Concast moves telecom box production to new Oakville plant

Concast Pipe Inc. is spending $44 million on a new manufacturing plant in Oakville to make telecommunications enclosure boxes it now produces in the United States, the Ontario government said Tuesday.

The 100,000-square-foot plant will make a new line of composite boxes that protect equipment for high-speed internet and 5G networks, using structural foam and web injection production lines. The province says it will be the first facility of its kind in Ontario and will supply infrastructure projects in several Ontario municipalities.

The project is expected to create 15 new jobs and protect 186 existing ones at the precast concrete company. Ontario is putting in $5 million through the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Competitiveness stream of its Regional Development Program, which works out to roughly $24,900 for each of the 201 jobs the province says the project creates or keeps.

Premier Doug Ford tied the announcement to the trade fight with Washington. “As President Trump’s tariffs continue to impact Ontario’s economy, our government is doing whatever it takes to protect workers and businesses,” he said in a statement.

Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli said the project strengthens Ontario’s domestic supply chain.

The province says the Regional Development Program has drawn more than $2.9 billion in investment and created more than 6,100 jobs since it launched in 2019. The advanced manufacturing stream, added in 2022, has given more than $60 million to over 55 companies and organizations, which Ontario says leveraged $700 million in private investment and created more than 1,300 jobs.

The government did not say when the Oakville plant will open or where in the United States the boxes are made now.

Source: Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade.

File photo: Downtown Oakville, Ont. Photo by Whpq, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.