changes to the applicability of those laws may impact our ability to effectively transfer data across borders in support of our business operations.
Changes in accounting standards and subjective assumptions, estimates and judgments by management related to complex accounting matters could significantly affect our financial results or financial position.
IFRS and related accounting pronouncements, implementation guidelines and interpretations with regard to a wide range of matters that are relevant to our business, including but not limited to revenue recognition, impairment of goodwill and intangible assets, inventory, income taxes and litigation, are highly complex and involve many subjective assumptions, estimates and judgments. Changes in these rules or their interpretation or changes in underlying assumptions, estimates or judgments could significantly change our financial performance or financial position in accordance with IFRS.
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Our products may not benefit from intellectual property protection and we must respect intellectual property rights of others.
Some information about our products including product chemistries and methods and processes of production are publicly known. Thus, other facilities could produce competitive products using such information. As a result, we may not be able to distinguish our products from competitors that use the same publicly known chemistries, methods and processes that we use. Other information related to our products including product chemistries and methods and processes used to make them are proprietary to third parties who hold intellectual property rights such as patents or trade secrets therein. Our commercial success depends on our ability to operate without infringing the patents and other proprietary rights of third parties, and there can be no assurance that our operations, product chemistries and methods and processes of production do not or will not infringe the patents or proprietary rights of others. Further, if our competitors use their own proprietary intellectual property rights in their products that we do not have access to, such competitors may have an advantage over us which could have an adverse effect on our business.
Our operations could be materially affected by labor interruptions and difficulties.
We had 2,734 full-time employees as of March 31, 2022, of which approximately 95% are represented by two locals of the United Steelworkers of Canada (“USW”) under two collective bargaining agreements. On June 26, 2018, Local 2251 members and Local 2724 members voted to ratify new collective bargaining agreements. These agreements were conditional upon closing of the sale transaction discussed above pursuant to which we acquired substantially all of the operating assets of Old Steelco. The agreements with Local 2251 and Local 2724 expire on July 31, 2022.
Our customers, or companies upon whom we are dependent for raw materials, transportation or other services, could also be affected by labor difficulties. Any such activities, disruptions or difficulties could result in a significant loss of production and sales and could have a material adverse effect on our financial position or financial performance.
Our operations, production levels, sales, financial results and cash flows could be adversely affected by transportation, raw material or energy supply disruptions, or poor quality of raw materials, particularly coal and iron ore.
Due to our location on Lake Superior, we are dependent on seasonally available waterways for the delivery of substantial amounts of raw materials, including coal and iron ore. The waterways close from approximately
mid-January
to the end of March each year. Extreme cold weather conditions in the United States and Canada impact shipping on the Great Lakes and could disrupt the delivery of iron ore to us and/or increase our costs related to iron ore. Failure to have adequate coal and iron ore on site prior to the closure of the waterways would adversely affect our ability to operate during such closure and could have a material adverse effect on our production levels, business, financial position, financial performance and prospects. For example, during the period from January through April 2014, the upper Great Lakes suffered a severe freeze-over,
which resulted in the waterways being generally inaccessible for shipping until early May 2014. As a result, raw material supply was depleted and production was therefore reduced. In addition, extreme weather conditions may limit the availability of railcars or 19
otherwise affect our capacity to receive inbound raw materials, and/or ship products to our customers, which may have a material impact on increasing our costs and /or realizing our revenues. Finally, such disruptions or quality issues, whether the result of severe financial hardships or bankruptcies of suppliers, natural or
man-made
disasters or other adverse weather events, or other unforeseen circumstances or events, could reduce production or increase costs at our plants and potentially adversely affect customers or markets to which we sell our products. Any resulting financial impact could constrain our ability to fund additional capital investments and maintain adequate levels of liquidity and working capital. Our business requires substantial capital investment, capital commitments and maintenance expenditures, which we may have difficulty in meeting and will cause us to incur operating costs.
Our operations are capital intensive. We expect to make ongoing capital and maintenance expenditures to achieve and maintain competitive levels of capacity, cost, productivity and product quality. We may not generate sufficient future operating cash flow and external financing sources may not be available in an amount sufficient to enable us to make anticipated capital expenditures, service or refinance our indebtedness, or fund other liquidity needs. Failure to make sufficient capital investment, capital commitments and maintenance expenditures could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, financial performance and prospects.
Our Blast Furnace No. 7 was last relined in 2007 which resulted in a downtime of 52 days and capital expenditure of C$72 million. Relines generally last for 20 years. We monitor the health of our furnace. We will expect Blast Furnace No. 7 to require a future reline, which we anticipate occurring no sooner than 2024, which will result in downtime and capital expenditure, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, financial performance or prospects.
In addition, our profitability and competitiveness are, in large part, dependent upon our ability to maintain low production costs for products with prices that fluctuate based on factors beyond our control. Through our participation in the Canadian Steel Producers Association, we have committed to pursue the aspirational goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. We continue to evaluate strategies to both meet this goal and maintain our competitiveness, including through the modernization of our existing facilities and/or the adoption of other technologies such as less carbon-intensive iron making or EAF steel-making. Unless we continue to invest in newer technologies and equipment such as modernized plants and information technology systems and are successful at integrating such newer technologies and equipment to make our operations more efficient, our cost of production relative to our competitors may increase and we may cease to be profitable or competitive. However, newer technologies and equipment are expensive and the necessary investments may be substantial. Moreover, such investments entail additional risks as to whether the newer technologies and equipment will reduce our cost of production sufficiently to justify the capital expenditures to obtain them. Any failure to make sufficient or appropriate investments in newer technologies and equipment or in integrating such newer technologies and equipment in our operations could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, financial performance or prospects.
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Our ability to generate revenue is dependent on our customer base and certain key customers.
We serve more than 200 customers across multiple sectors in North America. For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022, our top ten customers accounted for approximately 49% of our revenue, and no single customer represented more than 11% of revenue. The average tenure for our top ten customers is more than 20 years. The composition and concentration of our customer base could change over time.
While we benefit from diverse end market exposure with limited customer concentration, we rely on certain key customers for a material portion of our revenues. These customers may not consistently purchase our products at a particular rate over any subsequent period. The loss of one or more significant customers, or a decline in steel demand for customers operating in particular industries as a result of macroeconomic or industry-specific factors, could have a material adverse effect on our revenues, financial performance and financial position, particularly if we are unable to replace such lost business with new customer orders. In addition, certain of our top customers may be able to exert pricing and other influences on us, requiring us to produce, market, deliver and promote our products in a manner that may be more costly to us.
The closing or relocation of customer facilities could adversely affect us.
Our ability to meet delivery requirements and the overall cost of our products as delivered to customer facilities are important competitive factors. If customers close or move their production facilities further away from our production facility, it could have an adverse effect on our ability to meet competitive conditions, which could result in the loss of sales. Likewise, if customers move their production facilities outside North America, it could result in the loss of potential sales for us.
We depend on third parties to supply sophisticated and complex machinery for our plants and we are exposed to risks relating to the timing or quality of their services, equipment and supplies.
We have purchased in the past, and propose to purchase going forward, equipment, machinery and services from third parties in relation to our plant. Given that we do not have any direct control over these third parties, we rely on them to provide goods and services in a timely manner and in accordance with our specifications. In addition, we require continued and timely support of certain original equipment manufacturers to supply necessary services and parts to maintain our plants at reasonable cost. If we are unable to procure the required services or parts from these manufacturers for any reason (including the closure of operations or bankruptcy of such manufacturers), if the cost of these services or parts exceeds our budget or if the services or parts provided are deficient or
sub-standard,
there may be an adverse effect on our business, financial position, financial performance, cash flows and prospects. We depend on third parties for transportation services, and increases in costs or the availability of transportation may adversely affect our business and operations.
Our business depends on the transportation of a large number of products, both domestically and internationally. We rely primarily on third parties (including the Canadian Pacific Railway, Canadian National Railway, McKeil Marine and Purvis Marine to provide freighter, shipping and rail transportation services, as well as dock capacity, for the products we manufacture as well as delivery of our raw materials. Any increase in the cost of the transportation of our raw materials or products, as a result of increases in fuel or labor costs, higher demand for logistics services, consolidation in the transportation industry or otherwise, may adversely affect our financial performance as we may not be able to pass such cost increases on to our customers.
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If any of these providers were to fail to deliver raw materials to us in a timely manner (including due to weather-related problems, strikes, lock-outs or other labor issues, logistical problems or other events), we may be unable to manufacture and deliver our products in response to customer demand in a timely manner or at all. Further, increases in transportation costs, decreased availability of ocean vessels or changes in such costs relative to transportation costs incurred by our competitors, could make our products less competitive, restrict our access to certain markets and have an adverse effect on our production levels, sales, margins and profitability. In addition, if any of these third parties were to cease operations or cease doing business with us, we may be unable to replace them at a reasonable cost.
In addition, such failure or disruption of a third-party transportation provider could harm our reputation, negatively affect our customer relationships and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, financial performance and prospects.
Parties with whom we do business may be subject to insolvency risks or may otherwise become unable or unwilling to perform their obligations to us.
We are a party to business relationships, transactions and contracts with various third parties, pursuant to which such third parties have performance, payment and other obligations to us. If any of these third parties were to become subject to bankruptcy, receivership or similar proceedings, our rights and benefits in relation to our business relationships, contracts and transactions with such third parties could be terminated, modified in a manner adverse to us, or otherwise impaired. We cannot make any assurances that we would be able to arrange for alternate or replacement business relationships, transactions or contracts on terms as favorable as our existing business relationships, transactions or contracts if at all. Any inability on our part to do so could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial performance.
A change in our relationship with counterparties to any of our joint ventures may have an adverse effect on that joint venture.
We have entered into and may, in the future, enter into, develop and operate various joint ventures. We believe an important element in the success of any joint venture is a solid relationship between the members of that joint venture. If there is a change in ownership, a change of control, a change in management or management philosophy, a change in business strategy or another event with respect to a member of a joint venture that adversely impacts the relationship between the joint venture members, it could adversely impact that joint venture, which may have a resulting adverse impact on our business and financial performance. In addition, joint ventures necessarily involve special risks. Whether or not we hold a majority interest or maintain operational control in a joint venture, our counterparties may have economic or business interests or goals that are inconsistent with our interests or goals. For example, such parties may exercise veto rights to block actions that we believe to be in our best interests, may take action contrary to our policies or objectives with respect to our investments, or may be unable or unwilling to fulfill their obligations or commitments to the joint venture.
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We are dependent on the operation of our port facility to receive raw materials and deliver steel shipments.
In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022, we received approximately 98% of our raw material inputs and shipped approximately 20% of our total steel shipments and approximately 100% of our
by-products
through our captive port facility located on-site
at our steel plant in Sault Ste. Marie, Canada. Any material or prolonged disruption in our ability to receive or send shipments through the port facility would have a material adverse effect on our business and financial performance. Any increases in annual funding obligations resulting from our under-funded pension plans could have a material adverse effect on us.
We are the sponsor of Old Steelco’s defined benefit pension plan for hourly employees (the “Hourly Plan”) and its defined benefit pension plan for salaried employees (the “Salaried Plan”) (collectively, the “DB Pension Plans”), which we assumed in connection with the Purchase Transaction. The most recent actuarial valuations of these DB Pension Plans are dated March 1, 2021, and indicate that the DB Pension Plans are underfunded on a solvency basis. The most recent actuarial valuations indicate that the Hourly Plan had a solvency ratio of 88% and that the Salaried Plan had a solvency ratio of 85%. Furthermore, the most recent actuarial valuations indicate that both the Hourly Plan and the Salaried Plan have a going concern funding excess at March 1, 2021.
In connection with the Purchase Transaction, Ontario Regulation 484/18: Essar Steel Algoma Inc. Pension Plans for Salaried Employees and Hourly Employees, as filed on November 30, 2018 (the “2018 Pension Regulations”) was implemented to provide a funding framework for the DB Pension Plans. Under the 2018 Pension Regulations, among other things, the aggregate going concern and solvency special payments to the DB Pension Plans are capped at C$31 million per annum.
