Pittsburgh—Cleveland-Cliffs' flat-rolled steel shipments in the fourth quarter climbed 70% from the third quarter as the company's volume continued to increase following its 2020 acquisitions of AK Steel and ArcelorMittal USA, the company said Jan. 25.
The US-based producer shipped 1.9 million st of flat-rolled steel in Q4, rising from 1.1 million st in Q3 and 619,000 st in the second quarter, according to the company's preliminary Q4 results statement.Cleveland-Cliffs completed its acquisitions of AK Steel in March 2020 and ArcelorMittal USA in December 2020. Prior to the deals, the company did not own any flat-rolled steel operations.
In addition to its new steel business, Cleveland-Cliffs said it began producing hot-briquetted iron at its recently built direct reduction plant in Ohio in December. The company expects to ship its first HBI to third-party customers later in the current quarter, it added.
"Cliffs enters 2021 with the right size, the right product mix and the right customer mix for the business environment in which we operate," CEO Lourenco Goncalves said in the statement, referencing the steel acquisitions and the startup of the direct reduction plant.
"Our fourth quarter strong results are just a sample of what we should be able to accomplish in 2021, when the contributions of the recent acquisition of ArcelorMittal USA and the sales of HBI to third-party customers will be fully reflected in the numbers," he added.
Cleveland-Cliffs estimated its preliminary Q4 consolidated revenue at between $2.2 billion and $2.3 billion, compared with $534 million in Q4 2019. The preliminary report includes results for both AK Steel and Cleveland-Cliffs businesses, as well as performance from ArcelorMittal USA for the period between Dec. 9 and Dec. 31.
Final Q4 results will be released Feb. 25, Cleveland-Cliffs added.
