Cliffs puts 'for sale' signs up after another big quarterly loss

Cleveland-Cliffs lost more than $400 million for the third consecutive quarter but predicted results would improve in the second half of the year.

And shares of the Cleveland-based steelmaker surged on Monday after company executives said during a Q2 earnings call that the company could make billions by courting foreign investors or selling assets.

They made similar comments in May, after the company posted a big Q1 loss.

Cliffs pitches sales to foreign investors, data centers

Cliffs has engaged investment bank JP Morgan to explore sales opportunities. The company would use any proceeds to pay down debt, executives said.

Chairman, President, and CEO Lourenco Goncalves highlighted Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel as a potential template.

“Among several possible outcomes … Cliffs becomes an attractive opportunity for other foreign entities, particularly due to our unique position as a major supplier to the automotive sector and of electrical steels,” he said.

Chief financial officer Celso Goncalves, Lourenco’s son, said another possibility was “the potential sale of certain non-core operating assets.” Those sales alone might bring in “billions of dollars in potential value.”

Cliffs has already received interest in some of its recently idled facilities – including a steel mill in Riverdale, Ill., a rail mill in Steelton, Pa., and a plate finishing facility on Conshohocken, Pa. The company officially idled all three plants on July 1.

“These sites … have what data center developers are looking for, access to power and water with the infrastructure already in place,” he said. “If we’re successful in executing any sales, the cash proceeds will go directly to debt reduction.”

Volume over value

Cliffs remains “laser focused” in the meantime on cutting costs and increasing sales, Lourenco Goncalves said. The company expects to reduce costs in 2025 by $50 per short ton (st) compared to 2024 levels.

He declined to discuss prices, instead stressing tonnage. “Our cost reduction … is predicated on having baseloads and volumes.”

Some savings have come from sourcing coke from Stelco’s operations in Hamilton, Ontario. That allowed Cliffs to let one third-party coke supply agreement to expire a the end of June. And another will expire at the end of the year, Celso Goncalves said.

Recall that Cliffs acquired the Canadian steelmaker last year for $2.5 billion.

By the numbers

Cliffs lost $483 million in the second quarter of 2025 compared to a profit of $2 million in the year-ago quarter on revenue that fell 3.1 % to $4.93 billion, according to earnings data released on Monday.

Approximately $323 million of that loss stemmed from one-time charges relating to Cliffs’ idling of plants in Riverdale, Steelton, and Conshohocken, the company said.

The tide of red ink came despite Cliffs reporting steel sales of 4.3 million tons in Q2, up 150,000 from Q1 and marking a new record for the company.

It also comes after the company posted losses of $495 million in the first quarter of this year and of $447 million in the fourth quarter of 2024.

The company said it had $2.7 billion in total liquidity as of June 30.

For the love of tariffs

Lourenco Goncalves predicted better times in the second half of the year. The company stands to benefit from Section 232 tariffs on both imported steel and imported vehicles, he said.

Steel consumers now think twice about buying imports because they know that sudden tariff increases mean that “they could get burned.”

Meanwhile, Section 232 tariffs on cars, trucks, and SUVs mean that OEMs will be building more vehicles in North America instead of importing them from abroad, Goncalves said.

Automakers with assembly plants in Mexico are already sourcing more steel from US mills instead of from mills in Asia. And over time, more automotive production will move from Mexico back to the US, he predicted.

“As we move into the second half, things will be more visible. Next year, it will be even more visible. It takes time, but it’s already happening – and the numbers will start to show it,” Goncalves said.

A similar trend is playing out in appliances. “The big ones (OEMs) are starting to produce appliances in the United States again,” Goncalves said. “And that will be good not just for Cliffs, it will be good for everybody.”

LG supports 50% on Brazilian pig iron

Cliffs in addition stands to benefit from potential “reciprocal” tariffs of 50% on Brazil slated to take effect on Aug. 1. Those tariffs could result in sharply higher costs for Brazilian pig iron, a key feedstock for domestic electric-arc furnace (EAF) producers.

“Cleveland-Cliffs does not rely on imported pig iron at all,” Goncalves said, noting that the company is fully integrated and sports a hot-briquetted iron (HBI) plant in Toledo, Ohio.

Goncalves pressed for strict enforcement of tariffs on both imported steel and imported metallics. “There is no justification to exempt imported pig iron from tariffs as it just creates an artificial cost advantage to benefit some players at the detriment of others.”

Wading into politics

Cliffs’ fortunes hinge in large part on the automotive sector. And Goncalves blamed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for slowing automotive sales. High interest rates have made “home buying unattractive” and are “now an impediment to car buyers,” he claimed.

“Once Chairman Jerome Powell is gone – and that’s now a matter of when, not if – and as soon as interest rates come down by 50 or 75 basis points, the automotive sector will take off again,” Goncalves insisted.

He also took swipes at Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney for what he described as a lack of action to protect Canada’s steel industry from imports.

If Canada were to implement strict policies around imports, similar to those in the United States, Canadian steelmakers such as Stelco would be able to supply their domestic market without having to rely so heavily on exports to the US, he said.

And in what appeared to be a veiled threat, Goncalves said Cliffs “has a much bigger influence” in Canadian politics via Stelco than it does in the US, where the company also has “a lot of influence.”

“I have very little patience to keep repeating the same thing time and time and time again,” Goncalves said of Canada’s stance on imports. “I believe there are some politicians in Canada, within the government, that are waking up and seeing the light. … Let’s see how Prime Minister Carney will react.”