A Strong Steel Market Prompts Cleveland-Cliffs to Reschedule BF Reline
10/29/2026 - Cleveland-Cliffs is postponing a reline of an Indiana blast furnace, pushing it back by about a year to take advantage of steel market momentum.
Cliffs executives said the company had planned to reline the Burns Harbor C blast furnace in mid-2027, but now are postponing the project until April 2028.
“By safely pushing out the reline, we can capitalize on a highly favorable commercial environment, preserve valuable production capacity during a period of strong demand and pricing, and enhance cash generation while maintaining operational reliability,” Cleveland-Cliffs president and chief financial officer Celso Goncalves said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call last week.
Goncalves said some preliminary work will still take place in 2027, but the 90-day outage needed for the reline will occur in the following spring. Goncalves said the move preserves approximately 500,000 tons of production in 2027.
He added that the company is able to postpone the project due to targeted maintenance work and short-term capital it already has invested to extend the furnace’s current campaign. The furnace has an annual capacity of around 2.5 million tons.
The reline is one of several major capital projects the company will be undertaking in the next few years.
Those projects include the US$1 billion energy optimization effort at its Middletown Works in Ohio. Through that project, Cliffs will rebuild the blast furnace and install advanced material handling infrastructure, artificial intelligence-enabled process controls and a new cogeneration facility.
Also on tap are a rebuild of the Burns Harbor coke plant, a rebuild of the blast furnace stove at Stelco in Canada, and an expansion of grain-oriented steelmaking capabilities at its Butler plant in Pennsylvania.
“By safely pushing out the reline, we can capitalize on a highly favorable commercial environment, preserve valuable production capacity during a period of strong demand and pricing, and enhance cash generation while maintaining operational reliability,” Cleveland-Cliffs president and chief financial officer Celso Goncalves said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call last week.
Goncalves said some preliminary work will still take place in 2027, but the 90-day outage needed for the reline will occur in the following spring. Goncalves said the move preserves approximately 500,000 tons of production in 2027.
He added that the company is able to postpone the project due to targeted maintenance work and short-term capital it already has invested to extend the furnace’s current campaign. The furnace has an annual capacity of around 2.5 million tons.
The reline is one of several major capital projects the company will be undertaking in the next few years.
Those projects include the US$1 billion energy optimization effort at its Middletown Works in Ohio. Through that project, Cliffs will rebuild the blast furnace and install advanced material handling infrastructure, artificial intelligence-enabled process controls and a new cogeneration facility.
Also on tap are a rebuild of the Burns Harbor coke plant, a rebuild of the blast furnace stove at Stelco in Canada, and an expansion of grain-oriented steelmaking capabilities at its Butler plant in Pennsylvania.
