Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.

Is Cleveland-Cliffs publicly traded?

Yes. Cleveland-Cliffs trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CLF. It is one of the oldest continuously listed industrial companies in the United States, with roots in an 1847 iron ore mining company.

Who is the CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs?

Lourenco Goncalves has served as Chairman, President and CEO since August 2014. He led the company's transformation from an iron ore supplier into North America's largest flat-rolled steel producer through the AK Steel, ArcelorMittal USA, and Stelco acquisitions.

Does Cleveland-Cliffs own Stelco?

Yes. Cliffs completed its acquisition of Stelco, the Canadian integrated steelmaker, in November 2024. Stelco continues to operate under its own name with plants in Hamilton and Nanticoke, Ontario, focused on the Canadian market.

What does Cleveland-Cliffs make?

The company produces flat-rolled steel for automotive, appliance, and construction customers, electrical steel for transformers, stainless steel, tinplate, iron ore pellets, and hot briquetted iron. It is the largest flat-rolled steel producer in North America.

Is Cleveland-Cliffs profitable?

The company was solidly profitable from 2021 through 2024 but reported a GAAP net loss of $1.4 billion in fiscal 2025 on weak automotive demand and a costly legacy contract. Management guided for recovery in 2026 as tariffs supported steel prices and new automotive contracts took effect.

Samuel Mather founded the company in 1847 in Cleveland to supply iron ore from Michigan's Upper Peninsula to Great Lakes industry. Through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company became the dominant independent iron ore merchant in North America, operating mines across the Lake Superior district and surviving repeated industry consolidations that swallowed its competitors.

The company operated for most of its life as an upstream supplier, never making steel itself. It traded as Cliffs Natural Resources from 2001, ran through cycles of iron ore booms and busts, and nearly collapsed during the 2014-2015 commodity crash when activist investors forced a leadership change. Lourenco Goncalves, a Brazilian-born steel executive who had run Metals USA, became CEO in August 2014, refocused the company on the United States, sold off Australian and Canadian assets, and restored the Cleveland-Cliffs name in 2017.

The transformation came in 2020. In March, Cliffs acquired AK Steel for approximately $1.1 billion, vertically integrating its pellet business into automotive steel production. In December it acquired substantially all of ArcelorMittal USA for about $1.4 billion, instantly becoming the largest flat-rolled producer in North America. In the same year it opened a hot briquetted iron plant in Toledo, giving it a domestic source of low-carbon iron units for electric arc furnaces.

In November 2024 Cliffs completed its acquisition of Stelco, the Canadian integrated steelmaker with works in Hamilton and Nanticoke, Ontario, expanding into the Canadian market. The timing proved turbulent: 2025 brought 50% Section 232 steel tariffs in the United States, which supported domestic prices, but also a Canadian retaliatory tariff regime that disrupted Stelco's cross-border flows. Fiscal 2025 revenue fell 3% to $18.6 billion with a GAAP net loss of $1.4 billion, driven by weak automotive production and an expiring slab contract. Through 2026 the company has been in due diligence on a strategic partnership with South Korean steelmaker POSCO, targeting a definitive agreement in the first half of the year.

Cliffs publishes an annual sustainability report and is a significant recycler by function of its EAF operations, which consume scrap as primary feedstock. The Toledo HBI plant is central to its decarbonization story, supplying low-carbon iron units that reduce blast furnace coke requirements. The company has committed to reducing greenhouse gas intensity and reports its integrated mills against science-aligned targets.

On the social side, Cliffs is one of the largest employers of United Steelworkers members in North America and emphasizes safety, reporting a record-low total recordable incident rate of 0.8 per 200,000 hours in 2025. Its heritage mines and mills carry legacy environmental obligations that it manages under consent decrees and remediation programs.

Cliffs has been named a GM Supplier of the Year multiple times, one of the more meaningful third-party validations in its customer base, and has appeared on Fortune's list of America's Most Innovative Companies. Goncalves was named Steelmaker of the Year by industry publications for the consolidation strategy that created the modern company.

Goncalves's aggressive public persona generates recurring controversy, including sharp criticisms of competitors, politicians, and the Canadian government during the 2025 trade disputes. In 2025 the company also faced the Nippon Steel-U.S. Steel saga from the sidelines, having previously made an unsolicited bid for U.S. Steel that was rejected; Cliffs publicly criticized the resulting deal's governance terms.

On the regulatory side, the company operates under environmental permits at dozens of legacy industrial sites and has negotiated Clean Air Act settlements covering older coke and mill operations inherited through acquisitions. Labor relations with the USW have periodically produced strike votes and contentious contract rounds, including a 2022 unfair labor practice strike threat at Minnesota mines that ended in a negotiated agreement.