Cleveland-Cliffs is laying off more workers, this time in Illinois and Pennsylvania.
The steelmaker is idling its Conshohocken and Steelton mills in Pennsylvania, as well as its Riverdale mill in Illinois, a spokesperson confirmed Monday.
The idlings will impact approximately 950 employees when they occur around June 30.
"These temporary, indefinite idles are a necessary response to insufficient demand and pricing for the products the affected facilities produce, including rail, specialty plate, and high-carbon sheet; all of which fall outside of Cliffs’ core business focus," according to spokesperson Patricia Persico.
The company's flat-rolled steel production will not be impacted by the moves, the spokesperson said.
Cleveland-Cliffs recently laid off approximately 1,200 workers across Michigan and Minnesota as the result of weak automotive production amid the Trump administration's steel and aluminum tariffs. At the time, the company said that once President Donald Trump's tariff policies take full effect "and automotive production is re-shored, we should be able to resume steel production at Dearborn Works.”
The steelmaker's Q4 2024 revenue was down nearly 16% to $4.3 billion, which President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves in a statement blamed on an influx of foreign-made car sales in the U.S. outnumbering domestically produced sales.
"With this decline in domestic automotive production, and too much imported steel from abroad that drove unsustainably low steel prices, Cliffs was deeply impacted," Goncalves said.
Despite the current stress on the company, Goncalves has expressed support for Trump’s trade policy.
"President Trump has made clear that proper enforcement of our trade laws and a supportive industrial policy prioritizing manufacturing in the United States are both being implemented," the CEO said in a February statement. "That should benefit Cleveland-Cliffs more than others. As of late February, Cleveland-Cliffs is well on the way for a dramatic rebound in 2025."
Cleveland-Cliffs will announce its Q1 2025 earnings on Wednesday.
