CRU: ArcelorMittal Divests U.S. Assets to Cliffs, Transforms Flat Rolled Landscape

By CRU Principal Analyst Josh Spoores, from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Market Outlook

In less than a year Cleveland-Cliffs has transformed themselves from a Great Lakes-based iron ore miner to the largest fully integrated flat rolled steel producer in the USA. Cliffs has done this by acquiring AK Steel earlier this year and now they purchased the U.S. assets of ArcelorMittal. While Cliffs now has a significant steelmaking footprint in the USA, the overall market will continue to struggle in the near term as substantial new steelmaking capacity comes online.

Josh Spoores

Josh Spoores joined CRU in 2012 as Principal Analyst and editor of CRU’s Steel Sheet Monitor and Steel Sheet Market Outlook. During that time, Mr. Spoores forecast prices, demand, production and trade of sheet and plate products for both Canada and the US for CRU's Steel Sheet & Plate Market Outlooks. Today, he heads up steel analysis and forecasting for the Americas region. Prior to joining CRU, he was a Senior Marketing Analyst at Severstal North America, founder of Steel Reality, a forward-looking market analysis firm using a models-based approach for flat rolled and plate steel. He was also the Market Research Manager at Majestic Steel USA, one of the largest flat rolled service centres in the USA. He has a BSc in Business Administration from Bowling Green State University.