Cliffs to idle Dearborn blast furnace, restart Cleveland furnace by July

The closure will impact ~600 employees. They have been issued WARN notices, with the layoffs starting on July 15.

The mill’s finishing facilities, including the pickling line tandem cold mill and continuous galvanizing line, will continue to operate, with 550 employees remaining on the job.

By the time the layoffs begin in July, Cliffs expects to have the C6 blast furnace at its Cleveland Works back in operation. The furnace has been on hot idle since October.

The Dearborn Works blast furnace ‘C’ has a daily ironmaking capacity of 6,000 short tons (st), or ~2.2 million st per year. The ‘C-6’ furnace at Cleveland Works has a smaller capacity of 4,150 st per day, or ~1.5 million st per year, according to SMU’s blast furnace status table.

Cliffs said the Dearborn closure is because of “the current reality of weak automotive production in the United States.”

“These actions will allow the company to operate more efficiently and in a more cost competitive way for the current market environment,” it noted.

Cliffs is hopeful it can resume steelmaking at Dearborn Works “once President Trump’s policies take full effect and automotive production is re-shored.”

The announcement comes during a tough time for the Cleveland-based steelmaker. The second half of 2024 was one of the worst steel demand environments in years, according to the company. This resulted in a net loss of $447 million in the fourth quarter and $754 million for the year.

Last week, the company said it would also idle portions of its mining operations in Minnesota. The temporary closures of the Minorca mine and parts of the Hibbing mine will affect 630 employees.