Cleveland-Cliffs decided to delay a reline of a blast furnace in Burns Harbor for a third time, a steel expert told the Post-Tribune.
“I think, importantly, there’s very strong demand in the steel industry right now,” said Hilary Lewis, steel director at Industrious Labs, “and they wanted to keep that capacity on line while they could take advantage of high prices.”
Lewis said Cleveland-Cliffs announced the delay in an earnings call last week. The reline of Blast Furnace C was first planned for 2025, but it’s now been pushed to April 2028.
After its second delay, the Burns Harbor reline was scheduled for mid-2027.
A Cleveland-Cliffs representative did not respond to the Post-Tribune’s request for comment.
For a reline, Lewis said the blast furnace would be shut down for about 60 to 90 days.
“They need to keep it open and running to be able to keep producing steel during this strong market,” she added.
Lewis has not seen another facility delay a blast furnace reline three times, she said, but she doesn’t think other reline announcements have gotten as much attention as recent ones.
“I do think that the focus right now in Northwest Indiana, but also across the country and globally, on cleaner steelmaking and the types of investments that are happening elsewhere does make reline news — just a reline happening or a delay — a little more high profile,” Lewis said.
Gary Advocates for Responsible Development President Dorreen Carey said in a statement to the Post-Tribune that Cleveland-Cliffs President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves said steel demand and prices are high, and by postponing the reline, Burns Harbor can increase its 2027 steel production by about 500,000 tons.
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Carey questioned the effectiveness of the company’s maintenance in a statement.
“People are seeing more black smoke coming out of the Burns Harbor blast furnaces,” she said. “The antiquated blast furnace technology is prone to unplanned releases and fugitive emissions that impact the health of surrounding communities and the resources of the (Indiana Dunes) National Park.”
Carey also said in her statement that it’s going to be difficult for Burns Harbor to compete with new and modern iron and steelmaking plants.
“And unless Cleveland-Cliffs makes the investments that will be needed to modernize Burns Harbor — and to begin replacing its soon-to-be-obsolete blast furnaces with more modern and efficient direct reduced iron furnaces — the Burns Harbor mill will decline and it will then close,” Carey’s statement said.
Lisa Vallee, organizing director for Just Transition Northwest Indiana, said in a Friday statement that she was glad to hear the Burns Harbor reline was delayed.
“Relining that blast furnace will lock in another 20 years of pollution that is harming our communities,” Vallee said.
JTNWI wants to meet with Cleveland-Cliffs about the future of steelmaking in the region, Vallee said in her statement.
“We need investment in clean steel technology and now we have more time to make that happen,” Vallee said. “Direct Reduced Iron is the future of steel and the communities who built up this industry deserve to be a part of its clean future.”
According to the Association for Iron and Steel Technology, direct reduction creates sponge iron, which “is produced in a reactor by direct reduction of iron ore in solid form, utilizing natural gas as the reducing agent to produce pellets or briquettes.”
Direct reduction by itself cannot create steel, and direct reduced iron is a feedstock used in electric arc furnaces to produce steel.
Cleveland-Cliffs has not commented on what a transition to direct reduction and electric arc furnaces would look like, however, U.S. Steel said at their Gary Works facility a new electric arc furnace-based steel facility would need to be built “from the ground up.”
In July, JTNWI unveiled a new study, “Measuring Legacy Pollution’s Burden on Northwest Indiana,” which looked at 20 industrial facilities’ effects on air quality and public health in the region.
Cleveland-Cliffs’ Burns Harbor steel facility was found to bring the most damage, according to the report, making up 53% of the damage. According to the report, Burns Harbor contributes to 123.7 deaths and $1.7 billion in damages annually.
The company’s Indiana Harbor facility was third, contributing to 15% of damages, according to the report, with 35.5 deaths and $496 million in damages annually.
A Cleveland-Cliffs spokesperson responded to the study’s findings in a previous statement, calling it a “coordinated effort to destroy and dismantle the steel industry in the United States.”
“The people in Northwest Indiana need to wake up. Steel isn’t just another industry, it is the economic backbone of this region, the entire state of Indiana, and it powers the American economy,” the previous statement said. “… Let’s not forget what is at stake. If the steel mills disappear, the good-paying union jobs disappear and the tax base that funds our schools, public safety, and local services shrinks. Small businesses close. Families leave. Entire communities pay the price.”