US-based mining and natural resources company Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has announced that it will be holding a groundbreaking event on April 5 to celebrate the construction of its first hot-briquetted iron (HBI) production plant.
The company is investing $700 million to build one of the world’s most modern and efficient iron-making plants, generating a total of 130 new jobs in Toledo, Ohio. At peak construction, 1,200 people will be working on the site. The Toledo plant will produce 1.6 million metric tons per year of customized high-quality HBI, and will make Cleveland-Cliffs the sole producer of high-quality customized feedstock for the domestic electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmakers located in the Great Lakes region. Cliffs’ domestically produced HBI will supply a Great Lakes market currently estimated at 3 million metric tons, which is currently supplied exclusively by imports of commercial quality pig iron and HBI from countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Brazil and Venezuela, among others. Start-up of the plant is expected in the summer of 2020.