Steel Mills

Cliffs, POSCO announce MoU for 'transformative' partnership

Written by David Schollaert

October 30, 2025

Cleveland-Cliffs on Thursday said it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with POSCO to forge a strategic partnership, one Cliffs bills as “transformative.”

The Cleveland-based steelmaker said it and POSCO – South Korea’s largest steelmaker and the third largest steelmaker in the world – executed the MoU more than a month ago, on Sept. 17.

Rumors of a deal between the two companies had been bouncing around the steel industry for weeks. Cliffs also teased a potential deal during its third-quarter earnings call on Oct. 20.

The companies appeared to have timed the MoU announcement to coincide with a new US–Korea trade agreement.

Cliffs said it expects another announcement, of a definitive agreement, in Q4 of 2025 or Q1 of 2026. The company anticipates the deal closing at an unspecified point next year.

Under the terms of the deal, POSCO will leverage Cliffs’ US assets to serve its US customer base. The goal: to meet various US country-of-origin and trade requirements.

This move aligns with the Trump administration’s push to strengthen domestic industry and attract foreign investment. And Cliffs positioned the partnership as a model for industrial cooperation between allies.

“This is a meeting of two industrial champions at a pivotal time for global manufacturing,” Cliffs CFO Celso Goncalves said in a statement. “We are aligned in our vision for a stronger, self-reliant, and mutually beneficial industrial base across both nations.”

POSCO President Jutae Lee echoed the sentiment, calling the collaboration “a meaningful step” toward deeper US investment and promising to deliver American-made steel to its clients.

Cliffs also expects the deal to be “highly accretive” for its shareholders.

David Schollaert

David Schollaert is deputy editor-in-chief for Steel Market Update. David joined SMU after more than a decade in the metals and mining industry in a myriad of different roles. Much of his early experience and expertise were within the coverage and analysis of steel-making raw materials and served previously as senior editor of the CRU Prices Service. Most recently, however, before his return to market analysis, David held roles as a metals buyer and an operations manager for raw material suppliers. He can be contacted at david@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-720-1008.

Read more from David Schollaert

Latest in Steel Mills