DSME Trenton closing after failing to make money, achieve job targets

DSME Trenton Ltd. (DSTN) has announced it is ceasing its Trenton operations.

The province, which has a 49 per cent stake in the metal fabrication plant, confirms they will file for receivership proceedings.

A release sent out Friday said DSME South Korea, their parent company, is in the middle of “organizational restructuring” to help them come back from recent, substantial losses.

READ MORE: Steel fabricator won’t be receiving more provincial money: Stephen McNeil

The company maintains that “thriving times for the community will return.”

“The most positive outcome we can hope for is that the receivership process will appeal to the right investors for the Trenton facility which complements earlier collective initiatives to attract investment.”

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The province of Nova Scotia, the only secured creditor, contributed more than $56 mil into DSME Trenton. In 2010 when the former NDP government made that announcement, it was projected 500 jobs would be created within three years, but they fell short.

Failed to make money, achieve job targets

The province says the company failed to make any money on their contracts and to achieve job targets during their five years of operation.

“This is an investment that we as a government inherited and government has few options except to prevent the company from losing more money and make sure that the remaining assets are returned to Nova Scotians,” said business minister Mark Furey.

“Government did everything reasonably, everything that it could reasonably to help DSTN become profitable but those efforts were not successful.”

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The province says that DSME Trenton has several million dollars worth of cash, equipment and property. They also say the company says they currently have no customer orders, with only 19 employees working in maintenance mode.

If the facility were to stay open, it would cost about $400,00 a month just to stay open.

At this point, the town’s mayor, Glen MacKinnon, remains optimistic a new buyer will come forward.

“It’s a great property with a good workforce, lots of machinery that’s in there that can be used for many other things other than wind towers,” MacKinnon said.

“Going into receivership brings a whole new entity onto the proceedings of trying to find a buyer.”

With files from Rebecca Lau.