EAF at Cliffs' Middletown Works Would Make Electrical Steels for EVs

“For now, it’s just a permit. For now, it’s just the preparation for something that might happen,” he added. “I don’t believe that all of them (automakers) will be successful.”

Goncalves made the comment during the Cleveland-based steelmaker’s first quarter earnings conference call on Friday, April 22.

SMU has reported on the air permit for an EAF at Middletown Works. Cliffs had not previously disclosed that the EAF, if built, would focus on electrical steels.

But the company has said it has no plans to replace the blast furnace at Middletown with an EAF given that the furnace was relined a year ago and so has at least 15 years of life left.

An EAF to make electrical steels appears to square with that pledge. It could complement the carbon hot-rolled, cold-rolled and coated flat-rolled steels currently made at Middletown.

Electrical steels are expected to see increased demand as more EVs – and the charging infrastructure necessary for them – are built.

Cliffs already makes electric steels at its Butler Works in western Pennsylvania. And demand is good. “We are sold out,” Goncalves noted.

Goncalves also said that Cliffs is currently the only domestic manufacturer of a full range of electrical steels. But the company faces import competition, mostly from South Korea, whose steelmakers “love to dump,” he alleged.

The US imported 50,228.7 metric tons of electrical sheet and strip steel in 2021. The bulk of that material came from Japan (23,054.7 tons), with South Korea a close second (16,943.6 tons). France was a distant third (4,220 tons), according to Commerce Department figures.

By Michael Cowden, Michael@SteelMarketUpdate.com