Sydney Steel Corporation
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| Crown corporation | |
| Industry | Steel |
| Founded | 1899 (as DISCO) |
| Headquarters | Sydney, Nova Scotia |
| Website | sysco |
Sydney Steel Corporation (SYSCO) was a Crown corporation in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.
An integrated steel mill was established on the southeast side of Sydney Harbour in the Whitney Pier neighbourhood of Sydney, Nova Scotia in 1901 by American investors. This entity was named Dominion Iron and Steel Company Limited (DISCO). Coal from the Dominion Coal Company Limited (DOMCO) was used to create coke to fuel the blast furnaces for smelting iron ore which arrived from Bell Island in Newfoundland.
In 1920, DISCO, the Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company (SCOTIA) in Sydney Mines, and the Wabana ore mine on Bell Island were acquired by the British Empire Steel Corporation (BESCO). In 1930, BESCO reorganized as Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation (DOSCO).Hawker Siddeley Canada purchased DOSCO in 1957.
Hawker Siddeley sought to eliminate money losing operations and in 1965, DOSCO announced that its mines had only 15 years of production left and concluded that the cost of opening new underground mines in the Sydney Coal Field would be too expensive. The company made its intentions clear that it would be exiting the coal mining business within months. DOSCO's continued operation of its steel mill, lacking modernization and far removed from the steel markets of the midwest and central Canada, was tentative at best.
In response to a vast public outcry in industrial Cape Breton County, the Minority government of Prime Minister Lester Pearson announced J.R. Donald would head a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Cape Breton coal industry, with hearings held in 1965 and 1966. The Donald Commission recommended that a federal Crown corporation be established to acquire and manage DOSCO's coal operations, with the aim being to slowly wean the Sydney area economy off the coal industry.
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