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Cliffs Natural Resources Idles Mine, Taconite Pellet Plant
11/18/2015 - Iron ore producer Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. is temporarily idling pellet production at its Northshore Mining operation in Minnesota, the company has announced.
"The historic high tonnage of foreign steel dumped into the U.S. continues to negatively impact the steel production levels of our domestic customers. As our pellet inventory at both Northshore and United Taconite is adequate to meet current customer demand, we will be able to optimize our working capital and cash flow by temporarily idling production at Northshore," said Cliffs chairman and CEO Lourenco Goncalves in a statement.
Goncalves said the company’s pellet inventory is at a seasonally historic high. Idling the facility will allow the company to work off inventory in advance of 2016 orders, he said.
The operation, which is made up of a mine and a taconite pellet plant, employs roughly 540. Many of those employees will be out of work by 1 December, though some will be kept on to perform basic maintenance and to support ongoing work to support the company’s direct reduction pellet trials.
With the latest announcement, six of the 11 major mining operations in the Minnesota Iron Range have been mothballed, the Duluth News Tribune reported.
In addition to Northshore and Cliffs' United Taconite operation, which was previously idled, United States Steel Corporation’s Keetac plant remains shut down, as do two of Grand Rapids-based Magnetation iron ore recovery plants and the Mesabi Nugget iron nugget plant near Hoyt Lakes, the newspaper said.
“We haven’t seen anything like this in decades, maybe never before, with the global nature of this crisis,’’ Minnesota state Rep. Tom Anzelc told the newspaper. “I’ve been saying for a few weeks now that the next six months are going to be worse than the last six months."
Anzelc expects additional Minnesota plants to close, he told the newspaper.
“I think there are more to come and in the not-too-distant future,’’ Anzelc said. “My source at Cliffs is calling this a crisis.”
Goncalves said he is looking for resolution of trade cases filed by U.S. steelmakers to positively impact the domestic markets during the first half of 2016.
“As soon as the unfairly traded steel problem subsides and domestic steel production recovers to normal levels, we will be able to immediately ramp up iron ore pellet production by bringing idled capacity back to operation," he said.
Goncalves said the company’s pellet inventory is at a seasonally historic high. Idling the facility will allow the company to work off inventory in advance of 2016 orders, he said.
The operation, which is made up of a mine and a taconite pellet plant, employs roughly 540. Many of those employees will be out of work by 1 December, though some will be kept on to perform basic maintenance and to support ongoing work to support the company’s direct reduction pellet trials.
With the latest announcement, six of the 11 major mining operations in the Minnesota Iron Range have been mothballed, the Duluth News Tribune reported.
In addition to Northshore and Cliffs' United Taconite operation, which was previously idled, United States Steel Corporation’s Keetac plant remains shut down, as do two of Grand Rapids-based Magnetation iron ore recovery plants and the Mesabi Nugget iron nugget plant near Hoyt Lakes, the newspaper said.
“We haven’t seen anything like this in decades, maybe never before, with the global nature of this crisis,’’ Minnesota state Rep. Tom Anzelc told the newspaper. “I’ve been saying for a few weeks now that the next six months are going to be worse than the last six months."
Anzelc expects additional Minnesota plants to close, he told the newspaper.
“I think there are more to come and in the not-too-distant future,’’ Anzelc said. “My source at Cliffs is calling this a crisis.”
Goncalves said he is looking for resolution of trade cases filed by U.S. steelmakers to positively impact the domestic markets during the first half of 2016.
“As soon as the unfairly traded steel problem subsides and domestic steel production recovers to normal levels, we will be able to immediately ramp up iron ore pellet production by bringing idled capacity back to operation," he said.