As indicated above, as of March 1, 2021, both DB Pension Plans have obtained an 85% solvency ratio. As a result, the general regulations applicable to all Ontario registered pension plans (the “General Regulations”) apply, but with some restrictions including a cap of C$31 million on the aggregate of the special payments for the DB Pension Plans. In addition, benefits from the DB Pension Plans are now subject to the Ontario Pension Benefit Guarantee Fund (the “PBGF”), which requires us to make annual assessment payments to the PBGF determined based on a formula that includes, among other factors, the funding status and number of members of the pension plan. The 2018 Pension Regulations provide that subsection 57(4) of the Ontario (the “PBA”) does not apply to the DB Pension Plans and that subsection 57(3) of the PBA does not apply to us in respect of contributions due and not paid into the DB Pension Plans before the 2018 Pension Regulations came into force. The C$31 million minimum funding and cap will cease to apply on the earlier of the year in which we elect to have the funding rules in the General Regulations apply or in 2039.
Pension Benefits Act
We are also the sponsor of closed defined benefit pension plan for pensioners who retired prior to January 1, 2002 (the “Wrap Plan”) that provides a pension benefit in excess of the limits provided by the PBGF. We assumed the Wrap Plan in connection with the completion of the Purchase Transaction, subject to transitional provisions pending the implementation of regulatory measures. Ontario Regulation 207/19 was filed on June 20, 2019 (the “Wrap Regulations”) was implemented to provide a funding framework for the Wrap Plan. The Wrap Regulations require us to make monthly contributions to the Wrap Plan equal to the lesser of C$416,667 and the amount of the prior month’s benefit payments from the Wrap Plan fund until the Wrap Plan’s solvency ratio is 100%. This funding requirement supersedes the normal funding requirements under the PBA and the General Regulations. The Wrap Regulations provide that subsection 57(4) of the PBA does not apply to the Wrap Plan and that subsection 57(3) of the PBA does not apply to us in respect of contributions due and not paid into the Wrap Plan before the Wrap Regulations came into force.
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While our near-term funding obligations in respect of the DB Pension Plans and the Wrap Plan are determined in large part based on the 2018 Pension Regulations and the Wrap Regulations, changes to our collective bargaining agreements, the cost of pension benefits paid to plan members, the impact of market outcomes (including interest rates and investment returns), the occurrence of any adverse deviations or changes to governmental regulations affecting the DB Pension Plans or the Wrap Plan, among other things, could affect the funding status of such pension plans and/or the contributions that we are required to make to the pension plans. We could be adversely impacted by any adverse changes to the funding status of the pension plans or increases in our annual funding obligations.
Post-employment benefits owed to our retirees could increase and obligate us to make greater payments.
We provide certain post-employment benefits to our retirees. These benefits include drug, life insurance and hospitalization coverage. We do not
pre-fund
these obligations. Our obligations for these benefits could increase in the future due to a number of factors including changes in interest rates, changes to collective bargaining agreements, increasing costs for these benefits, particularly drugs, and any transfer of costs currently borne by the Canadian government to us. Currency fluctuations, including a significant increase in the value of the Canadian dollar, could have a materially adverse effect on our financial performance and financial position.
For the year ended March 31, 2022, 63% of our revenue was from customers located in the United States. Increases in the value of the Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar make Canadian steel products less competitive in U.S. markets and also encourage steel imports from the United States into Canada. Our revenue is driven by U.S. dollar-based indices. 65% of our cost is based on U.S. dollar-indices and 35% of our cost is in Canadian dollars, which is impacted by exchange rate fluctuation. The increase in the value of the Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar will also have a negative impact on expenditures in Canadian dollars. Therefore, a significant increase in the value of the Canadian dollar could adversely affect our financial performance and financial position.
Limited availability of raw materials and energy may constrain operating levels and reduce profit margins.
We and other steel producers have periodically been faced with problems in obtaining sufficient raw materials and energy in a timely manner due to delays, defaults or force majeure events by suppliers, shortages or transportation problems (such as shortages of barges, vessels, rail cars or trucks, or disruption of rail lines, waterways or natural gas transmission lines), resulting in production curtailments. For example, we faced an increase in the price of natural gas throughout the fourth quarter of our 2014 fiscal year, due to disruptions in supply as a result of extreme weather conditions, including the bursting of the pipeline that supplies the region in which we are located. We may be exposed to additional risks concerning pricing and availability of raw materials from third parties. Any curtailments and escalated costs may further reduce profit margins. Specifically, if demand is such that our blast furnaces are at full production capacity, we may become dependent upon outside purchased coke, especially if some of our existing coke facilities produce at less than capacity.
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Environmental compliance and site remediation obligations could result in substantially increased costs and could materially adversely affect our competitive position.
Steel producers such as Algoma are subject to numerous environmental laws and regulations, including federal and provincial, relating to the protection of the environment. We are required to comply with an evolving body of Canadian federal, provincial and local environmental, health and safety laws concerned with, among other things, greenhouse gas emission (“GHG”), other emissions into the air, discharges to surface and ground water, the investigation and remediation of contaminated property, noise control, waste management and disposal, mine closure and rehabilitation, and the generation, handling, storage, transportation, discharge, presence and disposal of, or exposure to pollutants, contaminants and hazardous substances. Specifically, the Company can incur regulatory liability as well civil liability for breeches or violations of environmental law, including contamination on-site (soil, groundwater, indoor air), contaminant migration and impacts off-site including in respect of groundwater, rivers, lakes, other waterways, and air emissions. Significant expenditures could be required for compliance with any laws or regulations relating to environmental protection and remediation, which may have an adverse effect on our financial performance and financial position.
We are subject to current and new environmental compliance measures pertaining to the integrated blast furnace coke oven steelmaking operations, including coke oven gas desulfurization and slag granulation, among others. In the event we do not receive exemptions or other accommodations from the relevant regulatory authorities, we may need to invest significant capital in these compliance measures while they remain in operation.
By January 1, 2026, there is a Canadian federal requirement to implement plans and measures to reduce the amount of sulphur dioxide emitted from the combustion of coke oven gas
by-product
by implementing coke oven gas desulphurization technology. This requirement arises under a notice (the “Notice”) issued under subsection 56(1) of CEPA which requires prescribed persons to prepare and implement pollution prevention plans in respect of specified toxic substances released from the iron and steel sector. The Notice applies to all steel mills, including ours. Facilities subject to the Notice are required, among other things, to prepare a pollution prevention plan that will achieve prescribed baseline emission targets by the specified date, and submit certain written declarations and progress reports. Algoma will be taking an alternative approach to reduce SO2 through its transition to electric arc steelmaking, which will see the elimination of cokemaking from Algoma’s operations. Therefore, Algoma will be providing a pollution prevention plan that reflects this alternative approach to reduce SO2 which has been deemed an acceptable approach to comply with CEPA. Similarly, in order to align with new provincial legislation related to SO2, Algoma has applied for a Site-Specific Standard that includes an action plan to reduce SO2 that reflects the progressive facility shutdown. In the United States and Canada, certain environmental laws and regulations impose joint and several liabilities on certain classes of persons for the costs of investigation, management and remediation of contaminated properties and for the management of emissions into the environment. Liability may attach regardless of fault or the legality of the release or disposal of the substance or waste at the time it occurred. Some of our present and former facilities have been in operation for many years and, over such time, have used substances and disposed of wastes that may require management, investigation, mitigation and remediation. We could be liable for the costs of such investigations and remediation. Costs for any investigation, management, mitigation and remediation of contamination, on or off site, whether known or not yet discovered, or to address other issues relating to pollution and waste disposal, emissions into the air or water, or the storage or handling of materials, could be substantial and could have an adverse effect on our financial performance. In addition, while we are subject to GHG emissions tax liability in Canada, we need to compete alongside foreign competitors in Canada and the United States that may not be similarly subject to such carbon tax liabilities, resulting in our reduced competitiveness in the market which may affect revenues and profitability.
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In connection with the EAF transformation, we may incur higher carbon tax liabilities unless we develop a facility-specific GHG emissions performance standard in connection with operations in the Hybrid Mode. Algoma has received comfort letters from MECP committing to work together on a pathway to address the support sought. Furthermore, the dust generated during the EAF steel scrap melting process may contain a significant amount of zinc, and is considered a hazardous waste, the disposal of which is expensive and regulated.
Our Environmental Department regularly reviews and audits our operating practices to monitor compliance with our environmental policies and legal requirements. Our environmental management system is ISO 14001-2015 registered.
No assurance can be given that unforeseen changes, such as new laws or stricter enforcement policies, including in respect of carbon pricing, or an incident at one of our properties or operations, will not have a material adverse effect on our business, estimated capital or operating costs, financial position, or financial performance. Our operations are required to have governmental permits and approvals. Any of these permits or approvals may be subject to denial, revocation, expiry or modification under various circumstances. Failure to obtain or comply with the conditions and terms of permits or approvals may adversely affect our operations and may subject us to regulatory orders, penalties and fines. In addition, if environmental laws are amended or are interpreted or enforced differently, or if new environmental legislation is enacted, we may be required to obtain additional permits or approvals and incur additional costs. There can be no assurance that we will be able to meet all applicable regulatory requirements. In addition, we may be subject to regulatory orders, penalties, fines or other liabilities arising from our actions imposed under environmental laws, including as a result of actions or other proceedings commenced by third parties, such as neighbors or government regulators, including with respect to an emissions incident at our cokemaking
by-products
plant. On June 9, 2022, an oil-based lubricant was released from our hot mill, entrained into our water treatment facility, and some quantity ultimately discharged into the St. Mary’s River which borders along Ontario and Michigan. Working with the assistance of expert technical advisors, we have been able to ascertain that the estimated amount of oil that was ultimately discharged into the river from our water treatment plant is in the range of 1,000 liters (263 gallons) to 1,250 liters (330 gallons), with the amount not likely exceeding 1,250 liters. This information along with the analysis methodology have been provided to the Ministry of Environment, Conservation, and Parks, whom we continue to work closely with. To date, we have not received any orders or notices of offense pursuant to environmental laws in Canada or the United States, but may in the future be subject to orders, offenses, penalties, fines or other negative consequences as a result of this incident, which may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. The economic impact of this incident remains unknown. We are still assessing, and it is too early to determine, the impact of this incident, but such incident may subject us to the liabilities described above. In connection with this incident and similar incidents that may occur from time to time, we may need to make significant capital and operating expenditures to detect, repair and/or control discharges or to perform certain corrective actions to meet the conditions of the permits issued pursuant to applicable environmental laws.
Increased regulation associated with climate change and greenhouse gas emissions could impose significant additional costs on our operations.
The effects of government policy, legislation or regulation enacted to address climate change may adversely impact our operations as well as those of our suppliers and our customers, and including the transportation of the associated raw materials and products. In addition, government action to address climate change may, among other things, reduce the demand for our products. Although we have made efforts to mitigate the effects of government action related to climate change on our business, there can be no assurance that these efforts will be effective or that the effects of climate change policies will not adversely impact our operations, business and financial results.
On July 3, 2018, Ontario revoked Ontario Regulation 144/16, The Cap and Trade Program under the Climate Change Mitigation and
Low-carbon
Economy Act, 2016, effectively ceasing Ontario’s cap and trade program which had been in effect since May 18, 2016. The revocation regulation also prohibits registered participants in the former cap and trade program from purchasing, selling, trading or otherwise dealing with emission allowances and credits. Without a cap and trade system or carbon tax in place in Ontario that meets minimum federal requirements for GHG emissions, regulated entities in Ontario are subject to the federal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act (generally referred to as the “Federal Backstop”). On January 1, 2019, the federal government’s Output-Based Pricing System (the “OBPS Program”) under the Federal Backstop came into effect in Ontario. The OBPS Program includes registration, monitoring, reporting and payment obligations for GHG emitters subject to the Federal Backstop. It is not certain how the OBPS Program will apply to electric arc steelmaking versus blast furnace based steelmaking, as the government of Canada has not fully developed the regulatory regime for steelmakers.
