Shares of U.S. Steel Corp. soared on Wednesday, a day after the beleaguered steelmaker put its Canadian unit in creditor protection.

The stock gains came as Ontario politicians and experts cautioned that the coming restructuring of U.S. Steel Canada will take time.

“Yesterday a big rock got thrown into the pond. A lot of people want a lot of answers. We’re just going to have to be patient. ‘Am I going to lose my job? Are they going to sell the plant?’ We honestly don’t know,” said Marvin Ryder, assistant professor at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University

“My feeling is that the restructuring plan is not going to be minor tinkering around the edges.”

For now, investors cheered what the Pittsburgh-based company refers to as the “de-consolidation” of its operations in Hamilton and Nanticoke – a move that would see it shift nearly $1 billion in pension liabilities from its balance sheet.

“They’re doing better than people thought and the exit out of Canada was done in a way that investors are happy with. At least optically, they’re shedding a billion dollars in pension liabilities,” said one industry analyst who asked not to be named.

The stock gained $4.20 – 10.1 per cent – to close at $45.61 (U.S.) on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. The shares touched a 52-week high of $46.55 during the trading session.

At Queen’s Park, Economic Development and Trade Minister Brad Duguid said he was not surprised by the bankruptcy filing.

“Our hope is through the solvency process the company will have the time and space to come up with some kind of sustainable model to sustain those jobs,” he told reporters on the way in to a cabinet meeting.

Questions about the fate of a $150 million loan from Ontario taxpayers to help with pension obligations at the troubled steel company cannot be answered until the bankruptcy process goes through the courts, he added.

“That’s one of the challenges that’s tied up.”

Duguid defended the payout saying it “helped sustain thousands of jobs over eight years...it was an important investment to make and the right thing to do at the time.”

U.S. Steel says its U.S. Steel Canada subsidiary has lost $2.4 billion since December 2009.

Ryder, who follows the company and the steel industry closely, said he is “puzzled” by that figure.

The Canadian unit had a $45 million loss in its most recent 12 month period, he added.

The $2.4 billion total may include write-downs in goodwill, Ryder said. “The implication is that it’s an operating loss, but it may be an account loss.”

Unaudited financial statements released just after the filing under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, known as CCAA, show $999 million (U.S.) in “Employee benefits” for U.S. Steel Canada as of June 30. It’s not clear what is included in that figure.

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It’s too early to say what impact the restructuring will have on employee pensions, which are kept at arm’s length from the company, Ryder said.

The company’s pension fund was 78 per cent funded at the end of 2013. Like many defined benefit pension plans, it was buoyed by strong stock market gains last year.

The company also said that it plans to cancel more than $800 million of capital investments.

“Their strategy is largely based on becoming smaller to become more profitable. Right now they’re shedding all the operations that have been a drag for the last few years,” the analyst said.

The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker is the largest in the U.S. by volume.

The Ontario Superior Court granted protection under CCAA and appointed Ernst & Young LLP to monitor the restructuring, U.S. Steel said in a statement after Tuesday’s close.

A year into the job, Chief Executive Officer Mario Longhi is pushing ahead with a plan to modernize the steel company in the face of a global oversupply of steel and cheap imports.

Under an improvement plan – called “The Carnegie Way” after company co-founder Andrew Carnegie – Longhi had already ended steelmaking at one Canadian site, announced the replacement of an Alabama blast furnace with an electric unit, and idled two other plants pending the resolution of a trade dispute.

The steelmaker said it will provide $185 million in debtor-in-possession financing to the Canadian unit during the restructuring to allow operations to continue through the end of 2015.