Cliffs aiming to acquire Indiana EAF mill, Bloomberg reports

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., which in the past five years has made acquisitions to become one of the largest steelmakers in the United States, is reportedly negotiating to add another mill to its portfolio.

A late-May report from Bloomberg says the Cleveland-based mining and metals firm is negotiating with Russia-based Novolipetsk Steel PJSC (NLMK) to buy its assets in the U.S., including a recycled-content electric arc furnace (EAF) mill in Portage, Indiana.

The other sizable NLMK USA locations in the U.S. consist of a rolling mill in Farrell, Pennsylvania, and downstream steel coating plant in Sharon, Pennsylvania.

The mill in Portage consists of an EAF line capable of producing 770,000 metric tons of liquid steel annually, and NLMK says buckets of scrap, prepared to designate a specific grade, are lowered into the furnace.

In the report, Bloomberg cites people familiar with the matter but says as of May 29, neither company has issued a statement acknowledging the negotiations.

Cleveland-Cliffs, which has its roots in iron mining and iron ore processing and shipment, entered the steelmaking business in March 2020 when it completed its acquisition of Ohio-based AK Steel. That company operated two blast furnace/basic oxygen furnace (BOF) mills and two EAF mills at the time.

It marked the beginning of an aggressive growth strategy by Cleveland-Cliffs board CEO Lourenco Goncalves, who later that same year acquired the U.S. blast furnace/BOF mills operated by ArcelorMittal. The following year, Cliffs bought the Ferrous Processing & Trading (FPT) network of metals recycling facilities.

Last year, Cliffs attempted to make another high-profile acquisition with its bid for Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel Corp., the only other U.S. company to operate blast furnace/BOF mills. U.S. Steel opted to accept a competing bid from Japan-based Nippon Steel Corp., although that transaction has been held up by political opposition.

The NLMK negotiations are in early stages, according to Liana Baker of Bloomberg, and the transaction far from concluded.

Should Cliffs acquire the northern Indiana EAF mill, it could prove a good fit with the sizable network of FPT recycling facilities in nearby Michigan.