With the war entering a stalemate as the Central Powers were increasingly contained by the Allies in a brutal trench warfare on the Western Front, demand for steel began to decrease. SCOTIA was taken over by new investors from the United States in 1917 and the steel mill in Sydney Mines was closed and iron ore production in Newfoundland was transferred to its rival Dominion Steel Corporation of Sydney. SCOTIA was reduced to operating its coal mines in Cape Breton Island and Pictou County, along with its extensive steel and manufacturing operations in Trenton.