Cleveland-Cliffs plans to restart its Tilden Mine in Michigan and resume construction on its hot-briquetted iron plant in Toledo, Ohio as demand for steel increases, the company announced Tuesday.
Cleveland-Cliffs halted construction on the HBI plant in March due to Covid-19 related shutdowns, and idled the Tilden mine in April as a result of plunging steel demand. The company said it plans on restarting the mine by then end of June and has started "remobilizing the workforce to complete" the HBI plant. The company said both restarts are “earlier than planned.” The HBI plant is now expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year.
In a press release, Cliffs president and CEO Lourenco Goncalves, said Cliffs and AK Steel, which Cliffs acquired recently, are being aided by “the rapidly increasing demand from the automotive sector.”
“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,” Goncalves 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.”