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On July 4, 2019, Ontario’s Emissions Performance Program (the “EPS Program”) under Ontario Regulation 241/19 came into effect. The EPS Program requires all large industrial emitters in the province to comply with capped emission levels tied to their level of output or production and the program may include compliance flexibility mechanisms such as offset credits and/or payment of an amount to achieve compliance. On September 20, 2020, the EPS Program was accepted by the federal government as an alternative to the federal OBPS Program. The federal and Ontario governments are currently in the process of planning the transition from the OBPS Program to the EPS Program for GHG emitters in Ontario. Until that transition is completed, both the OBPS Program and the EPS Program remain in effect in Ontario. The EPS Program is expected to be implemented in stages to give Ontario industries time to meet their obligations thereunder. The EPS Program is part of the Environment Plan (the “Provincial Plan”) which was released in November 2018. The Provincial Plan also includes the Ontario Carbon Trust, which will use financing techniques and market development tools in partnership with the private sector to speed up the deployment of
Made-in-Ontario
low-carbon
solutions, as well as a commitment by the Ontario government to encourage private investments in clean technologies and green infrastructure projects. Prior to the federal government’s acceptance of the EPS Program, Ontario and a number of other provinces commenced legal challenges to the Federal Backstop. On March 25, 2021, the Supreme Court of Canada rendered a decision upholding the constitutionality of the Federal Backstop. While, at this point, we cannot definitively predict the full effect of the EPS Program on us when the federal OBPS Program is phased out, our financial position, operations (including any plans to increase production) and ability to compete with companies in foreign jurisdictions may be materially affected by the new regime. The absence of similar requirements in other jurisdictions could negatively impact our ability (and that of our customers and suppliers) to compete with companies situated in those jurisdictions.
On December 11, 2020, the federal government announced its new climate plan entitled “A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy”. For the 2020 compliance year, the carbon tax payable under the OPBS Program by large industrial emitters if emissions at their facilities exceed a set level is set at C$30 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (“CO2e”) and is scheduled to increase by C$10 per tonne annually until it reaches C$50 per tonne in 2022. The “A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy” plan, if implemented into law, would increase the carbon tax by C$15 per tonne per year starting in 2023 until the tax becomes C$170 per tonne CO2e in 2030.
Any additional regulatory or other changes that are adopted in the future to address climate change and GHG emissions could negatively impact our ability (and that of our customers and suppliers) to compete with companies situated in areas not subject to such requirements. Taken together, these regulatory changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial performance or financial results.
Pursuant to an Environmental Compliance Approval issued by the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, we are required to install certain equipment in our number 6 blast furnace (“Blast Furnace No. 6”) to reduce casthouse emissions. The actual cost of the equipment and its installation could vary significantly due to cost escalation, design changes, regulatory policies or other factors. In addition, the tightening of air emissions standards in Ontario for our blast furnace and cokemaking operations could result in significant costs for additional pollution controls or other equipment or operational changes. The foregoing costs would not be incurred until Blast Furnace No. 6, which is currently idled, is restarted. There is no assurance that these costs may not be higher than as currently estimated.
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The U.S. government and various governmental agencies have introduced or are contemplating regulatory changes in response to the potential impact of climate change. International treaties or agreements may also result in increasing regulation of GHG emissions, including the introduction of carbon emissions trading mechanisms. Any such regulation regarding climate change and GHG emissions could impose significant costs on our steelmaking and metals recycling operations and on the operations of our customers and suppliers, including increased energy, capital equipment, environmental monitoring and reporting and other costs in order to comply with current or future laws or regulations and limitations imposed on our operations by virtue of climate change and GHG emissions laws and regulations. The potential costs of “allowances,” “offsets” or “credits” that may be part of potential programs or similar future regulatory measures are still uncertain. Any adopted future climate change and GHG regulations could negatively impact our ability (and that of our customers and suppliers) to compete with companies situated in areas not subject to such limitations. From a medium and long-term perspective, as a result of these regulatory initiatives, we may see an increase in costs relating to our assets that emit significant amounts of GHGs. These regulatory initiatives will be either voluntary or mandatory and may impact our operations directly or through our suppliers or customers. Until the timing, scope and extent of any future regulation becomes known, we cannot predict the effect on our business, financial performance or financial position, but such effect could be materially adverse to our business, financial performance and financial position.
cap-and-trade
Our industry could be subject to increased regulatory oversight or changes in government policies that could have adverse effects.
Our industry could be subject to increased regulatory oversight. Changing regulatory policies and other actions by governments and third parties may all have the effect of limiting our revenues and increasing our operating costs, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position and financial performance. Due to regulatory restructuring initiatives at the federal, provincial and state levels, the steel industry has undergone changes over the past several years. Future government initiatives will further change the steel industry. Some of these initiatives may delay or reverse the movement towards competitive markets. We cannot predict the ultimate effect that
on-going
regulatory changes will have on our business prospects, financial position and financial performance. Impairment in the carrying value of long-lived assets could negatively affect our operating results and reduce our earnings.
We have a significant amount of long-lived assets on our consolidated balance sheets. Under IFRS, we periodically evaluate long-lived assets for potential impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances have occurred that indicate that impairment may exist, or the carrying amount of the long-lived asset may not be recoverable. An impairment loss is recognized if the carrying amount of a long-lived asset is not recoverable based on its estimated future discounted cash flows. Events and conditions that could result in impairment in the value of our long-lived assets include cash flow or operating losses, other negative events or long-term outlook, cost factors that have negative effect on earnings and cash flows, changes in business conditions or strategy, as well as significantly deteriorating industry, market, and general economic conditions. Impairment in the carrying value of long-lived assets could negatively affect our operating results and reduce our earnings.
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We face increased competition from alternative materials, which could impact the price of steel and adversely affect our profitability and cash flow.
As a result of increasingly stringent regulatory requirements, designers, engineers and industrial manufacturers, especially those in the automotive industry, are increasing their use of lighter weight and alternative materials, such as aluminum, composites, plastics and carbon fiber in their products. Increased government incentives and requirements for the use of such materials to meet regulatory requirements could reduce the demand for steel products, which could potentially reduce our profitability and cash flows.
Pending or threatened litigation or claims could negatively affect our profitability and cash flow in a particular period.
We are subject to litigation arising in the normal course of business and may be involved in legal disputes or matters with other parties, including governments and their agencies, regulators and members of our workforce, which may result in litigation. The causes of potential litigation cannot be known and may arise from, among other things, business activities, employment matters, including compensation issues, or grievances under our collective bargaining agreements, environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, tax matters and securities matters. The timing of resolutions to such matters, should they arise, is uncertain and we may incur expenses in defending them and the possible outcomes or resolutions could include adverse judgments, orders or settlements or require us to implement corrective measures any of which could require substantial payments and adversely affect our reputation and operations, and may also negatively affect our profitability and cash flow in a particular period.
Failure to maintain our current senior management or inability to attract additional senior management could have an adverse effect on our operations.
Our operations and prospects depend, in large part, on the performance of our senior management team. We cannot assure that such individuals will remain as employees. For example, Michael McQuade retired as Chief Executive Officer in June 2022 and our Chief Commercial Officer, Robert Dionisi, retired in May 2022. In addition, we can make no assurance that we would be able to find qualified replacements for any of these individuals if their services were no longer available. The loss of the services of one or more members of senior management or difficulty in attracting, retaining and maintaining additional senior management personnel could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position and financial performance.
A failure to maintain adequate insurance could have a materially adverse effect on our operations.
To date, we have been able to obtain liability insurance for the operation of our business. However, there can be no assurance that our existing liability insurance will be adequate, or that it will be able to be maintained, or that all possible claims that may be asserted against us will be covered by insurance. The occurrence of a significant adverse event that causes losses in excess of limits specified under the relevant policy or losses arising from events not covered by insurance policies, could materially adversely affect our business, financial position, financial performance and prospects.
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Our income tax filing positions may be subject to challenge by tax authorities, which could subject us to increased tax liabilities.
We file tax returns that may contain interpretations of tax law and estimates. Positions taken and estimates utilized by us may be challenged by applicable tax authorities. Rulings that alter filed tax returns may have an adverse impact on income. In addition, we are involved in and potentially subject to regular audits from Canadian federal and provincial tax authorities relating to income, capital and commodity taxes and, as a result of these audits, may receive assessments and reassessments. For example, we were notified in June 2021 that the Canada Revenue Agency (the “CRA”) is currently conducting an audit of Opco’s 2018 and 2019 January to December taxation years. The audit is in its preliminary stages and we have not been informed of any issues by the CRA. In the event that the CRA successfully challenges the manner in which we have filed our tax returns and reported income, it could potentially result in additional income taxes, penalties and interest, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
We are subject to risks related to shifting steel supplies.
As traditional steel-consuming markets are negatively impacted from reduced demand due to a variety of factors, including
COVID-19,
or other regulatory changes (such as, for instance, the revocation in January 2021 of the presidential permit necessary to construct and operate the Keystone oil pipeline at the international border of Canada and the United States), suppliers of steel products into these affected sectors will divert their sales efforts to markets where we traditionally participate, thereby creating pressure on lowering pricing in response to increased supply. The oil and gas industry is a significant end market for steel, and has experienced and continues to experience a significant amount of disruption and oversupply at a time of declining demand, resulting in more competition in other sectors of the economy. Changes in our credit profile may affect our relationships with our suppliers, which could have a material adverse effect on our liquidity.
Changes in our credit profile may affect the way our suppliers view our ability to make payments and may induce them to shorten the payment terms of their invoices or require us to prepay, particularly given our high level of outstanding indebtedness. Given the large dollar amounts and volume of our purchases from suppliers, a change in payment terms may have a material adverse effect on our liquidity and our ability to make payments to our suppliers, and consequently may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial performance and financial position.
Some of our operations present significant risk of injury or death.
The industrial activities conducted at certain of our facilities present significant risk of serious injury or death to our employees, contractors, customers or other visitors to our operations. Notwithstanding our safety precautions, including our material compliance with federal and provincial employee health and safety regulations, we may be unable to avoid material liabilities for injuries or deaths. We maintain workers’ compensation insurance to address the risk of incurring material liabilities for injuries or deaths, but there can be no assurance that the insurance coverage will be adequate or will continue to be available on the terms acceptable to us, or at all, which could result in material liabilities to us for any injuries or deaths. We could also incur fines and other sanctions as a result of safety incidents.
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Our cross-border operations require us to comply with anti-corruption laws and regulations of the U.S. government and various
non-U.S.
jurisdictions. Doing business in multiple countries requires us and our subsidiaries to comply with Canadian and other laws and regulations governing corruption and bribery, including the Canadian Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act. The laws generally prohibit companies and their officers, directors, employees and agents acting on their behalf from corruptly offering, promising, authorizing or providing anything of value to foreign officials for the purposes of influencing official decisions or obtaining or retaining business or otherwise obtaining favorable treatment. As a result, business dealings between our employees or our agents and any such public official could expose us to the risk of violating anti-corruption laws. Violations of these legal requirements are punishable by criminal fines and imprisonment, civil penalties, disgorgement of profits, injunctions, debarment from government contracts as well as other remedial measures. We have established policies and procedures designed to assist us and our personnel in complying with applicable laws and regulations; however, we cannot assure investors that these policies and procedures will completely eliminate the risk of a violation of these legal requirements. Any such violation (inadvertent or otherwise) could have a material adverse effect on our business prospects, financial position and financial performance.
Shortages of skilled labor, increased labor costs, or our failure to attract and retain other highly qualified personnel in the future could disrupt our operations and adversely affect our financial results.
We depend on skilled labor for the manufacture of our products. Our continued success depends on the active participation of our key employees. Shortages of some types of skilled labor could restrict our ability to maintain or increase production rates, lead to production inefficiencies and increase our labor costs. The competitive nature of the labor markets in which we operate, the cyclical nature of the steel industry and the resulting employment needs increase our risk of not being able to recruit, train and retain the employees we require at efficient costs and on reasonable terms, particularly when the economy expands, production rates are high or competition for such skilled labor increases. Many companies, including ours, have had employee
lay-offs
as a result of reduced business activities in an industry downturn. The loss of our key people or our inability to attract new key employees could adversely affect our operations. Additionally, layoffs or other adverse actions could result in an adverse relationship with our workforce. If we are unable to recruit, train and retain adequate numbers of qualified employees on a timely basis or at a reasonable cost or on reasonable terms, our business and financial performance could be adversely affected. The expansion of social media platforms present new risks and challenges.
The expansion of social media platforms presents new risks and challenges. The inappropriate use of certain social media vehicles could cause brand damage or information leakage or could lead to legal implications from the improper collection and/or dissemination of personally identifiable information or the improper dissemination of material information. In addition, negative posts or comments about us and/or any of our key personnel on any social networking web site could seriously damage our reputation. If our sensitive information is disclosed or if our reputation or that of our key personnel is seriously damaged through social media, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position and financial performance.
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Our management has limited experience operating a public company, and thus its success in such endeavors cannot be guaranteed.
