Steel Mills

ArcelorMittal to Idle Hibbing Taconite

April 22, 2020

Another iron mine is temporarily idling production. ArcelorMittal said on Tuesday that it will idle Hibbing Taconite on May 3 with plans to resume operations on July 6.

“Due to the unprecedented and challenging times presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the joint venture partners of Hibbing Taconite will be idling the operation,” said ArcelorMittal in a statement. “As a result, Hibbing Taconite has begun preparations to reduce production in a safe and orderly manner with necessary precaution to preserve the asset for future production.”

Hibbing Taconite is a joint venture between ArcelorMittal, Cleveland-Cliffs and U.S. Steel with ArcelorMittal serving as managing partner as of August 2019. Pellets from the plant are shipped to ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor, which last week idled its C blast furnace.

In the past week, Cleveland-Cliffs has idled Northshore Mining and U.S. Steel announced the idling of Keetac.

About 650 employees are expected to be laid off at the facility including hourly and salaried workers. “As managing partner of Hibbing Taconite, ArcelorMittal USA plans to work with the USW to minimize the impact on the workforce for the duration of the outage,” said a spokesperson for the company.