Cleveland-Cliffs idles blast furnace in Indiana

Steel producer Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. says it will indefinitely idle its Indiana Harbor No. 4 blast furnace in East Chicago, Indiana. The blast furnace, one of eight the Cleveland-based company operates, is part of the larger Indiana Harbor Works blast furnace/basic oxygen furnace (BOF) integrated steelmaking complex.

Cleveland-Cliffs states, “This action is a result of the successful implementation of operational improvements, particularly the addition of significant amounts of HBI [hot briquetted iron] to the burden of blast furnaces and the maximization of scrap usage in BOFs.”

In 2021, Cleveland-Cliffs purchased Detroit-based Ferrous Processing & Trading and its network of scrap yards in part to improve its access to ferrous scrap. In the company’s most recent conference call with analysts, Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves indicated the firm may no longer need as much blast furnace capacity, and in the future may even add a scrap and HBI-fed electric arc furnace.

The company says employees allocated to idled blast furnace will be reassigned to other positions within Indiana Harbor Works and it 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 [Illinois] Works.”

Goncalves says, “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.”

Goncalves says the move allows the company to reduce its carbon footprint while “at the same time, lowering our cost structure for the same level of steel production and shipments.”