{"id":118413,"date":"2026-07-06T17:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T17:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/118413\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T17:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T17:22:14","slug":"defence-expert-says-german-submarine-deal-unfortunate-for-algoma-steel-sault-region-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/118413\/","title":{"rendered":"Defence expert says German submarine deal ‘unfortunate’ for Algoma Steel, Sault region"},"content":{"rendered":"

The bid for a major federal submarine contract that could have provided Algoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., with additional infrastructure and hundreds of new jobs was unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to announce this afternoon that German shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) has won the right<\/a> to build a multibillion-dollar fleet of 12 submarines for Canada\u2019s defence.<\/p>\n

The government has chosen TKMS over South Korean competitor Hanwha Ocean to construct a fleet that will replace the Royal Canadian Navy’s aging Victoria-Class boats.<\/p>\n

As part of its bid to the feds, Hanwha signed<\/a> a memorandum of understanding in January to give Algoma Steel $345 million for the creation of a structural steel beam mill in Sault Ste. Marie and the purchase of Algoma products.<\/p>\n

Hanwha signed an additional memorandum last month<\/a> with the mill, along with Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association, to use Canadian steel in armoured vehicle manufacturing in southern Ontario.<\/p>\n

The deals were expected to have provided much needed economic relief to the Algoma region after 1,000 steelworkers lost their jobs<\/a> this year due to U.S. tariffs and the company\u2019s transition to electric steelmaking.<\/p>\n

With hopes for a future mill, Ottawa previously said up to 500 laid off employees could be rehired<\/a> by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n

\"Prime<\/p>\n

(Christinne Muschi\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

Hanwha was \u201cvery calculated\u201d in choosing the mill as part of its deal, according to Karl Skogstad, a professor at Lakehead University who specializes in the economics of national defence.<\/p>\n

From a regional perspective, Skogstad said the government\u2019s decision is disappointing but not surprising.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Hanwha bid had a clear northern Ontario benefit to it in terms of the money that was going to go to Algoma Steel. That\u2019s unfortunate for the region for sure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Korea was a bit of an underdog, but they put in a lot of effort to try to win the bid.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an email to CBC, Algoma Steel says it will not comment on the decision until an official announcement comes from Prime Minister Mark Carney this afternoon.<\/p>\n

Industry experts say the German company leaned heavily on its status as North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies alongside Canada.<\/p>\n

The choice to negotiate with TKMS is expected to pull Canada into a closer European orbit when the U.S. is pulling away from NATO.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll procurement is political when it comes to defence,\u201d Skogstad said. \u201cThe politics of it just made it more appealing to go with a NATO country in terms of procurement at this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a developing story<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The bid for a major federal submarine contract that could have provided Algoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[29033,12363,12362,111,12364,24771,40133],"class_list":["post-118413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mark-carney","tag-algoma-steel","tag-automotive-parts-manufacturers-association","tag-hanwha","tag-mark-carney","tag-royal-canadian-navy","tag-sault-ste","tag-thyssenkrupp-marine-systems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}