According to the press release, Cliff’s Chairman, President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves applauded President Trump’s decision to withdrawal the US from participation in the Paris climate accord in its present design.
Goncalves stated that the accord is a bad deal for America in its current form and that it does not translate into effective environmental protections but only negatively affect US productivity. He added, “The American iron and steel industry is the most environmentally compliant among the major industrial nations. We exclusively use iron ore pellets in our blast furnaces, while China relies on highly polluting sinter feed iron ore fines from Australia and Brazil.”
The company is a major supplier of iron ore pellets to the North American steel industry from its mines and pellet plants located in Michigan and Minnesota. Cliffs also operates an iron ore mining complex in Western Australia.