Canada Steel Company
Hamilton Specialty Bar, (1910)
The Canada Steel Company was founded in 1910 by backers in Hamilton, Toronto and Montreal. Production began on this Sherman Avenue North site the next year. A few years later, the company changed its name to the Burlington Steel Company, to avoid confusion with its larger steel-producing neighbour at the foot of Sherman Avenue North. Workers at the plant rolled used railway rails into reinforcing steel and bars of various sizes and shapes for the construction industry.
The N. Slater Company was founded in 1906. It was located near the corner of Dundurn and King Streets. The company manufactured pole line equipment for electric power transmission and hardware metal stampings and forgings. In 1961, it purchased the Burlington Steel Company. By the late 1980s, Slater Steel Industries had consolidated all its Hamilton operations onto the Sherman Avenue North site.
This modern mini-mill now operates as Hamilton Specialty Bar, producers of Specialty Bar Quality (SBQ) steel bars. The workers at this plant have been organized as a local of what is now known as United Steelworkers (USW) since 1952.