Company Summary
Cleveland, OH-based Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., formerly known as Cliffs Natural Resources, is the largest producer of iron ore pellets in North America. It is also the biggest flat-rolled steel producer in the region.
The company is a major producer of iron ore pellets and it mainly sells products to integrated steel companies through this division in the United States and Canada. It also has an annual production capacity of roughly 20.5 million net tons of raw steel. Its steelmaking facilities produced a total of 19 million net tons of raw steel in 2023.
Cleveland-Cliffs has ownership in three mines in Minnesota (Hibbing Taconite, Northshore and United Taconite mines) and two in Michigan (Empire and Tilden mines). Notably, the Empire mine historically had annual rated capacity of 5.5 million long tons.
In December 2019, Cleveland-Cliffs entered into a definitive merger agreement with AK Steel. The deal was successfully completed in March 2020. Post completion of the transaction, Cleveland-Cliffs owns around 68% of the combined company on a fully-diluted basis, with AK Steel shareholders owning roughly 32%.
Cleveland-Cliffs, on Dec 9, 2020, also successfully completed the buyout of all the operations of ArcelorMittal USA, which has been renamed as Cleveland-Cliffs Steel LLC. Cleveland-Cliffs updated its segment structure following the ArcelorMittal USA buyout and now has one reportable segment, Steelmaking. The earlier Mining and Pelletizing division is now included within Steelmaking while other remaining operating segments including Tooling and Stamping are classified as Other Businesses.
The company’s Steelmaking operations makes flat-rolled carbon, stainless, electrical, plate, tinplate and long steel products. It provides carbon and stainless-steel tubing products, die design and tooling, as well as hot and cold-stamped components. Cleveland-Cliffs is a leading supplier of steel to the automotive market in the United States with around 40% of its steel production directed toward this key market.
In June 2017, Cleveland-Cliffs declared the construction of a HBI production plant in Toledo, OH. The construction of the plant was completed in fourth-quarter 2020.