We have been a public company for less than 12 months and, as a result, a portion of our executive officers have limited experience in the management of a publicly traded company. Our management team may not successfully or effectively manage our operations as a public company that is subject to significant regulatory oversight and reporting obligations under U.S. and Canadian securities laws. Their limited experience in dealing with the increasingly complex laws pertaining to public companies could be a significant disadvantage in that it is likely that an increasing amount of their time may be devoted to these activities, which will result in less time being devoted to the management and growth of the company. We may not have adequate personnel with the appropriate level of knowledge, experience and training in the accounting policies, practices or internal control over financial reporting required of public companies in the United States and Canada. We have and continue to be in the process of upgrading our finance and accounting systems to an enterprise system suitable for our operations as a public company, and a delay could impact our ability or prevent us from timely reporting our operating results, timely filing required reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and applicable Canadian securities regulators and complying with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”). The development and implementation of the standards and controls necessary for us to achieve the level of accounting standards required of us as a public company in the United States and Canada has and may continue to require costs greater than expected. It is possible that we will be required to expand our employee base and hire additional employees to support our operations as a public company which will increase our operating costs in future periods.
If we are unable for any reason to meet the continued listing requirements of Nasdaq or the TSX, such action or inaction could result in a delisting of the Common Shares or Warrants.
If we fail to satisfy the continued listing requirements of Nasdaq or the TSX (for example, the Nasdaq corporate governance requirements or the Nasdaq minimum closing bid price requirement), such exchanges may take steps to delist the Common Shares or Warrants. Such a delisting would likely have a negative effect on the price of the Common Shares or Warrants and would impair your ability to sell or purchase the Common Shares or Warrants when you wish to do so. In the event of a delisting, we can provide no assurance that any action taken by us to restore compliance with listing requirements would allow the Common Shares or Warrants to become listed again, stabilize the market price or improve the liquidity of the Common Shares or Warrants, prevent such securities from dropping below any minimum bid price requirement or prevent future
non-compliance
with Nasdaq’s or the TSX’s listing requirements. If securities and industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business or publish negative reports about our business, our share price and trading volume may suffer.
The trading market for the Common Shares is and will be influenced by the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. We do not have control over such analysts and cannot provide any assurance that analysts will continue to cover Algoma or provide favorable coverage. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our shares or change their opinion of our shares, our share price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of Algoma or fail to regularly publish reports on Algoma, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which could cause our share price or trading volume to decline.
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There is a risk that we will fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls and our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable regulations could be adversely affected. We may identify material weaknesses in our internal controls over financing reporting which we may not be able to remedy in a timely manner.
As a public company, we operate in an increasingly demanding regulatory environment, which requires us to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the regulations of Nasdaq and the TSX, the rules and regulations of the SEC and Canadian securities regulators, expanded disclosure requirements, accelerated reporting requirements and more complex accounting rules. Company responsibilities required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act include establishing corporate oversight and adequate internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures. Effective internal controls are necessary for us to produce reliable financial reports and are important to help prevent financial fraud. Prior to becoming a public company in October 2021, we had never been required to test our internal controls within a specified period and, as a result, we may experience difficulty in meeting these reporting requirements in a timely manner.
We anticipate that the process of building our accounting and financial functions and infrastructure will continue to require significant additional professional fees, internal costs and management efforts. We may need to enhance and/or implement a new internal system to combine and streamline the management of our financial, accounting, human resources and other functions. However, the enhancement and/or implementation of a system may result in substantial costs. Any disruptions or difficulties in implementing or using such a system could adversely affect our controls and harm our business. Moreover, such disruption or difficulties could result in unanticipated costs and diversion of management’s attention. In addition, we may discover additional weaknesses in our system of internal financial and accounting controls and procedures that could result in a material misstatement of our financial statements. Our internal control over financial reporting will not prevent or detect all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the control system’s objectives will be met. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that misstatements due to error or fraud will not occur or that all control issues and instances of fraud will be detected.
If we are not able to comply with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in a timely manner, or if we are unable to maintain proper and effective internal controls, we may not be able to produce timely and accurate financial statements. If we cannot provide reliable financial reports or prevent fraud, our business and results of operations could be harmed, investors could lose confidence in our reported financial information and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by Nasdaq, the TSX, the SEC, Canadian securities regulators or other regulatory authorities.
33
We have incurred and expect to continue to incur increased costs as a result of our operation as a public company, and our management is and will continue to be required to devote substantial time and resources to employing new compliance initiatives in order to comport with the regulatory requirements applicable to public companies.
We have incurred and expect to continue to incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses as a public company that we did not incur as a private company. As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”), the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, as well as rules adopted, and to be adopted, by the SEC, Canadian securities regulators, Nasdaq and the TSX. Our management and other personnel need to devote a substantial amount of time to these compliance initiatives. Moreover, these rules and regulations have substantially increased our legal and financial compliance costs and to have made some activities more time-consuming and costly. For example, these rules and regulations have and are expected to continue to make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance and we have or may be forced to accept reduced policy limits or incur substantially higher costs to maintain the same or similar coverage. The impact of these requirements could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors, our board committees or as executive officers. We are continuously evaluating and monitoring developments with respect to these rules and regulations, and we cannot predict or estimate the amount or timing of additional costs we may incur to respond to any new requirements we may be subject to in the future.
Our Investor Rights Agreement provides certain IRA Parties the right to nominate up to four of our directors.
In connection with the consummation of our merger (the “Merger”) with Legato Merger Corp. (“Legato”), we entered into an Investor Rights Agreement pursuant to which, among other things, certain parties to the Investor Rights Agreement (“IRA Parties”) that previously had board designation rights with respect to Algoma Steel Holdings Inc. have the right to nominate, in the aggregate, four directors to our board for so long as they beneficially own at least 7.36% of our outstanding Common Shares. If such IRA Parties are able to exert significant influence over the our board as a result of their nomination rights pursuant to the Investor Rights Agreement, other holders of Common Shares may have limited ability to influence corporate matters and, as a result, we may take action that other holders of Common Shares do not view as beneficial.
Because we are a foreign private issuer and, as a result, are not be subject to U.S. proxy rules and are subject to Exchange Act reporting obligations that, to some extent, are more lenient and less frequent than those of a U.S. domestic public company.
We report under the Exchange Act as a
non-U.S.
company with foreign private issuer status. Because we qualify as a foreign private issuer under the Exchange Act, we are exempt from certain provisions of the Exchange Act that are applicable to U.S. domestic public companies, including (1) the sections of the Exchange Act regulating the solicitation of proxies, consents or authorizations in respect of a security registered under the Exchange Act, (2) the sections of the Exchange Act requiring insiders to file public reports of their share ownership and trading activities and liability for insiders who profit from trades made in a short period of time and (3) the rules under the Exchange Act requiring the filing with the SEC of quarterly reports on Form 10-Q
containing unaudited financial and other specified information, although we are subject to Canadian laws and regulations with regard to certain of these matters and intend to furnish comparable quarterly information on Form 6-K.
In addition, foreign private issuers are not required to file their annual report on Form 20-F
until 120 days after the end of each fiscal year, while U.S. domestic issuers that are accelerated filers are required to file their annual report on Form 10-K
within 75 days after the end of each fiscal year and U.S. domestic issuers that are large accelerated filers are required to file their annual report on Form 10-K
within 60 days after the end of each fiscal year. Foreign private issuers are also exempt from Regulation FD, which is intended to prevent issuers from making selective disclosures of material information. As a result of all of the above, you may not have the same protections afforded to shareholders of a company that is not a foreign private issuer. 34
As we are a “foreign private issuer” and follow certain home country corporate governance practices, our shareholders may not have the same protections afforded to shareholders of companies that are subject to all Nasdaq corporate governance requirements.
As a foreign private issuer, we have the option to follow certain home country corporate governance practices rather than those of Nasdaq, provided that we disclose the requirements we are not following and describe the home country practices we are following. We rely on this “foreign private issuer exemption” with respect to the Nasdaq rules for shareholder meeting quorums and Nasdaq rules requiring shareholder approval. We may in the future elect to follow home country practices with regard to other matters. As a result, our shareholders do not have the same protections afforded to shareholders of companies that are subject to all Nasdaq corporate governance requirements.
Algoma may lose its foreign private issuer status in the future, which could result in significant additional costs and expenses.
As discussed above, Algoma is a foreign private issuer, and therefore is not required to comply with all of the periodic disclosure and current reporting requirements of the Exchange Act and may take advantage of certain exemptions to Nasdaq’s corporate governance rules. The determination of foreign private issuer status is made annually on the last business day of an issuer’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, and, accordingly, the next determination will be made with respect to Algoma on September 30, 2022. In the future, Algoma would lose its foreign private issuer status if (1) more than 50% of its outstanding voting securities are owned by U.S. residents and (2) a majority of its directors or executive officers are U.S. citizens or residents, or it fails to meet additional requirements necessary to avoid loss of foreign private issuer status. If Algoma loses its foreign private issuer status, it will be required to file with the SEC periodic reports and registration statements on U.S. domestic issuer forms, which are more detailed and extensive than the forms available to a foreign private issuer. Algoma would also have to mandatorily comply with U.S. federal proxy requirements, and its officers, directors and principal shareholders will become subject to the short-swing profit disclosure and recovery provisions of Section 16 of the Exchange Act. In addition, it would lose its ability to rely upon exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements under the listing rules of Nasdaq. As a U.S. listed public company that is not a foreign private issuer, Algoma would incur significant additional legal, accounting and other expenses that it will not incur as a foreign private issuer.
We may be required to take write-downs or write-offs, restructuring and impairment or other charges that could have a significant negative effect on our financial condition, results of operations and the price of the Common Shares, which could cause you to lose some or all of your investment.
For a variety of potential factors, which are currently unforeseen, we may be forced to write-down or
write-off
assets, restructure its operations, or incur impairment or other charges that could result in us reporting losses. Even though these charges may be non-cash
items and would not have an immediate impact on Algoma’s liquidity, the fact that Algoma would report charges of this nature could contribute to negative market perceptions of Algoma or its securities. In addition, charges of this nature may cause Algoma to violate net worth or other covenants to which Algoma may be subject as a result of Algoma obtaining debt financing. Accordingly, securityholders could suffer a reduction in the value of their Common shares and Warrants and such securityholders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value. 35
The grant and future exercise of registration rights may adversely affect the market price of Common Shares.
The Investor Rights Agreement provides that we will, under certain circumstances, agree to file a registration statement as soon as practicable upon a request from certain IRA Parties to register the resale of certain registrable securities under the Securities Act and Canadian securities laws (such request, a “demand registration”). Algoma has also agreed to provide customary “piggyback” registration rights with respect to any valid demand registration request.
We are required to and currently maintain a Registration Statement on Form
F-1
covering the Securities held by PIPE Investors and the other outstanding Common Shares (other than the Common Shares issued to Legato public stockholders). The registration of these securities permits the public sale of such securities. The registration and availability of such a significant number of securities for trading in the public market may have an adverse effect on the market price of Common Shares. See
“– A significant portion of our total outstanding Common Shares may be sold into the market in the near future. This could cause the market price of Common Shares and Warrants to drop significantly, even if our business is doing well.”
The IRS may not agree that Algoma should be treated as a
non-U.S.
corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Although Algoma is incorporated and tax resident in Canada, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) may assert that it should be treated as a U.S. corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes pursuant to Section 7874 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the “Code”). For U.S. federal income tax purposes, a corporation is generally considered a U.S. “domestic” corporation if it is created or organized in or under the laws of the U.S., any state thereof, or the District of Columbia. Because Algoma is not so created or organized (but is instead incorporated only in Canada), it would generally be classified as a foreign corporation (that is, a corporation other than a U.S. “domestic” corporation) under these rules. Section 7874 of the Code provides an exception under which a corporation created or organized only under foreign law may, in certain circumstances, be treated as a U.S. corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes.
As more fully described in the section titled “,” based on the terms of the Merger, the rules for determining share ownership under Section 7874 of the Code and the Treasury regulations promulgated thereunder (the “Section 7874 Regulations”), and certain factual assumptions, Algoma does not currently expect to be treated as a U.S. corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes under Section 7874 of the Code as a result of the Merger. However, the application of Section 7874 of the Code is complex, is subject to detailed regulations (the application of which is uncertain in various respects and would be impacted by changes in such U.S. tax laws and regulations with possible retroactive effect) and is subject to certain factual uncertainties. Furthermore, Algoma has not sought and will not seek any rulings from the IRS as to such treatment, and the closing of the Merger was not conditioned upon achieving, or receiving a ruling from any tax authority or opinion from any tax advisor with regard to, any particular tax treatment. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that the IRS will not challenge the status of Algoma as a foreign corporation under Section 7874 of the Code or that such challenge would not be sustained by a court.
