Atlas Tube owner blasts awarding of contract to competing firm in China
The owner of local steel manufacturer Atlas Tube is angry after being left on the sidelines of a $200-million Alberta solar project that instead went to a Chinese company.
“I said to (project contractors), ‘You are doing this at a time when millions are out of work in Canada, you have (steel) fabricators and mills begging for business, plus this is a solar project in Canada for green energy,’” said Barry Zekelman. “And still you give it to China.”
The Claresholm solar project is one of a handful being rolled out in Alberta as the province seeks to expand its green energy footprint. Atlas Tube has previously supplied other solar projects across the country with steel tubing or what’s known as screw piles, which are used to help secure the solar panels into the ground.
His global company, with more than 200 employees in Harrow, spent more than a year assembling a bid on the Claresholm project. The final quote to supply the project, primarily with screw piles, was being handled through Magna International, a subcontractor on the solar project, which is to be completed by the end of 2020.
“They came back and said, ‘Your pricing is too high,’” Zekelman said of his company’s recently submitted final bid. “We know the price of steel. We know where the numbers should be.
“Then they said we were high compared to China. The hair on the back of my neck went up. They said, ‘We are going to China unless you get your prices down.’ I don’t blame Magna, they were polite about it, but they said business is business.”
Zekelman said his company put in a bid of roughly $15 million, but that was well above what ended up as the accepted offer from a Chinese company at $12.5 million.
In terms of scale, the Alberta solar project was not “going to make or break me,” he said. But it would have provided about a week’s worth of work at the company ’s facility in Harrow. Zekelman said he is upset steel supplies on the project will now come from China during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, despite the federal government pushing everyone to buy Canadian and support the economy at home.
He wants improved government parameters put in place on major domestic infrastructure projects so companies within our borders are not shut out by cheap supplies from foreign nations.
This is a green energy project in Canada and the spoils go to China. This just smells. BARRY ZEKELMAN, owner, Atlas Tube
“You have a local business paying taxes, employing local people and ready to buy Canadian steel when mills are in trouble right now,” Zekelman said. “This is a green energy project in Canada and the spoils go to China. This just smells. The only way to stop this is legislation.”
Local MP Brian Masse (NDP— Windsor-west) said the federal government’s focus on steel and aluminum products the last couple of years has been dominated by U.s.-related tariffs and the new North American free trade deal.
And with COVID -19, every federal ministry is focused on the pandemic, Masse said. He suggested perhaps that’s why issues such as what Atlas Tube is facing has slipped through the cracks.
Masse said he believes the best way to approach the problem of overseas nations with low labour costs and lower environmental standards offering cheaper products, including steel, is through a Green Energy strategy emphasizing Canadian products and labour.
“You could direct it to include lower greenhouse gases, provide new skills employment and job development,” he said. “You could include auto (industry), identify national goals, and you are not violating any trade agreements.”
The Ministry of Small Business, Export, Promotion and International Trade is responsible for international trade issues, but Masse doesn’t see the federal government jumping into the fray while dealing with COVID -19 remains a priority.
Atlas Tube’s top executive on assembling the Alberta bid expressed frustration at losing out after a year’s work.
“We did an in-depth analysis of our costs and couldn’t really figure out how to get it down,” said George Rabideau, the company’s Canadian sales manager. “To lose out on that work for our employees is really disheartening.”
It was the first time the company has seen a domestic job of this type go to an overseas company, he said.
“Even if we didn’t get the work and it stayed in Canada, that’s a win for our economy,” Rabideau said. “It would be nice if more than price was a determining factor and people thought about keeping these jobs in Canada.”