Steel Mills

EVRAZ NA Suffers Cyberattack

March 10, 2020

EVRAZ North America was hit by a cyberattack on March 4 that disrupted information technology systems at facilities in the U.S. and Canada, impacting production. An EVRAZ spokesperson said that there was “no indication of any breach of confidential or personal customer or employee information,” in the ransomware attack.

Patrick Waldron, a spokesperson for EVRAZ North America, said the company is working to fix the problem as quickly as possible and that customers and supply chain partners have been notified of the incident and its potential effects on operations.

Following the attack, a three-day layoff notice was issued to United Steelworkers at the Saskatchewan mill along with a precautionary seven-day notice.

Mike Day, president of USW Local 5890 in Regina, said the computer system is necessary to ensure standards and traceability. “Just to be on the safe side, safety-wise, they’re making sure everything’s idled down until they can get everything up and running to what it needs to be,” he told Global News Canada.

Trucking companies that service the facility report disruptions to freight flow. The facility in Regina ships steel plate, coil, pipe and tubing.

“It will be a pretty significant impact for us, as we do haul a lot of coil for them,” a dispatcher at Langelaar Transport in Alberta told FreightWaves. “But it is what it is.”

EVRAZ North America is headquartered in Chicago with facilities in Colorado, Oregon and the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta. The steelmaker did not respond to inquiries by Steel Market Update.