Certain Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations – U.S. Federal Income Tax Treatment of Algoma – Tax Residence of Algoma for U.S. Federal Income Tax Purposes
36
If the IRS were to successfully challenge under Section 7874 of the Code Algoma’s status as a foreign corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes, Algoma and certain Algoma shareholders could be subject to significant adverse tax consequences, including a higher effective corporate income tax rate on Algoma and future withholding taxes on certain Algoma shareholders, depending on the application of any income tax treaty that might apply to reduce such withholding taxes. In particular, holders of Common Shares and/or Warrants would be treated as holders of stock and warrants of a U.S. corporation.
See “” for a more detailed discussion of the application of Section 7874 of the Code to Algoma. Investors should consult their own advisors regarding the application of Section 7874 of the Code to Algoma.
Certain Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations – U.S. Federal Income Tax Treatment of Algoma – Tax Residence of Algoma for U.S. Federal Income Tax Purposes
Section 7874 of the Code may limit the ability to use certain tax attributes following the Merger, increasing Algoma’s U.S. affiliates’ U.S. taxable income or having other adverse consequences to Algoma and Algoma’s shareholders.
Following the acquisition of a U.S. corporation by a foreign corporation, Section 7874 of the Code can limit the ability of the acquired U.S. corporation and its U.S. affiliates to use U.S. tax attributes (including net operating losses and certain tax credits) to offset U.S. taxable income resulting from certain transactions, as well as result in certain other adverse tax consequences, even if the acquiring foreign corporation is respected as a foreign corporation for purposes of Section 7874 of the Code. In general, if a foreign corporation acquires, directly or indirectly, substantially all of the properties held directly or indirectly by a U.S. corporation, and after the acquisition the former shareholders of the acquired U.S. corporation hold at least 60% (by either vote or value) but less than 80% (by vote and value) of the shares of the foreign acquiring corporation by reason of holding shares in the acquired U.S. corporation, subject to other requirements, certain adverse tax consequences under Section 7874 of the Code may apply.
If these rules apply to the Merger, Algoma and certain of Algoma’s shareholders may be subject to adverse tax consequences including, but not limited to, restrictions on the use of tax attributes with respect to “inversion gain” recognized over a
10-year
period following the transaction, disqualification of dividends paid from preferential “qualified dividend income” rates and the requirement that any U.S. corporation owned by Algoma include as “base erosion payments” that may be subject to a minimum U.S. federal income tax any amounts treated as reductions in gross income paid to certain related foreign persons. Furthermore, certain “disqualified individuals” (including officers and directors of a U.S. corporation) may be subject to an excise tax on certain stock-based compensation held thereby at a rate of 20%. As more fully described in the section titled “,” based on the terms of the Merger, the rules for determining share ownership under Section 7874 of the Code and the Section 7874 Regulations (as defined above), and certain factual assumptions, Algoma does not currently expect to be subject to these rules under Section 7874 of the Code as a result of the Merger. The above determination, however, is
Certain Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations – U.S. Federal Income Tax Treatment of Algoma – Utilization of Legato’s Tax Attributes and Certain Other Adverse Tax Consequences to Algoma and Algoma’s Shareholders
37
subject to detailed regulations (the application of which is uncertain in various respects and would be impacted by future changes in such U.S. tax laws and regulations, with possible retroactive effect) and is subject to certain factual uncertainties. Furthermore, Algoma has not sought and will not seek any rulings from the IRS as to such treatment, and the closing of the Merger was not conditioned upon achieving, or receiving a ruling from any tax authority or opinion from any tax advisor with regard to, any particular tax treatment. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that the IRS will not challenge whether Algoma is subject to the above rules or that such a challenge would not be sustained by a court.
However, even if Algoma is not subject to the above adverse consequences under Section 7874 of the Code, Algoma may be limited in using its equity to engage in future acquisitions of U.S. corporations over the ”) of that subsequent acquisition, making it more likely that Section 7874 of the Code will apply to such subsequent acquisition.
36-month
period following the Merger. If Algoma were to be treated as acquiring substantially all of the assets of a U.S. corporation within the 36-month
period after the Merger, the Section 7874 Regulations would exclude certain shares of Algoma attributable to the Merger for purposes of determining the Section 7874 Percentage (as defined in “Certain Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations – U.S. Federal Income Tax Treatment of Algoma – Tax Residence of Algoma for U.S. Federal Income Tax Purposes
See “” for a more detailed discussion of the application of Section 7874 of the Code to Algoma. Investors in Algoma should consult their own advisors regarding the application of Section 7874 of the Code to Algoma.
Certain Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations – U.S. Federal Income Tax Treatment of Algoma – Utilization of Legato’s Tax Attributes and Certain Other Adverse Tax Consequences to Algoma and Algoma’s Shareholders
Risks Related to Ownership of Common Shares and Warrants
We may issue additional Common Shares or other securities without shareholder approval, which would dilute existing ownership interests and may depress the market price of Common Shares.
We may issue additional Common Shares or other equity securities of equal or senior rank in the future in connection with, among other things, our equity incentive plan, without shareholder approval, in a number of circumstances. Our issuance of additional Common Shares or other equity securities of equal or senior rank would have the following effects:
| • | our existing shareholders’ proportionate ownership interest in Algoma may decrease; |
| • | the amount of cash available per share, including for payment of dividends in the future, may decrease; |
| • | the relative voting strength of each previously outstanding Common Share may be diminished; and |
| • | the market price of Common Shares may decline. |
38
The price of our Common Shares may be volatile and may decline regardless of our operating performance.
The market price of the Common Shares may fluctuate significantly in response to numerous factors and may continue to fluctuate for these and other reasons, many of which are beyond our control, including:
| • | actual or anticipated fluctuations in our revenue and results of operations; |
| • | the financial projections we may provide to the public, any changes in these projections or our failure to meet these projections; |
| • | failure of securities analysts to maintain coverage of Algoma, changes in financial estimates or ratings by any securities analysts who follow Algoma or its failure to meet these estimates or the expectations of investors; |
| • | announcements by Algoma or its competitors of significant technical innovations, acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, results of operations or capital commitments; |
| • | changes in operating performance and stock market valuations of other steel companies; |
| • | price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market, including as a result of trends in the economy as a whole; |
| • | trading volume of the Common Shares; |
| • | the inclusion, exclusion or removal of the Common Shares from any indices; |
| • | changes in our board of directors or management; |
| • | transactions in the Common Shares by directors, officers, affiliates and other major investors; |
| • | lawsuits threatened or filed against us; |
| • | changes in laws or regulations applicable to our business; |
| • | changes in our capital structure, such as future issuances of debt or equity securities; |
| • | short sales, hedging and other derivative transactions involving our capital stock; |
| • | general economic conditions in the United States; |
| • | pandemics or other public health crises, including, but not limited to, the COVID-19 pandemic; |
| • | other events or factors, including those resulting from war, incidents of terrorism or responses to these events; and |
| • | the other factors described in this “ Risk Factors |
39
The stock market has recently experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations. The market prices of securities of companies have experienced fluctuations that often have been unrelated or disproportionate to their operating results. In the past, stockholders have sometimes instituted securities class action litigation against companies following periods of volatility in the market price of their securities. Any similar litigation against us could result in substantial costs, divert our management’s attention and resources, and harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
An active, liquid trading market for Common Shares and Warrants may not be maintained, which may limit your ability to sell Common Shares and Warrants.
Although the Common Shares and Warrants are currently listed on Nasdaq and the TSX, an active, liquid trading market for Common Shares and Warrants may not be sustained. A public trading market having the desirable characteristics of depth, liquidity and orderliness depends upon the existence of willing buyers and sellers at any given time, such existence being dependent upon the individual decisions of buyers and sellers over which neither we nor any market maker has control. The failure of an active and liquid trading market to continue would likely have a material adverse effect on the value of Common Shares and Warrants. The market price of Common Shares may decline, and you may not be able to sell your Common Shares at or above the price at which you purchased them, or at all. An inactive market may also impair our ability to raise capital to continue to fund operations by issuing Common Shares or Warrants.
A significant portion of our total outstanding Common Shares may be sold into the market in the near future. This could cause the market price of Common Shares and Warrants to drop significantly, even if our business is doing well.
Sales of a substantial number of Common Shares and Warrants in the public market could occur at any time. These sales, or the perception in the market that the holders of a large number of holders intend to sell Common Shares or Warrants, could reduce the market price of Common Shares or Warrants. Transfer restrictions continue to apply to the 6,379,875 Common Shares and the 262,254 Warrants and underlying Common Shares held by Eric S. Rosenfeld, David Sgro, Brian Pratt and their respective affiliates. All of these Common Shares and Warrants will, however, be able to be resold after the expiration of the
lock-up
period, which will be October 19, 2022 at latest, or its waiver (which may occur with the written consent of Algoma and persons holding a majority of the shares subject to the lock-up),
as well as pursuant to customary exceptions thereto. Moreover, certain holders of Common Shares (including Common Shares underlying Warrants) will have certain registration rights that could require us to file registration statements in connection with sales of Common Shares and Warrants by such holders. Such sales by such holders could be significant. As restrictions on resale end, the market price of Common Shares and Warrants could decline if the holders of currently restricted Common Shares or Warrants sell them or are perceived by the market as intending to sell them. Any issuance of preferred shares could make it difficult for another company to acquire us or could otherwise adversely affect shareholders, which could depress the price of the Common Shares.
Our board of directors has the authority to issue preferred shares and to determine the preferences, limitations, and relative rights of preferred shares and to fix the number of shares constituting any series and the designation of such series, without any further vote or action by our shareholders. Our preferred shares could be issued with liquidation, dividend, and other rights superior to the rights of the Common Shares. The potential issuance of preferred shares may delay or prevent a change in control of us, discourage bids for the Common Shares at a premium over the market price and adversely affect the market price and other rights of the holders of the Common Shares.
40
ITEM 4. |
INFORMATION ON THE COMPANY |
A. History and Overview
Algoma, a corporation organized under the laws of the Province of British Columbia in March 2021, is the parent holding company of Algoma Steel Inc., our operating company (“Opco”). Opco was incorporated in 2016 for the purpose of purchasing substantially all of the operating assets and liabilities of Old SteelCo and its subsidiaries in connection with Old SteelCo’s restructuring under the CCAA (the “Restructuring Transaction”). The Purchase Transaction was completed on November 30, 2018. Prior to November 30, 2018, Opco had no operations, and was capitalized with one common share with a nominal value. On October 19, 2021, Algoma consummated a business combination with Legato, a special purpose acquisition company, and became a publicly traded company with its common shares and warrants trading on each of the TSX and Nasdaq.
Our principal office is located at 105 West Street, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario P6A 7B4, Canada and our telephone number is (705)
945-2351.
Our website address is http://www.algoma.com. Information contained on, or accessible through, our website is not a part of this disclosure document and the inclusion of our website address in this document is an inactive textual reference. The SEC maintains a website at www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding registrants that make electronic filings with the SEC using its EDGAR system. Algoma Steel USA Inc., located at 1209 Orange Street, Wilmington, Delaware, is the company’s agent for service of process in the United States. Algoma is a fully integrated steel producer of hot and cold rolled steel products including coiled sheet and plate. With a current liquid steel production capacity of an estimated 2.8 million tons per year, our size and diverse capabilities enable us to deliver responsive, customer-driven product solutions to direct applications in the automotive, construction, energy, defense, and manufacturing sectors.
