Cliffs offloading some FPT assets, considering HBI plant sale as well

After posting significant losses in the first and second quarters of this year, Cliffs had said it was open to selling non-core assets. Goncalves named the two potential divestitures on a third-quarter earnings call on Monday. After losing $251 million in Q3’25, the steelmaker has bled red to the tune of $1.235 billion so far this year.

Scrap assets up for sale

Cliffs entered the scrap business in 2021, spending $775 million to acquire FPT, a Detroit-based metal recycler with multiple facilities across North America.

During Monday’s call, Goncalves announced the company has signed an agreement to sell its Florida FPT assets to SA Recycling. FPT has two locations in the Sunshine State, one in Miami and the other in Fort Lauderdale.

Goncalves emphasized the Florida sites were not core to Cliffs’ scrap strategy and did not contribute to EBITDA, calling them “completely irrelevant” to the company’s operations.

Their sale allows Cliffs to preserve its prime scrap operations around Detroit, which remain central to its business, he said. FPT operates 12 locations in Michigan, five in Ohio, one in Ontario, and two in Tennessee.

He also disclosed that multiple parties are interested in acquiring the remaining FPT assets, excluding Florida.

While Cliffs’ chief executive declined to disclose financial details, he said the economics of the deal with SA Recycling were “extremely good” and that the proceeds would be reflected in the company’s liquidity going forward.

SA Recycling, a 50/50 joint venture between the Adams family and Australia’s Sims Ltd., based in Orange, Calif., had sales volumes of 4.8 million metric tons in the year ended June 30, 2025.

Toledo HBI plant – to sell or not to sell?

Goncalves also said Cliffs is considering selling its HBI plant in Toledo, and has received “a lot of interest” in the facility.

“We have no interest in building a flat-rolled mini-mill ourselves,” Cliffs’ leader explained, adding, “I was keeping that HBI plant to supply Big River in case we had the opportunity to acquire U.S. Steel, which did not play out.”

Goncalves noted, however, that current discussions around the recently announced MOU with an unnamed global steelmaker are “showing that we might be doing other things with the plant.”

He said they are still considering selling the plant, but are deprioritizing a sale at the moment. Because, as he put it, “The MOU trumps – no pun intended – the opportunity of selling [the Toledo plant] as a stand-alone unit.”

Cliffs fired up the 1.9-million-ton-per-year Toledo HBI plant at the end of 2020. Initial plans called for selling the material to third parties. But after acquiring AK Steel and ArcelorMittal USA that same year, Cliffs pivoted, planning to consume most of the HBI in its own furnaces.

This year, the steelmaker has idled a blast furnace at Dearborn Works in Michigan; a rail mill, including an EAF, in Steelton, Pa.; a plate finishing facility in Conshohocken, Pa.; and a compact strip mill in Riverdale, Ill. It also restarted the C-6 blast furnace at Cleveland Works that had been idled since October 2024.