Province announces investment of close to $5M for two Niagara companies
February 16, 2022
Province announces investment of close to $5M for two Niagara companies
The Honourable Victor Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade gets a tour of the Valbruna ASW Inc. factory in Welland on Tuesday. JULIE JOCSAK / TORSTAR
Two financial investments from the provincial government in local industry were announced Wednesday by Ontario Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Vic Fedeli.
Valbruna ASW Inc., formerly Atlas Steels, has been in the process for about two years of getting ready to make a major upgrade at the Welland factory.
Its melt shop’s electric arc furnace, built in the mid-’70s and upgraded once in the late ’80s, will be replaced by a much more modern, state-of-the-art model, designed to increase efficiency, improve cost effectiveness, and improve the company’s environmental footprint.
In an interview Wednesday, Fedeli said the steelmaker is spending $50 million on the new equipment, and the province will be contributing $4.4 million in the upgrade, $3.9 million of which will be a loan paid off over eight years.
The equipment is planned to be operational this summer and it will help create 15 jobs, said Fedeli.
Valbruna ASW Inc. is the only manufacturer of specialty steels in Canada.
“It’s incredibly important the province continues to partner with them,” said Fedeli after taking a tour of the site Wednesday morning, adding the plant is “vital to the province.”
Fedeli said that the demand for steel across the world has been relatively stable.
“Certainly the pandemic has slowed down the investment and the expansion, but now that things are starting to pick up again, the time is now for the investment,” he said.
“This investment is strategic to the future of Valbruna ASW, our current and future employees, our customers and suppliers and our community partners,” said Valbruna ASW Inc. President Tim Clutterbuck in Wednesday’s news release.
“It’s the heart of our operation,” he said about the importance of the incoming piece of equipment when interviewed about it by The Welland Tribune in late 2020.
The factory is also installing a new baghouse, a large building with fans that pull air from the melt shop. The air goes into bag filters in hoppers on the top of the structure, and those bags are then shaken, with dust falling onto a conveyor belt system.
The plant was purchased in 2019 by Valbruna, a company headquartered in Italy.
Atlas Steels was built in 1918. By 1948, it was considered the largest specialty steel company in Canada, exporting goods to 53 countries.
In 1963, Rio Algom Ltd. purchased the company and operated under that banner until 1985 when the factory became a standalone company, Atlas Specialty Steels.
Atlas and its assets were sold to Slater Steel in 2000, then closed in 2003.
In 2010, ASW Steel Inc. emerged as a new entity possessing virtually all of the assets previously held by MMFX Steel of Canada, a company that took over operations at the site in 2006.
It was bought by Ampco-Pittsburgh Corp. in 2016, before the current ownership’s acquisition in 2019.
The province is also investing in a St. Catharines facility.
Quick Plug CA Inc. engineers and manufactures a variety of peat plug products for professional growers, including traditional greenhouses and hydroponic growers. The company is spending $3.2 million to centralize its North American production facility in St. Catharines.
Quick Plug will modify its current facility in Niagara, as well as purchase new equipment and machinery to build a new, state-of-the-art manufacturing line.
With an investment of $480,000 from the government’s Southwestern Ontario Development Fund, the company will create 30 jobs. Quick Plug also plans to build a new research and development center in the facility.
“We will use these funds to not only improve our existing processes, but to invest in automation and newer technologies,” said Bill Maartense, Managing Director of Quick Plug CA Inc.
“These investments will help us be a safe and productive employer that provides good local jobs for many years to come,” he said in Wednesday’s release.