We manufacture a broad range of high-quality semi-finished and finished flat steel sheet and plate products. In 1995, approximately $450 million was invested at that time in the construction of our Direct Strip Production Complex (“DSPC”), our cornerstone asset and one of the world’s first hot strip mills coupling integrated continuous casting with hot rolling. In addition to the DSPC, our facilities include two blast furnaces, Blast Furnace No. 6 and Blast Furnace No. 7, of which Blast Furnace No. 7 is currently operating. We also operate a discrete 106 inch-wide hot strip mill and 166 inch wide plate rolling mill as a combination mill to provide us with the flexibility to adjust product mix between our many sheet and plate products to take advantage of changes in market demand and pricing, thus allowing us to optimize our margins. Our idled Blast Furnace No. 6 provides redundancy and incremental flexibility to our operating platform, allowing for the management of any future
re-lines
for Blast Furnace No. 7, and could quickly add cost effective capacity with limited additional capital outlays. We believe a restart of Blast Furnace No. 6 could be achieved within approximately six months, for an estimated C$60 million investment. Our coil sheet steel products include a wide variety of widths, gauges and grades, and are available in unprocessed form as well as with value-added temper processing for hot rolled coil (“HRC”), annealed and full hard cold-rolled coil (“CRC”), products. Primary
hot-rolled
pickled and oiled products, floor plate and cut-to-length
end-users
of our sheet products include service centers and automotive, manufacturing, construction, and tubular industries. Sheet steel products have represented approximately 88% of our total steel shipment volumes, on average, in our fiscal year ended March 31, 2022. 41
Our plate steel products consist of various carbon-manganese, high-strength and
low-alloy
grades, and are sold in the as-rolled
condition as well as subsequent value-added heat-treated conditions. The primary end-user
of our plate products is the fabrication industry, which uses our plate products in the manufacture or construction of railcars, buildings, bridges, off-highway
equipment, storage tanks, ships, military applications, large diameter pipelines and power generation equipment. Plate steel products have represented approximately 12% of our total steel shipment volumes in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022. We sell our finished products to a geographically diverse customer base across North America. For fiscal year ended March 31, 2022, our shipment volume by product category, geography and end markets were as follows:
FY2022 Product Shipment Mix |
FY2022 Geographic Shipments |
FY2022 End Market Volume |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Product |
Volume | Country | Volume | Segment | FY22 | FY21 | FY20 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hot Roll |
80% | United States | 60% | Auto | 38% | 31% | 28% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cold Roll |
8% | Canada | 37% | Manufacturing and Construction | 32% | 30% | 28% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Plate |
12% | Mexico | 3% | Tubular | 7% | 9% | 9% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Distribution | 23% | 30% | 35% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total | 100% | 100% | 100% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Source: Company information. Automotive comprised of direct automotive customer sales and estimated service center sales to the automotive industry.
Competitive Cost Position
We believe we have a competitive cost position in hot rolled coil as a result of our cost-efficient DSPC asset, our geographic location on the Great Lakes, which provides economical access to key raw materials and steel-consuming markets, and our strong track record of implementing improvements in conversion costs.
Moreover, in connection with the purchase of substantially all of the operating assets and some of the liabilities of Old Steelco and its affiliates, Algoma
re-established
ownership control of the port of Algoma as a means to receive critical inbound raw materials and facilitate outbound shipment of finished goods. Our on-site
port facilities enable access to low-cost
water transportation across the Great Lakes. 42
Additionally, Algoma has an advantage in power sourcing through an
on-site
low-cost
co-generation
(“Co-Gen”)
power generation facility. The nominally rated 70MW Co-Gen
facility in operation on site is fueled by blast furnace and coke oven gases from the steelworks for purposes of generating electricity and process steam. The Co-Gen
facility provides on average approximately 49% of our power needs at favorable prices, reducing reliance on the Ontario power grid. Unique Production Process Supports Superior Cost Position Among North American Steel Producers
As mentioned above, we are the only integrated steel producer in North America to operate a DSPC hot strip mill coupling integrated continuous casting with hot rolling directly into coil. The DSPC line is among the newest, continuous thin slab casters in North America. We believe that this process provides us with a cost advantage over the traditional integrated hot rolling manufacturing process. Current annualized production capacity of the DSPC complex is 2.3 million tons.
Algoma is also the only discrete plate producer in Canada, with current capacity of
350,000-400,000
tons per year with the potential to increase capacity to 700,000 tons per year upon completion of our plate modernization program to debottleneck, and further automate production. Blast Furnace No.6, with current capacity of approximately 900,000 tons of liquid iron, provides Algoma flexibility to manage any future
re-lines
for Blast Furnace No.7, as well as respond to shortages in prime scrap availability once the EAF transformation is complete. We believe Blast Furnace No.6 can be re-started
in approximately six months for an estimated C$60 million investment.Strong Government and Local Community Support
We are the largest employer in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. As of March 31, 2022, the Company had 2,734 full-time employees, of which approximately 95% are represented by two locals of the united Steelworkers Unions (“USW”) under two collective bargaining agreements. As a result of the Company’s good relationship with its unionized workforce, there has not been a work disruption in approximately 30 years, and we have achieved contract terms that are competitive to those achieved by our peers.
We believe the Company is critical to the local economy and has strong relationships with local, provincial and federal governments. Algoma’s economic activities represent approximately 40% of Sault Ste. Marie’s Gross Domestic Product (“GDP”), and approximately 70% of the city’s population is directly or indirectly economically dependent upon Algoma.
Furthermore, completion of the plate modernization program at Algoma’s discrete plate manufacturing process may significantly reduce Canada’s reliance on plate imports and positively impact the country’s trade balance in plate products.
43
As a result of Algoma’s significant contribution to the Canadian steel making industry, we benefit from strong federal and provincial government support in various forms. For example, to support political policies of the government of Canada and Ontario, the company has received financial support in the form of competitive
low-interest
loans and some grants, which enabled us to undertake various capital expenditures to reinvest in Algoma. The Ontario government also enacted various regulations pertaining to pensions, including the 2018 Pension Regulations, to facilitate our acquisition of substantially all of the assets and liabilities of Old Steelco in November 2018, including the DB Pension Plans and the Wrap Plan that was maintained by Old Steelco. Among other things, the 2018 Pension Regulations capped our special pension contributions (comprising cash funding in addition to the current service funding) to the DB Pension Plans at C$31 million per year. As of March 1, 2021, the Company achieved a solvency funded status on its Hourly Plan and Salaried Plan greater than 85%, which substantially reduced the Company’s obligation with respect to special pension contributions to the DB Pension plan and also made the DB Pension plan eligible for traditional guarantees provided by the Pension Benefits Guarantee fund (“PBGF”) which provides protection, subject to specific maximums and specific exclusions, to Ontario members and beneficiaries of privately sponsored single-employer defined benefit pension plans in the event of plan sponsor insolvency.
On July 5, 2021, we announced our potential to become the “greenest” flat-rolled steel producer in Canada with the Government of Canada’s commitment of up to $420 million in financial support for major greenhouse gas reduction projects such as our conversion to electric arc steelmaking.
Strategic Initiatives to Further Strengthen Our Cost Position
Cost Saving Initiatives.
Algoma’s continuous improvement program produced C$24 million of net year-over-year benefit in fiscal year ended March 31, 2022, encompassing quality enhancements, cost reductions, efficiency upgrades, and including a
one-time
working capital reduction of C$3 million. Plate Mill Modernization.
The Company has undertaken a
two-phase
plate mill modernization project (PMM Project) with final completion in November 2022, and plans to invest a total of approximately C$120 million, which will be partly funded by government loan facilities totaling approximately C$50 million. This strategic initiative will enhance the capacity and quality of the Company’s plate product line, which is a differentiated product capability and a key source of competitive advantage. The PMM Project will allow the Company to satisfy higher product quality requirements of its customers with respect to surface and flatness, increase high strength capability with availability of new grades, ensure reliability of plate production with direct ship capability and increase overall plate shipment capacity through debottlenecking and automation. The modernization process will be comprised of two phases: quality focus and productivity focus. The first phase focuses on quality, is expected to be completed by May/June 2022, and includes the installation and commissioning upgrades of a new primary slab de-scaler
(to improve surface quality), automated surface inspection system (to detect and map surface quality), an in-line
hot leveler (to improves flatness), and automation of the 166 inch plate mill (which expands the Company’s grade offering). The second phase focuses on productivity, and is expected to be completed by November/December 2022; and includes installation and commissioning upgrades of onboard descaling systems for the 2Hi and 4Hi roughing roll stands, mill alignment and work roll offset at the 4Hi, 4Hi DC drive, new cooling beds coupling the plate mill and shear line, dividing shear, plate piler and automated marking machine.
44
Well Positioned with Historical Issues Addressed
We experienced an unplanned outage in April 2019 that disrupted production in our Blast Furnace No. 7. This outage had no impact on the integrity of the furnace, however the resulting lost production led to a shipping volume reduction in fiscal year 2020 of over 100,000 tons. During April 2019, the Company recorded a capacity utilization adjustment of C$32.7 million to cost of steel products sold. Planned maintenance, originally scheduled for later in the year, was accelerated and performed during this outage in April 2019. Rescheduling maintenance to align with the unplanned outage was part of the plan management implemented to make up for the lost production in the remaining quarters of fiscal year 2020. The outage, caused by a chemistry imbalance of certain materials, resulted from a poor and unforgiving construct of the blend of raw materials fed into the blast furnace. Operating parameters have been tightened and systems have been put in place to improve the overall monitoring of the Blast Furnace. We have modified operating practices following a deep-dive investigation with assistance from Hatch, our consulting engineering firm, undertook process control measures and personnel changes as well as adopted predictive modeling to ensure far greater control and less risk in our future operations.
Quarterly Shipment Volume
Our Competitive Strengths
Strategically Located on the Great Lakes in Close Proximity to Customers and Suppliers
We are strategically located on Lake Superior with close proximity to key steel consuming regions of the United States (the U.S.
Mid-West,
U.S. Northeast) and Canada (Southern Ontario), allowing us to serve our customers at competitive costs. Approximately 70% of our customers are located within a 500-mile
radius of our facility. 45
Additionally, our location on the Great Lakes provides access to multiple modes of transportation, supporting our ability to negotiate competitive rates for inbound raw materials and outbound steel products. The Company’s acquisition of the adjacent port facility as part of the Restructuring Transaction – the fourth largest port on the Great Lakes by volume, handling nearly 500 vessels a year and over 5 million tons of shipments – facilitated access to low cost transportation across the Great Lakes and secures our distribution network.
Algoma has the option to pursue rail transportation from certain iron ore mines via well-established rail links, facilitating access to ore through the winter months when transport over the Great Lakes is less feasible.
We sell steel products to a diverse base of over 200 customers across multiple sectors in North America with no single customer accounting for greater than 11% of revenues. Our top ten customers accounted for approximately 49% of total revenue in fiscal year 2022. Our geographic, sector and customer diversity makes us less exposed to demand shifts. We have built strong customer relationships, with the average tenure for Algoma’s top ten customers being between 20 and 25 years. Despite the U.S. tariffs imposed on Canadian steel producers on June 1, 2018, the Company was able to maintain its geographic mix with 63% of fiscal year 2022 revenue generated by our customers in the United States.
Operations to Meet the Needs of a Diversified Blue-Chip Customer Base in Attractive End Markets
Our hot strip and plate rolling mills provide the flexibility to adjust our product mix within our existing asset base to align with market pricing and customer demand, and maximize profitability. Plate products accounted for 12% of shipments, hot rolled sheet for 80% and Cold Rolled Sheet for 8% for fiscal year 2022. Additionally, flexible union labor contracts allow us to optimize manpower allocation across the entire facility to meet variations in demand.
Our product width, gauge and strength flexibility allows us to serve a broad customer base across various end markets, including service centers, automotive, manufacturing, construction and tubular markets. Furthermore, our research and development investments support higher quality, lower cost products and drive a value proposition for customers.
| Product Attributes |
End Markets |
Width Range |
Gauge Range | |||||
| Hot Rolled Coil  |
✓ High strength formable hot rolled grades ✓ Broad width and strength capabilities |
• Automotive Hollow structural product and welded pipe manufacturers • Transportation Light manufacturing |
106”Strip Mill 30”-96” DSPC 32”-63” |
106”Strip Mill 0.070”-0.500” DSPC 0.060”-0.625” | ||||
| Cold Rolled Coil  |
✓ Commercial grades ✓ High strength formable cold roll grades ✓ Full hard grades (not annealed) |
• Automotive Welded pipe manufacturers • Transportation • Light manufacturing |
36”-74” |
0.015”-0.129” | ||||
| Plate  |
✓ High strength, low-alloy grades✓ Abrasion resistant and heat treat grades ✓ Only producer in Canada |
• Fabrication industry- constructors or manufactures of railcars, buildings, bridges off-highway equipment, etc. |
72”-154” |
0.236”-4.500” | ||||
Source: Company information.
46
Low Cost Position Underpinned by Advantageous Raw Material Contracts
Algoma’s largest input cost in the steel-making process is iron ore, which we purchase under seprate supply contracts with Cliffs and U.S. Steel. Multi-sourcing iron ore further improves stability in our raw material procurement, and we believe that having a second competitive supply arrangement for this critical raw material will help mitigate our supply risks for iron ore. Taken together, Algoma’s agreements with Cliffs and U.S. Steel provide for the supply of iron ore pellets through the close of the 2024 shipping season.
