Cleveland-Cliffs' Middletown steel plant getting a $1B upgrade

Driving the news: Cleveland-Cliffs and the U.S. Department of Energy will each contribute $500 million toward the Middletown Works project under a revised agreement announced Friday.

• The project includes upgrades to the plant's blast furnace, new material-handling infrastructure and AI-enabled technology to control production.
• Cleveland-Cliffs also plans a co-generation facility that will use blast furnace gas to generate electricity and steam, reducing reliance on outside electricity.

More than 1,500 people, including local union building trades, are expected to work on the project at the peak of construction, CEO Lourenco Goncalves said Friday.

• Middletown Works is already "one of the top three steel plants in the world producing automotive-grade steel, as of right now — at the same level of one in Japan and one in South Korea."
• Middletown Works produces about 3 million tons of raw steel annually.

Between the lines: Goncalves credited President Trump's Section 232 tariffs on imported steel with helping make the investment possible.

• "Section 232 has been the single most effective industrial policy implemented in our country, even more than a generation," he said.

Fun fact: Vice President Vance, who was on hand for Friday's announcement, said his grandfather retired as a welder at the plant now owned by Cleveland-Cliffs.

The big picture: The investment builds on Ohio's manufacturing strength, Gov. Mike DeWine said. The state has the country's third-largest manufacturing workforce, and CNBC ranked Ohio the top state for business in 2026.

• "The investment … is going to ensure this plant will stay modern, will stay competitive and will be employing people for decades and decades and decades and decades in the future," DeWine said.

What's next: Construction is expected to begin in the coming weeks, with the blast furnace rebuild scheduled for completion in Q1 2030.