Steel Products
Iron Ore Producer Rebrands as Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.
Written by Sandy Williams
August 15, 2017
Cliffs Natural Resources, in celebration of 170 years in business, has returned to its historical name Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.
“The historical name Cleveland-Cliffs is synonymous with our strong heritage and is the perfect one for our next era of growth,” said Chairman, President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves.
“As we did more than 60 years ago, when we adopted pelletizing as a smart business opportunity to utilize American iron ore and provide the domestic blast furnaces with customized pellets, Cleveland-Cliffs is once again reinventing itself as the supplier of high-quality iron units to the Great Lakes region. With our expansion into the production of Hot-Briquetted Iron (HBI) to supply the growing electric arc furnace steel industry, Cleveland-Cliffs is the best name to represent our strong present and our bright future.”
{loadposition reserved_message}
Cliffs was founded in 1847 and is the largest and oldest mining company in the United States. Its mines and pellet plants located in Michigan and Minnesota supply iron ore pellets to the North American steel industry. The company will begin construction of its first HBI plant in Toledo, Ohio, in 2018 and expects to begin commercial production in 2020. The plant will have a nominal capacity of 1.6 million tons of HBI per year and make Cliffs the sole producer of HBI in the Great Lakes region. Cliffs also operates an iron ore mining complex in Western Australia.
Cliffs new name is effective immediately and does not change the company’s NYSE stock symbol “CLF.”

Sandy Williams
Read more from Sandy WilliamsLatest in Steel Products

Drilling activity slows in US but picks up steam in Canada
Oil and gas drilling in the US slowed for a third consecutive week, while activity in Canada hovered just shy of the 19-week high reached two weeks prior.

Domestic mill shipments rise in June: AISI
US steel shipments increased month over month and year over year in June, according to the latest figures from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).

Active rig counts slipped in US, Canada
Drilling activity slowed in the US and Canada last week, according to the latest oil and gas rig count data released by Baker Hughes.

OCTG producers in Canada take aim at Mexico, US, others
Evraz NA and Welded Tube of Canada have lodged an unfair trade complaint against imports of OCTG, including those from USMCA trading partners Mexico and the US.

Final Thoughts
The difference: The spat with Turkey was a big deal for steel. This time, the 50% reciprocal tariff for Brazil – if it goes into effect as threatened on Aug.1 – hits everything from coffee and to pig iron. It seems almost custom-built to inflict as much pain as possible on Brazil.