Flexible Cost Structure Positions Algoma to Generate Cash Flow
Through-the-Cycle
The combination of a flexible cost structure and the ongoing reduction in fixed costs positions Algoma to potentially generate positive cashflow through the steel economic cycle, including at HRC prices significantly lower than in the current pricing environment.
Legacy Liabilities Sustainably
De-Risked
from CCAA Process On November 9, 2015, Algoma’s predecessor, Old Steelco, filed for creditor protection in Canada under the CCAA and in the United States under chapter 15 of title 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. On November 30, 2018, pursuant to the Restructuring Transaction approved by the court in the CCAA proceedings, Opco completed the purchase of substantially all of the operating assets and some of the liabilities of Old Steelco and its affiliates. As part of the CCAA restructuring, Algoma achieved transformational improvements in its capital structure, pension funding obligations and environmental liabilities. Algoma emerged as a more resilient company with a strong balance sheet and stable operating profits.
As part of the Restructuring Transaction, Algoma assumed the following pension plans that had been registered under the Ontario Pension Benefits Act (the “Act”) and sponsored by Old Steelco:
| • | Pension Plan for Hourly Employees, registered under the Act as number 1079904 (the “Hourly Plan”); and |
| • | Pension Plan for Salaried Employees, registered under the Act as number 1079896 (the “Salaried Plan” (together with the Hourly Plan, the “Pension Plans”); |
Algoma became the successor employer and sponsor of the Pension Plans on the transaction completion date as part of the Restructuring Transaction. The Restructuring Transaction was subject to a number of conditions, including enactment of special regulations under the Act with respect to the contributions of Algoma to the Pension Plans and applicable exemptions under the Act, and the replacement of the expired collective agreements with new collective agreements ratified by the membership and effective on the Restructuring Transaction completion date.
47
As a result of the 2018 Pension Regulations implemented in connection with the Restructuring Transaction, the aggregate going concern and solvency special payments to the DB Pension Plans were approximately C$31 million per annum until the solvency ratio of each of the DB Pension Plans achieved at least 85%. As of March 1, 2021, both DB Pension Plans obtained an 85% solvency ratio, which reduced the Company’s obligation with respect to special pension contributions to the DB Pension plan to near zero and also triggers the guarantees provided by the PBGF. If the Company is required to make annual special payments to the DB Pension Plans in the future, these payments would remain subject to a C$31 million annual cap. Since the DB Pension Plan achieved an 85% solvency ratio, the DB Pension Plans are eligible to participate in the PBGF.
The Wrap Regulations implemented by the province in 2019 to provide a funding framework for the Wrap Plan require the Company to make monthly contributions to the Wrap Plan equal to the lesser of C$416,667 and the amount of the prior month’s benefit payments until the Wrap Plan’s solvency ratio is 100%. This funding requirement supersedes the normal funding requirements under applicable law.
The revised funding framework implemented in connection with the Company’s assumption of the pension plans provided significant funding relief in respect of historical pension obligations and established maximum annual contributions that provide enhanced certainty and reduced risk for the Company.
Lower equity values have no impact on benefit payments. Our current Collective Bargaining agreements include annual indexation adjustments, which are tied to the Consumer Price Index and are capped at 3%. Our Collective Bargaining agreements expire on July 31, 2022. Future indexation adjustments would need to be bargained.
In connection with the Restructuring Transaction, Algoma also entered into an agreement (the “Framework Agreement Concerning Environmental Issues”, or “LEAP”) with the Province of Ontario, as represented by the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (“MECP”) which addresses legacy environmental issues on Algoma’s main site in Sault Ste. Marie. The MECP provided a release in favor of the Company from any obligations under applicable environmental laws relating to legacy environmental issues at the Company’s Sault Ste. Marie site with respect to the historical soil, groundwater and sediment contamination at the Sault Ste. Marie facility. Steel making activities have occurred on Algoma’s site since 1901 and before the adoption of modern environmental best practices. Pursuant to the LEAP, Algoma agreed to fund C$3.8 million per year for 20 years to a financial assurance fund, established to fund expenses relating to approved legacy environmental remediation and other projects, and provided a C$10 million letter of credit to the MECP to provide financial assurance for these obligations.
In exchange, Algoma was released from all legacy environmental issues with respect to the historical soil, groundwater and sediment contamination at Old Steelco’s closed iron ore mines, which we did not acquire in connection with the Restructuring Transaction. Algoma agreed, among other things, to pay C$10 million to the Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines (the “ENDM”) in installments of C$250,000 semi-annually to be used to rehabilitate the closed iron ore mines and provide a C$3.5 million letter of credit to the ENDM to provide financial assurance for these obligations.
48
Experienced Management Team with Extensive Industry Experience
We have an experienced management team with significant operating experience in the global steel industry. Our executives collectively have almost 200 years of steel industry experience. Under the leadership of our current management team, we have made significant capital expenditures and have achieved significant operating performance improvements by employing benchmarking and implementing industry best practices.
In addition, our management team has successfully steered our business, even during the turbulent times of the U.S. steel tariffs and the
COVID-19
pandemic that significantly disrupted the entire industry. Our management achieved higher capacity utilization rates as compared to our North American peers, significantly strengthened our raw material supply position and took measures to improve the stability of future profits. Furthermore, we maintain a strong relationship with our skilled unionized workforce, as evidenced by the near 30-year
period since our last work disruption. We benefit from favorable collective bargaining agreements that allow us flexibility to adapt to changes in operational and production needs.
Products
Sheet Steel
hot-rolled
pickled and oiled products, floor plate and cut-to-length
end-users
of our flat/sheet products are the automotive industry, hollow structural product manufacturers and the light manufacturing and transportation industries. For the last five years, sheet steel products have represented approximately 85% of our total steel shipment volumes. Over the same period, value-added applications represented approximately 45% of total steel volume. Plate Steel
low-alloy
grades that are produced in as-rolled,
hot-rolled
and heat-treated. The primary end-user
market of our plate products is the fabrication industry, which uses our plate products in the construction or manufacture of railcars, buildings, bridges, off-highway
equipment, storage tanks, ships, armored products for military applications, large diameter pipelines and wind energy generation equipment. For the last five years, plate steel products have represented approximately 15% of our total steel shipment volumes. Sales by Major Product Lines
Total sales, accounted for by each of our major product lines for the periods indicated below, were as follows:
Twelve Months Ended March 31, 2022 |
Twelve Months Ended March 31, 2021 |
Twelve Months Ended March 31, 2020 |
||||||||||
| |
|
|
||||||||||
(in millions) |
||||||||||||
| Sheet & Strip |
C$ | 3083.1 | C$ | 1,340.4 | C$ | 1,417.8 | ||||||
| Plate |
465.7 | 274.7 | 324.8 | |||||||||
| Freight |
172.9 | 150.4 | 175.1 | |||||||||
| Non-steel sales |
84.3 | 29.4 | 39.2 | |||||||||
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
| Total |
C$ | 3806 | C$ | 1,794.9 | C$ | 1,956.9 | ||||||
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
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Sales and Marketing
The principal markets for our products are steel service centers, the automotive industry, manufacturing and construction. We market our sheet and plate products direct to
end-users
and also through distributors in Canada and the United States. We are focused on leveraging various competitive attributes of our process and product technologies to improve market and customer segmentation. We pursue the development of applications and markets for our high strength and light gauge products to respond to application design factors. We are also focused on increasing the Company’s product portfolio to include more value-added products. As part of our strategy to increase direct sales to end users of plate products, we have reduced the percentage of products sold through service centers. However, due to the nature of the market and the customers for such products, we continue to sell through service centers.
The Company pursues a diversified market and customer strategy to manage earnings volatility in the North American steel market. It is critical that a North American steel producer provide products to customers in all sectors of the economy given the industry dynamics, strong competition and global overcapacity. Focusing on more than one commodity to one sector is key to ensuring earnings stability through the business cycle and achieving greater stability in economic downturns. The Company believes it has strong customer loyalty which helps it to manage through the volatility of the steel pricing cycle.
The distribution of total steel shipments by principal markets for the periods indicated below, was as follows:
Total North American Finished Steel Shipments by Major Markets
April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022 |
April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021 |
April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
Tons (in thousands) |
% |
Tons (in thousands) |
% |
Tons (in thousands) |
% |
|||||||||||||||||||
| Steel service center |
528,000 | 23 | 631,000 | 30 | 809,000 | 35 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Automotive (direct and indirect) |
873,000 | 38 | 652,000 | 31 | 647,000 | 28 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Manufacturing & Construction |
735,000 | 32 | 630,000 | 30 | 647,000 | 28 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Tubular and other |
161,000 | 7 | 189,000 | 9 | 208,000 | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Total |
2,297,000 | 100 | 2,102,000 | 100 | 2,311,000 | 100 | ||||||||||||||||||
Competition
There has been a substantial increase in global steel capacity, particularly in China, which has become the largest producer and consumer of steel in the world.
50
A significant slowdown in domestic Chinese growth and/or increases in capacity that exceed consumption rates in China could result in surplus steel being exported to world markets. In addition, an economic downturn that affects demand for our products or an increase in the strength of the U.S. dollar or Canadian dollar relative to other currencies could increase imports. It is, therefore, possible that more unfairly priced imports could enter the North American markets at a future date, which could result in domestic price erosion, which would adversely affect our ability to compete, or generate revenue and reduce profitability.
We compete with numerous foreign and domestic steel producers, primarily from integrated producers, like ourselves, as well as EAF producers. We primarily compete with other steel producers based on the delivered price of finished steel products to customers. EAF producers typically require lower capital expenditures for construction and maintenance of facilities, and may have lower total employment costs. However, these competitive advantages may be reduced or eliminated when scrap prices are high.
Although freight costs for steel can often make it uneconomic for distant steel producers to compete with us, to the extent that they have lower cost of sales resulting from lower labor, raw material or energy costs or from government subsidies, they may be able to successfully compete. Although we are continually striving to improve our operating costs, we may not be successful in achieving labor, raw material and energy cost improvements or gaining operating efficiencies that may be necessary to remain competitive on a global scale.
Our competitive position is positively affected by lower incoming raw material transportation costs as well as lower marine outbound costs of finished products than those of other Canadian producers. Our position on the Great Lakes provides us with access to lower cost modes of transportation for our inbound raw materials and outbound steel products. Approximately 70% of our customers are located within a
500-mile
radius of our facility in key steel consuming regions of the Midwest and Northeast United States and southern Ontario, allowing us to service our customers at competitive costs. In accordance with common industry practice, we may from time to time assume additional shipping costs when selling outside of our local geographic area in order to provide competitive pricing. Trade
Our business has historically been affected by “dumping” – the selling of steel into Canadian or U.S. markets at prices below cost or below the price prevailing in a foreign company’s domestic market. Dumping may result in injury to steel producers in Canada or the U.S. in the form of suppressed prices, lost sales, lower profits and reductions in production, employment levels and the ability to raise capital. Some foreign steel producers are owned, controlled or subsidized by foreign governments. Decisions by these foreign producers to continue production at marginal facilities may be influenced to a greater degree by political and economic policy considerations than by prevailing market conditions and may further contribute to excess global capacity.
Successful industry trade cases over the past several years have had an impact on import levels as well.
The new United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement went into effect in July 2020. The agreement has several provisions that we believe will benefit the steel industry, including requiring that higher levels of a vehicle’s content, including steel, be produced in North America for a vehicle to qualify for zero tariffs, and that 70% of the steel used in vehicles be melted and poured in North America. There are also provisions addressing currency manipulation and state-owned enterprises.
51
Although trade legislation to limit dumping has had some success, it may be inadequate to prevent future unfair import pricing practices which individually or collectively could materially adversely affect our business. If Canadian or U.S. trade laws are weakened, an increase in the market share of imports into the U.S. and Canada may occur, which would have a material adverse effect on our business and financial performance.
There remains in place anti-dumping findings covering imports of (i) hot rolled sheet into Canada from Brazil, China and India and into the United States from Russia, China, India, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Netherlands, Turkey and United Kingdom, among other countries, (ii) cold rolled sheet into Canada from China, South Korea and Vietnam and into the United States from Brazil, China, India, Japan, South Korea and United Kingdom, and (iii) hot rolled plate into Canada from China, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Romania, South Korea, Italy, Brazil, Japan, Denmark, Indonesia, Taiwan and Germany and into the United States from China, Russia, Ukraine, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Africa, Taiwan, and Turkey.
