Speaking during the final day of the Steel Success Strategies conference in New York City, Goncalves told attendees that the Toledo, Ohio, plant will produce 1.6 million tons annually for steelmakers in the Great Lakes region.

He said the plant is deliberately undersized relative to the regional market, estimated to be about 3.5 million tons. Goncalves said the idea is to start off small, allowing time to build a customer base and ensure that those customers are being well served.  

He, however, said an expansion could be in the cards in a few years from now, disclosing that Cliffs is installing the infrastructure to support a second facility at the site.

Nevertheless, he stressed that any consideration of a second plant would take place only after the first is up, running and being utilized.

“We have no intention to initiate construction of a second unit any time soon. There’s a lot more I need to address before we move toward a second one,” he said.

He also said that even if the company were to build a second plant, there is nothing saying that it would have to be adjacent to the first one, noting that the national market for the plant’s output is estimated to be about 4.8 million tons.