Steel Mills

Cliffs to Restart Cleveland BF, Middletown BF Down for Repairs
Written by Michael Cowden
January 22, 2021
Cleveland-Cliffs plans to restart the No. 6 blast furnace at its steel mill in Cleveland, Ohio, a company spokeswoman said.
Output from the No. 6 furnace will help to replace lost production from the steelmaker taking down for maintenance the No. 3 furnace at its Middletown, Ohio, mill, she said.
“We are not planning to increase steel production as we have enough capacity installed to best serve our customers. Cleveland-Cliffs is about value over volume,” the spokeswoman said.
The Cleveland mill has two blast furnaces: No. 5 and No. 6. The No. 6 blast furnace has been on hot idle since April 2020, she said.
Cliffs does not plan to increase production, but instead to rotate furnaces on and off as necessary to perform maintenance while keeping output steady, the spokeswoman said.
Some steel consumers had hopes that Cliffs would restart additional capacity in order to relieve a spot market supply squeeze that has sent hot-rolled coil prices to their highest point ever.
The No. 6 blast furnace at Cleveland has annual capacity of 1.37 million tons per year, according to the Association for Iron & Steel Technology’s (AISTech’s) 2020 directory of iron and steel plants.
The No. 3 furnace at Middletown–the only one at that mill–has annual capacity of 2.09 million tons, per AISTech.
All told, Cliffs has 10 blast furnaces, the spokeswoman said.
Previously known primarily as a mining company, Cliffs has become the largest flat-rolled steelmaker in the U.S. following its acquisition of AK Steel and the integrated steelmaking assets of ArcelorMittal USA.
By Michael Cowden, michael@steelmarketupdate.com
John Packard contributed to this article.

Michael Cowden
Read more from Michael CowdenLatest in Steel Mills

August US mill shipments slip but still higher than last year
The American Iron and Steel Institute reported a decline in the monthly shipments of US mills from July to August.

TransPod, Algoma, Supreme Steel linkup anchors Canadian steel in high-speed transit build
The three Canadian companies have announced a strategic partnership to support the development of an ultra-high-speed transit line from Edmonton to Calgary.

Metallus, USW agree to tentative four-year labor deal
Metallus and the United Steelworkers (USW) have agreed to a tentative four-year labor contract.

ArcelorMittal Dofasco resumes cokemaking after emergency maintenance
The Canadian steelmaker reported on Sept. 30 that “urgent maintenance” was needed in its coke plant off-gas systems. The work required coke oven gas from the No. 2 coke plant to be flared for most of that week.

AISI: Raw steel production ticks back down
US raw steel output declined last week after increasing the week prior, according to the latest data from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). Output has see-sawed from week to week since mid-August. Still, it has remained historically strong over the past four months and has held near multi-year highs since June. Domestic mills […]