New trade cases in other jurisdictions are being considered to cover such exports. This and the potential for such exports to continue to displace hot rolled sheet product exports from other countries in markets worldwide may result in large quantities of hot rolled sheet products being exported into Canada and United States. The Company will continue to monitor imports of competing steel products into its customer markets and take appropriate action, including filing complaints, where such actions are warranted.
Information systems
Our information technology landscape supports a high level of business automation across three distinct segments of business processes: management decision systems, manufacturing execution/scheduling systems and process control systems. Our management decision systems, including the full cycle, are running on the SAP (Windows/Oracle) platform. Our manufacturing execution/scheduling systems run on the IBM mainframe environment. Our process control systems run on Windows, Vax, and Honeywell environments. Our infrastructure includes a LAN/WAN data network, desk/mobile phone services, approximately 100 servers, approximately 1400 PCs and two main datacenters (SAP at the Sault Ste. Marie, ON and Mainframe at Markham, ON). Daily incremental and full
order-to-cash
back-ups
to disk and tape, including offsite replication and storage, are created for disaster recovery purposes. Enterprise risk management
The Company employs an enterprise risk management (“ERM”) process to coordinate risk management among departments to manage the organization’s full range of risks as a whole. ERM offers a framework for effectively managing uncertainty, responding to risk and harnessing opportunities as they arise. A comprehensive ERM framework consolidates and improves risk reporting to identify key risks that may affect the Company, quantify and manage them better, and implement the proper controls to eliminate or reduce the threat.
Algoma employs an enterprise risk management (ERM) program that proactively identifies and manages strategic risks to the organization. ERM follows a very distinct and ongoing process, where it actively identifies and reassesses the various strategic and major risks to ensure financial security for our business. The framework leverages systemization of the risk registers for prioritization and tracking; and applying effective mitigation strategies to manage risks. The ERM program extends its reach to evaluate strategic decisions and plans for the organization, as well as developing a risk culture to ensure longevity and sustainability of Algoma’s competitiveness.
52
B. |
Growth Strategies |
Our key strategic goals are to apply a forward-looking value-focused lens on growth, increasing our participation in key sustainable markets, generating a competitive return on capital, and meeting our financial and other obligations for all stakeholders.
We are committed to improving our quality, cost competitiveness and customer service; and developing a diverse organization to support our long term success, while maintaining safety excellence and environmental stewardship as key performance objectives.
Continuous Margin Stability Enhancement and Cost Improvement
Additionally, we are constantly striving to improve the stability of our revenue by increasing the share of contracted revenue above 65% while maintaining the ability to participate in increasing prices through flexible pricing mechanisms. The majority of our contracts are volume commitments with pricing tied to HRC and HRP CRU indexes on a
one-
and three-month lag basis. This results in exceptionally high correlation with the HRC and HRC CRU indexes on a one month lagging basis. Furthermore, the time lag allows Algoma’s management to plan effectively and design solutions to navigate uncertain times. We expect that our transformation to EAF steelmaking will assist in reducing our costs and improving our operating performance. Fully commissioned, the EAF mill is expected to improve Adjusted EBITDA with a lower conversion cost.
We believe that the EAF steelmaking facility has the potential to increase our liquid steel capacity by 900,000 tons per year, which will provide us with the ability to pursue a higher
value-add
product mix with a more flexible operating footprint. Capitalize on Low Cost Growth Opportunities
Maintaining a Prudent Financial Policy
de-lever
the balance sheet while maintaining adequate liquidity throughout the seasonality in our business cycle. Algoma utilizes hedging for both revenue and raw materials to further enhance earnings stability. Focus on Safety and Environmental Compliance
53
We are committed to being good environmental stewards and encourage open communication and reporting to our communities with regard to our environmental performance. Through our participation in the Canadian Steel Producers Association, we have committed to pursue the aspirational goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. We continue to evaluate strategies to both meet this goal and maintain our competitiveness, including through the modernization of our existing facilities and/or the adoption of other technologies such as less carbon-intensive iron making or EAF steel-making. We estimate that the transition to EAF steelmaking would result in a reduction of 3.0 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year, representing a 70% reduction to current emissions levels with a goal of eliminating all coal use in our steelmaking operations over time, which we believe will allow us to become one of the greenest producers in North America and reduce the potential impact of the Canadian carbon tax regime on our business.
All of our facilities are registered to the world-wide ISO 14001 Environmental Management System Standard. We are supporting open dialogue on environmental issues with the community by establishing community outreach and ensuring frequent reporting on our environmental performance. For example, Algoma has established a Community Liaison Committee as a forum for exchanging relevant environmental information with the public, conducting meetings on monthly basis and publishing meeting notes on our website.
The Company instituted an environmental community liaison committee (“CLC”) to solicit representation from community organizations, agencies or public bodies, with the objectives to keep the local community informed about the operations of the facility in relation to the requirements of the environmental approvals in effect, and to keep the Company informed of any community concerns about the operations of the facility.
The CLC also serves as a forum for dissemination, review and exchange of information related to the environmental impact of the facility. In order to ensure the objectives of the CLC are met, the Company provides information to the members as necessary on an ongoing basis.
Sources and Availability of Raw Materials
Steel production requires the use of large volumes of bulk raw materials and energy, in particular iron ore and coal, as well as energy, alloys, scrap, oxygen, natural gas, electricity and other inputs, the prices of which can be subject to significant fluctuation. The prices of iron ore and coal can vary greatly from period to period and our results have historically been impacted by movements in coal and iron ore prices. Iron ore and coal prices have been volatile in recent years.
Iron ore
Our largest input cost in the steel-making process is iron ore, which we purchase under our supply contracts with Cliffs and U.S. Steel.
Our iron ore needs of 3.5 million tons are satisfied by our contracts with Cliffs and U.S. Steel. The Cliffs iron ore purchase contract was first negotiated in 2002 and has been amended and extended on a number of occasions. Our current contract, dated May 31, 2013 provides for the supply of iron ore through 2024.
54
In 2020, the Company secured a long term iron ore purchase contract with U.S. Steel for the supply of the Company’s remaining tonnage requirement. The U.S. Steel contract, dated May 13, 2020, provides for the supply of iron ore through 2024. The Company believes that having a second competitive supply arrangement for this critical raw material will help mitigate the Company’s supply risks for iron ore.
Taken together, the Company’s agreements with Cliffs and U.S. Steel provide for supply of iron ore pellets through the close of the 2024 shipping season.
Scrap Metal and Iron Units
On October 27, 2021, Algoma announced that it had entered into a joint venture with Triple M Metal LP, one of North America’s largest privately owned ferrous and
non-ferrous
metal recycling companies, establishing a jointly owned company known as ATM Metals Inc. The new entity sources prime scrap metal and other iron units to meet Algoma’s business needs, including in connection with its transformation to electric arc steelmaking. Coal
The Company’s procurement team has worked with the operations team to develop a desired coal mix with reduced total volatile matter to produce more coke, which is stronger, creating less degradation and less gas. Coal is sourced from mines in Central Appalachia. Annual contracts have been set up with four suppliers which are incumbents for the past several years.
Coke
Our internal coke batteries produce the majority of our coke requirements for the Blast Furnace No. 7. Additional coke is purchased as required under contract or from the spot market.
Other raw materials
We purchase limestone, alloys and other raw materials for our manufacturing operation at what we believe to be competitive prices. We generate half of our scrap requirements internally and the balance is purchased from third parties, primarily from regional sources where we have a pricing advantage over other markets due to our proximity to the suppliers.
Energy
We purchase all of our natural gas from independent suppliers at market pricing. From time to time, we may use forward contracts over three- to twelve-month periods, mainly for peak winter months (January through March) to manage exposure to natural gas price changes. Currently, we do not have any fixed price natural gas commodity contracts in place. We do have fixed price contracts in place in relation to natural gas transportation.
The Company sources approximately 50% of its electricity needs internally and under a supply agreement with the operator of a
low-cost
cogeneration facility. We also obtain electricity from the Independent Electricity System Operator in Ontario and obtain electricity rebates under the Northern Industrial Electricity Rate program. Oxygen is supplied by Praxair Canada Inc. through a supply agreement that extends to
mid-2026.
55
Government Regulation
The Company’s environmental policy is to conduct our business in a manner that ensures the Company and its personnel act reasonably and responsibly with respect to the protection of the environment. Where appropriate, we have introduced environmental accountability to all employees. Activities that may have an impact on the natural environment have been identified and managed through the implementation of our ISO14001 compliant environmental management system. Our Environment Department regularly reviews and audits our operating practices to monitor compliance with our environmental policies and legal requirements.
The Company is required to comply with a stringent and evolving body of federal, provincial and local environmental laws concerned with, among other things, emissions into the air, carbon and greenhouse gas emissions, discharges to surface and ground water, the investigation and remediation of contaminated property, noise and odor control, waste management, recycling and disposal. Significant expenditures could be required for compliance with current or future laws or regulations relating to environmental compliance and remediation.
In the United States and Canada, certain environmental laws and regulations impose joint and several liabilities on certain classes of persons for the costs of investigation and remediation of contaminated properties. Liability may attach regardless of fault or the legality of the original management or disposal of the substance or waste. Some of our current and former facilities have been in operation for many years and, over such time, have used substances and disposed of wastes that may require investigation and remediation. The Company could be liable for the costs of such investigations and remediation. Costs for any remediation of contamination, on or off site, whether known or not yet discovered, or to address other issues relating to waste disposal, mine closure, emissions into the air or water, or the storage of materials, could be substantial and could have an adverse effect on our operating results.
In 2021, the Company became subject to the Canadian federal OBPS Program for GHG emissions, which requires payment by December 15, 2022 for any emissions above the OBPS Program benchmarks for emissions relating to the 2021 calendar year, which payment is approximately C$5.75 million. Algoma has been successful in .”
off-setting
this cost through the purchase of surplus credits. In 2022, there was a transition from the federal OBPS Program to the Ontario Emissions Performance Program (“EPS Program”) for GHG emitters in Ontario. Compliance obligations for CY2022 are estimated at approximately C$8 million. Federal and provincial regulatory development is currently underway for the 2023-2030 compliance periods. See “Risk Factors – Increased regulation associated with climate change and greenhouse gas emissions could impose significant additional costs on our operations
The Company is required to implement plans and measures to reduce the amount of sulphur dioxide emitted from the combustion of coke oven gas .”
by-product
in accordance with the Notice issued under subsection 56(1) of CEPA. Algoma will be taking an alternative approach to reduce SO2 through its transition to electric arc steelmaking, which will see the elimination of cokemaking from Algoma’s operations. Therefore, Algoma will be providing a pollution prevention plan that reflects this alternative approach to reduce SO2 which has been deemed an acceptable approach to comply with CEPA. Similarly, in order to align with new provincial legislation related to SO2, Algoma has applied for a Site-Specific Standard that includes an action plan to reduce SO2 that reflects the progressive facility shutdown. See “Risk Factors – Environmental compliance and site remediation obligations could result in substantially increased costs and could materially adversely affect our competitive position
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On October 18, 2019, there was a rupture of a steam drain line which was located below an electrical room in our cokemaking BP, which resulted in a loss of power to the BP. In accordance with our emergency procedures, the coke oven gas bleeders were lit to flare the coke oven gas. Additionally, the loss of power caused the cokemaking south raw liquor tank and the tar running tanks to overflow. Raw liquor was conveyed to the MWFP via a sewer located in the BP. This resulted in effluent exceedances at the MWFP for phenol, ammonia and total cyanide and a toxicity failure for rainbow trout. The incident remains under investigation by MECP.
The Company is subject to an order from the MECP, which requires vapor collection and air pollution control devices to be installed on four sources by December 31, 2021 for the purpose of reducing benzene emissions from the site. These projects are currently in the final stages of commissioning and
start-up.
The MECP has advised that compliance with the order is under investigation. We are also subject to Canadian labor and employment laws, privacy and data security laws, health and safety, and environmental laws concerned with, among other things, greenhouse gas emissions, emissions and discharges of other hazardous substances, private sewer and water treatment facilities, electricity generation and distribution, mine closure and rehabilitation, and the generation, handling, storage, transportation, presence and disposal or, or exposure to hazardous substances and other laws. We are also subject to Canadian and U.S. trade laws. We monitor changes in these laws, regulations, treaties and agreements, and believe that we are in material compliance with applicable laws.