The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[Democritus_of_Abdera]

Re: CLF DRI x Nucor in CC....

Based upon the give and take in the Q&A of the CC, it appears that Carrabba is aware of Nucor's DRI initiative and hopes to profit from it as a supplier of raw material.

Mike Gambardella – JPMorgan Securities LLC:
A couple of questions, one on the Great- on your Great Lakes iron ore market. What do you think the potential is for increased demand for iron ore from the emergence of DRI? You know, we have the plant down in the Louisiana by Nucor. There’s another plant that’s getting funding right now in Ohio, and some others out there. What do you think the potential is for increased demand for iron ore at the Great Lakes, for that?

Joe Carrabba – Cliffs Natural Resources, Inc:
I think as Nucor has led the way, Mike, as you’ve talked about, I think that strengthened people’s belief in the financial model of the convergence of these DR-grades and I think they’ve stated publicly, what the – how much they can lower their costs that go with it. So given that in mind, we’re out talking to a lot of different mills within our area of influence, if you will, with shipping out of central Minnesota where the two mines are that we can do with that. I’ll come back with a number; we’re just now doing our marketing study, if you will. And going to the mills and see at what stage there in with that, but it’s substantial, I mean, we feel at this point in time our goal would be to offset any losses we may incur and we believe that we can do that in the future if these DR facilities are built. I mean they’re about, if I understand them, the normal module is about 1 million to 1.5 million tons. Most folks like to have that inside of their gate so they can get the advantage of the heat value, and those cost advantages that go well. And there’re several potentials that are starting to form up for looking at any gaps we may be able to cover, if there are any potential losses in our current iron ore business.

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Brian Yu – Citigroup Global Markets Inc.:
Got it. Then from a logistical stand point, would you be able to service Nucor’s facility down in Louisiana and would it be a combination like rail and barge just to keep the cost low?

Joe Carrabba – Cliffs Natural Resources, Inc.:
I would – logistics we would always look at the best and cheapest option. Right now, my answer would be yes. We could put products into Nucor, I know there is a lot of – or into Louisiana or in the south. If you think about it right now, U.S. Steel supplies all of their product from central Minnesota into the Fairfield plant and have for many, many years. And we supply customers on a continuous basis in Mexico on a rail basis with that. So, there are customers that compete in the blast furnace markets right now with the same logistics model. And I don’t know why this would be any different and we are certainly looking at options on how to optimize the cost down there.