Ipsco is donating $500,000 to the Alabama Gulf Coast Chapter of the American Red Cross to be used in Hurricane Katrina relief work.

The aid will be focused on hard-hit communities along Alabama's gulf coast, including Mobile and Baldwin Counties where the Alabama Steelworks is located and most Ipsco employees live. The Alabama Gulf Coast Chapter is also providing shelter assistance to a large number of refugees from Mississippi and Louisiana.

"Our thoughts are with our employees, their families and neighbors who are living through an overwhelming situation in the gulf coast," said David Sutherland, President and CEO of Ipsco. "We hope this donation in some small way can help in the recovery process."

In addition, the company has announced a matching grant program to support and magnify the impact of employee donations related to Hurricane Katrina. Ipsco will match every dollar contributed by all its employees across the corporation to registered charities of their choice established for Hurricane Katrina. The company portion of the match will be made to the Alabama Gulf Coast Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Ipsco says it will also continue looking at in-kind donations and support it can provide as this disaster unfolds. To date trucks filled with gasoline, fuel, cases of bottled water, high-protein foods, generators and ice have been sent to the Alabama steel plant to further assist in the recovery process. "These are bare essentials our employees have identified to assist them and the local community in the days ahead until power and communication is fully restored in the area," added Sutherland. In addition, Ipsco employees have been volunteering their time to help their colleagues and the community clean up from the storm.

Ipsco operates steel mills at three locations and pipe mills at six locations in Canada and the United States. As a low-cost North American steel producer, Ipsco has a combined annual steel making capacity of 3,500,000 tons. The company's tubular facilities produce a wide range of tubular products including line pipe, oil and gas well casing and tubing, standard pipe and hollow structurals, for a combined annual capacity of 1,775,000 tons. Steel can also be further processed at Ipsco's five temper leveling and coil processing facilities.