OREANDA-NEWS. An opening ceremony was held to celebrate the launch of operations at Trans-Mit Steel, Inc. (TMS), a company established in August 2013 by Mitsui & Co. (Canada) Ltd., specializing in the processing of electrical steel sheets and manufacture of transformer components. The Mayor of the City of Woodstock, the Consul-General of Japan in Toronto, and the President & CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce attended the ceremony. TMS is scheduled to begin commercial operations in November 2014 and will have an annual slitting capacity of approximately 20,000 tons.

Demand for energy is predicted to increase globally, and in the U.S. in particular, energy efficiency has become a key issue amid constantly rising energy consumption levels. Under such an environment, and accompanied by the introduction of new energy efficiency standards for distribution transformers by the U.S. Department of Commerce in 2016, strong mid- to long-term growth in demand is expected for high-grade electrical steel, an area where Japanese steel manufacturers perform exceptionally well.

Mitsui has already established electrical steel processing centers in Europe and China. Utilizing this existing experience and know-how, Mitsui aims to develop TMS to provide a range of services, from steel processing through to component manufacturing, supplying transformer manufacturers and a wide range of other customers across its global supply chain.