James Hamet Dunn - Canadian Investments

Canadian Investments

A number of Sir James Dunn's Canadian investments were in Northern Ontario mining ventures and he began a business relationship with Algoma Steel, a company in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Founded by Francis Clergue, Algoma Steel had been taken over by Philadelphia, Pennsylvania investors after its 1903 bankruptcy. Overly dependent on the production of rail tracks, the steel company suffered through numerous problems and in 1908 Dunn had partnered with a British group of investors to cooperate with an American consortium to form the Lake Superior Investment Co. to acquire Algoma Steel. Although Dunn's role at the time was important, he was still only a minority player and the American investors had control. Algoma Steel went through years of ups and downs, marked by a lack of strong leadership, and in 1935 the company was again forced into receivership. This time, Dunn engineered a takeover so that he became the sole controlling shareholder thereby allowing him to take the tough but necessary reorganization measures to restore profitability to the steel maker. As Algoma Steel's president and Chairman of its board of directors, he successfully turned it into one of the largest steel mills of the day and for more than twenty years guided the fortunes of the company he had made into one of the most profitable producers in Canada. During the Second World War, his company benefited from the huge demand for steel by the military. Although at times his relationship was difficult with the government minister in charge, C.D. Howe, the two became lifelong associates. Howe later acquired a summer manor next door to the Dunn estate at the seaside resort of St. Andrews in New Brunswick and served as an Executor of Dunn's estate after his death.