Cleveland-Cliffs Announces Indefinite Idle of Indiana Harbor #4 Blast Furnace and Notifies of Flat-Rolled Price Increase
Source: Business Wire
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. announced today that it will indefinitely idle its Indiana Harbor #4 blast furnace (IH#4). This action is a result of the successful implementation of operational improvements, particularly the addition of significant amounts of HBI to the burden of blast furnaces and the maximization of scrap usage in BOFs. The employees allocated to IH#4 will be reassigned to other positions within Indiana Harbor Works, as the number of available job openings at the Indiana Harbor complex exceeds the amount of jobs associated with IH#4. The Company will continue normal operations of the entire Indiana Harbor Works, including its two steel shops, the hot strip mill and all its finishing facilities, as well as the nearby Riverdale Works. With both Indiana Harbor blast furnaces #3 and #4 now indefinitely idled, going forward, all downstream operations including Riverdale Works will be supplied exclusively by the Company’s flagship high-productivity IH#7 blast furnace.
The IH#4 furnace, which has a production capacity of 2.1 million net tons of hot metal per year, is expected to cease production within the next two months. This action will reduce the number of operational blast furnaces in Cliffs’ footprint from 8 to 7. The Company does not expect any change to full-year 2022 steel shipment volumes as a result of the indefinite idle of IH#4.
Separately, the Company will also notify its customers that, based on a stronger inflow of new orders, it is increasing current spot market base prices for all April orders of carbon hot rolled, cold rolled and coated steel products by a minimum of $50 per net ton.
Lourenco Goncalves, Cliffs’ Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer said, “Our strategy of increasing productivity at our ironmaking and steelmaking facilities through the use of both in-house produced HBI and additional scrap has allowed us to reduce coke rate and consequently reduce CO2 emissions, as well as to stretch hot metal utilization and still be able to produce similar amounts of crude steel with fewer blast furnaces. Said another way, by concentrating the operation and maximizing productivity at IH#7 we are improving our carbon footprint and, at the same time, lowering our cost structure for the same level of steel production and shipments. Most importantly, as we have enough job openings on site for all impacted employees, we are now able to fill several available job openings at Indiana Harbor Works with the current workforce of IH#4.”
About Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.
Cleveland-Cliffs is the largest flat-rolled steel producer in North America. Founded in 1847 as a mine operator, Cliffs also is the largest manufacturer of iron ore pellets in North America. The Company is vertically integrated from mined raw materials, direct reduced iron, and ferrous scrap to primary steelmaking and downstream finishing, stamping, tooling, and tubing. We are the largest supplier of steel to the automotive industry in North America and serve a diverse range of other markets due to our comprehensive offering of flat-rolled steel products. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland-Cliffs employs approximately 26,000 people across its operations in the United States and Canada.
