Canada has included steel wire from the U.S. in its latest round of steel trade measures, confirming a global 25% tariff that took effect on Dec. 26, 2025.

“Canada will impose a global 25% tariff on targeted imported steel-derivative products such as wind towers, prefabricated buildings, fasteners, and specified iron or steel wire products,” the federal government stated, noting that it would“defend Canadian workers and our steel industry from unfair and destabilizing trade practices.”

​The measure is part of Ottawa’s broader push to counter global steel overcapacity and dumping pressures and complements separate Canadian responses to U.S. tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. At the same time, Canada has a separate 25% retaliatory surtax on a large basket of U.S.-origin goods under the United States Surtax Order (2025‑1), initially covering about C$30 billion in annual trade, with coverage defined by detailed HS‑code schedules. Government listings and advisory summaries describe this as a structured retaliation framework rather than a simple, automatically additive 50% duty on items that may also qualify as “steel derivatives”; whether a particular shipment faces one or both 25% measures depends on its tariff classification and origin.

Trade lawyers caution that classification will matter: importers will need to check HS codes and tariff items to see whether a given fastener or steel‑wire shipment from the U.S. is caught by the U.S.-origin surtax, the global steel‑derivative measure, or both in practice, an issue likely to generate rulings and clarifications over 2026.

StoneTree Investment Partners, a Dallas, Texas-based private equity firm, has acquired Reel Power International, a supplier of capital equipment. The transaction includes Reel Power’s headquarters and large manufacturing facility in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, which produces equipment for reeling, coiling, spooling and handling of wire and cable.

“This partnership positions Reel Power to accelerate innovation and expand capabilities for our customers,” said Reel Power CEO Joe Henry. “Reel Power’s collaborative approach and focus on reliability have built long-standing relationships with leading companies in the wire and cable, medical, consumer and energy industries. Together, we will strengthen that value by investing in new technologies and solutions that make our customers’ operations safer and more efficient.”

Reel Power Industrial (RPI) will continue to operate from its Oklahoma City location. The transaction also includes Reel Power Marine & Energy, headquartered and manufacturing in Houston, Texas, which serves offshore and energy-sector customers.

Italy’s Tratos has delivered 10 superconducting cables to CERN in the Geneva region for use in the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator (Large Hadron Collider - LHC).

A press release said that the delivery is part of the High Luminosity LHC project, which aims to significantly increase the collider’s luminosity to enable new advances in fundamental physics. The supply was carried out through ICAS, a leading superconductivity consortium created as an ENEA spin-off that includes Tratos Cavi and Criotec Impianti. The project drew on the ENEA Superconductivity Laboratory and Tratos’ technical and industrial expertise to develop highly innovative cable systems; two of the 10 cables have already been tested under operating conditions and are ready for installation.

​The approximately 100‑m‑long cables are based on magnesium diboride (MgB2) technology developed for the High Luminosity LHC (HL‑LHC) upgrade, where CERN and industrial partners are deploying large‑scale MgB2 links to increase luminosity and improve overall collider performance.

The MgB2 cables are housed in a flexible cryostat and cooled by forced‑flow gaseous helium so they can carry very high electrical currents—together, on the order of 100,000 amperes—between the power supplies and the LHC’s superconducting magnets. “These complex systems are the result of research, development and engineering activities that have demonstrated the potential of magnesium diboride superconductors for efficient high‑power transport,” said Alessandro Dodaro, director of the ENEA Nuclear Department, noting that the work reflects close collaboration between CERN and industry to meet the stringent quality and control standards of major international scientific projects.

Westlake Corporation announced that it will shut several of its North American plants that make key PVC and related feedstocks due to business conditions.

A press release said that the company will close its suspension PVC plant in Aberdeen, Mississippi, which has 1 billion lb/year of PVC capacity; its vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) plant in Lake Charles, Louisiana, with 910 million lb/year of VCM capacity; one diaphragm chloralkali unit at the Lake Charles site with 825 million lb/year of chlorine and 910 million lb/year of caustic soda capacity; and its 570 million lb/year styrene plant at Lake Charles. Westlake said it will continue supplying customers with PVC, VCM and chloralkali products from its seven other North American chlorovinyl facilities.

In the same release, Westlake stated that “persistent, challenging market conditions in the global chlorovinyls and styrene markets require us to take decisive action to improve our overall cost position and asset efficiency,” adding that the rationalization will better align production with “current and anticipated demand” while still reliably serving customers. The company said that after the shutdowns it will retain 5.52 billion lb/year of PVC capacity globally, including 4.9 billion lb/year in North America, as well as 7.63 billion lb/year of VCM and 6.68 billion lb/year of chlorine capacity.

An article in PlasticsToday noted that Westlake is targeting older, higher cost assets facing expensive logistics and weaker export margins. An analysis by ICIS and other industry outlets linked the timing to a period of overcapacity and softer downstream demand, particularly in construction driven PVC applications, even as producers anticipate a potential recovery in PVC demand around 2026.

Westlake is not the only U.S. supplier to adjust capacity. An ICIS report said that Olin Corporation plans to shut about 450,000 ECU of asbestos diaphragm chloralkali capacity at Freeport, Texas, after already closing an older diaphragm unit at McIntosh, Alabama, while converting its Plaquemine, Louisiana, chloralkali facilities to non-asbestos technology. Argus and other sources have pointed out that major PVC producers Formosa and Shintech recently brought significant new PVC capacity online in the U.S., contributing to the current oversupplied environment.