Steel Mills

Cliffs: No Supply Risks Linked to Russia-Ukraine War

Written by David Schollaert

March 2, 2022

In a letter to customers this week, Cleveland-Cliffs said it does not expect the geopolitical fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to directly impact the company’s operations. “While we continue to monitor the situation closely, we have not identified any specific elevated risk to our operations at this time,” the company stated.

cliffs natural resourcesCliffs said it will continue to make proactive and periodic evaluations of the risk environment. “In certain cases, we have determined the resulting risk level exceeds our tolerance and initiated negotiations with alternative suppliers and/or sought alternative materials to further mitigate risk.”

Cliffs has a diversified raw materials supply base for most of its inputs. The bulk of its supply chain is sourced outside of the conflict area, and only a small portion comes directly or indirectly from Russia or Ukraine, the company said.

“We continuously work with our suppliers to keep adequate inventories of key raw materials in stock to maintain our production capabilities. At this time, we are comfortable with the stability of our supply chain,” the letter stated.

Cleveland-Cliffs, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, is a vertically integrated steelmaker and the largest flat-rolled steel and iron ore pellets producer in North America. A primary supplier of steel to the North American automotive industry, Cliffs employs 26,000 workers across its U.S. and Canada operations.

By David Schollaert, David@SteelMarketUpdate.com

 

David Schollaert

David Schollaert is deputy editor-in-chief for Steel Market Update. David joined SMU after more than a decade in the metals and mining industry in a myriad of different roles. Much of his early experience and expertise were within the coverage and analysis of steel-making raw materials and served previously as senior editor of the CRU Prices Service. Most recently, however, before his return to market analysis, David held roles as a metals buyer and an operations manager for raw material suppliers. He can be contacted at david@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-720-1008.

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