Cliffs CEO reassures of Dearborn restart goal as UAW rallies to 'Save the Rouge'

The company said in March it would temporarily idle the ~2.2-million-short-ton-per-year blast furnace, BOF steel shop, and continuous caster at the Dearborn plant by July. The measure was taken in tandem with bringing back online Cleveland Works’ C-6 furnace, which had been hot idled since October.

While the C furnace has been down at Dearborn, the finishing facilities have continued to operate, including a pickling line tandem cold mill (PLTCM) and an extra-wide hot-dip galvanizing line.

“My message to you today is that we are starting to see positive signs from the automotive sector,” Goncalves stated in his letter. He highlighted how clients are starting to bring automotive production back to the US, resulting in an improvement in Cliffs’ order book for automotive-grade steels. “At this point, it is clear that Section 232 tariffs are working, and the car manufacturers are reacting accordingly.”

“With no exemptions and no exceptions to Section 232 tariffs allowed, we will continue to see more and more manufacturing coming back to the United States of America,” he added.

“As soon as domestic automotive production increases to sustainable levels, we will be ready to act quickly to restart operations at the Dearborn hot-end. And that’s all we need to bring everybody back to work,” the letter closed.

SMU pressed for clarification on what those necessary “sustainable levels” are, but Cliffs had not responded by press time.

Auto union rallies to ‘Save the Rouge’

On Wednesday afternoon, the United Auto Workers announced a “Save the Rouge March & Rally” for Thursday, Aug. 14, at 12:30 p.m. local time at the Local UAW in Dearborn, Mich.

At that time, UAW President Shawn Fain and Vice President Laura Dickerson will lead UAW members and political leaders “to encourage steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs to fulfill its contractual promise to invest $300 million in its historic Rouge steelmaking facility.”

“Rather than move forward with investments promised in its 2024 contract with the UAW, Cleveland-Cliffs has decided to idle all but two departments at its Dearborn Works facility, resulting in a layoff of over 500 UAW members,” the union said in the rally announcement.

Cliffs had not responded to SMU’s requests for comment by the time of this story’s publication.