Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. announces that it is resuming construction of its hot briquetted iron (HBI) plant in Ohio and moving up plans to restart an idled iron ore mine in Michigan.
Chairman and chief executive Lourenco Goncalves said a recovering steel market is prompting the actions.
“The demand for our steel, iron ore and metallics products has recovered dramatically over the past month, and in light of this, we are restarting Toledo and Tilden sooner than we originally expected,” he said. “We suspended these operations in a way that allowed us to restart as easily and efficiently as possible, and that is what we will do. Our footprint is well situated to capitalize on the rapidly increasing demand from the automotive sector, which is occurring faster than our most aggressive expectations.”
The company suspended work on the HBI plant in March, but now construction crews are being recalled. The Tilden mine was idled in mid-April, although the shutdown was temporary – Cliffs had expected to restart the facility in July. However, AK Steel customers, particularly its automotive customers, are beginning to return sooner than expected, so the mine will reopen later this month.
“Due to mandatory social distancing and other newly implemented safety related measures limiting the number of workers allowed to be present simultaneously on the job, construction is now expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year,” Cliffs said.
The company has already restarted other facilities that were temporarily shuttered through the COVID-19 lockdowns this spring. Those facilities include AK Tube, the Mansfield Works in Ohio, and downstream lines at the Dearborn Works in Michigan.
