March 13, 2006 — Stelco Inc.’s Court-appointed Monitor has filed its fifty-fourth report regarding the company's Court-supervised restructuring.

The Monitor's 54th Report deals exclusively with a motion by Stelco to be heard on March 16, 2005. The motion concerns the distribution of sale proceeds with respect to Stelco's disposition of non-core assets during its restructuring.

In pursuit of its previously-announced strategy, and as announced throughout the asset sale process, the company sold the issued and outstanding shares of four wholly-owned subsidiaries: AltaSteel Ltd., Norambar Inc., Stelfil Ltée and Stelwire Ltd. The company also sold the assets of CHT Steel Co. Inc., Stelpipe Ltd. and Welland Pipe Ltd.

The sale proceeds from those transactions were paid to the Monitor, and have been held in trust by the Monitor since then. Stelco’s motion seeks a Court Order authorizing the Monitor to distribute the funds that can be released on the restructuring plan implementation date to Stelco or as Stelco may direct. The motion also deals with those sale proceeds the Monitor is required to hold beyond the plan implementation date pursuant to any of the above-noted sale agreements. The Order being sought would authorize the Monitor to release such sale proceeds in accordance with those agreements without further Order of the Court.

Stelco is one of Canada's longest-established steel companies. It is currently in the final stages of a Court-supervised restructuring, a process that is designed to establish the company as a viable and competitive producer for the long term. The new Stelco will be focused on its Ontario-based integrated steel business located in Hamilton and in Nanticoke, producing high quality value-added hot rolled, cold rolled, coated sheet and bar products.