US-based iron ore and steel producer Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has announced it will temporarily idle production at two of its iron ore mining operations, Northshore Mining in Minnesota by mid-April and Tilden Mine in Michigan by the end of this month, due to the current market conditions amid the spread of the coronavirus. The company plans to restart operations at Northshore by August and at Tilden in July.
Cleveland-Cliffs will work down current inventory levels from these two operations and will maintain iron ore shipping in order to fulfill its commercial agreements with its steel customers.
Chairman, president and CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs, Lourenco Goncalves, said, “We have evaluated market conditions and the extraordinary disruptions in manufacturing and steel production in North America due to the impact of the coronavirus market shock. As our steel customers rationalize their operations’ capacities, we made the decision to adjust our iron ore production during the first half of the year and not continue to build additional iron ore inventory until market conditions improve. Once the North American steel market improves, Cleveland-Cliffs will be able to quickly restart and ramp up production.”