Brown tours East Toledo's Cleveland‑Cliffs plant

Sep. 3—Sen. Sherrod Brown grabbed a handful of iron-ore pellets roughly the size of BBs from the gigantic mountain in front of him.

The chalky little balls of taconite were destined for a furnace that would convert them into briquetted iron for use by steel manufacturers in northwest Ohio and beyond.

That's the process underpinning Cleveland‑Cliffs' new direct-reduction plant in East Toledo, which after much fanfare and more than two years of construction, began cooking iron ore pellets in December, 2020.

Despite only employing 160 people now that construction is completed, the $1 billion plant is considered a major economic driver for the Port of Toledo and region overall, creating a hub of economic activity in service of the company's 457-foot furnace tower.

It therefore piqued the interest of Senator Brown, a Democrat who often works on issues involving trade, manufacturing, and workers. Mr. Brown was in northwest Ohio on Wednesday to tour the plant and attend a business roundtable in Findlay.

A limousine bus provided by the Cleveland‑based company took the senator for a spin around the plant, as CEO Lourenco Goncalves described for him how it produces briquetted iron in the most environmentally responsible way feasible given the process.

"The white that you see on top of the tower is water, it's steam," he said. "We are building. We are doing. This plant was built on a swamp that was here before, a brownfield site that Chevron left behind to clean ... and that's what you have now. It's extremely green."

The direct reduction method utilizes natural gas to produce pure iron, and Cleveland‑Cliffs has pointed to the abundance of natural gas in northwest Ohio for why it chose to invest here.

With a senator present, Mr. Goncalves said Washington still isn't getting it right when it comes to issues regarding steel and manufacturing.

"There's a lot of talking and not real action, except for people like him," Mr. Goncalves said, gesturing toward Mr. Brown.

On trade, Mr. Goncalves, whose company is the largest flat-rolled steel producer in North America, has been in favor of steel tariffs to bolster the domestic steel industry. He told the Chicago Tribune earlier this year that steel tariffs instituted under the prior administration should remain despite high steel prices, in order to create a more level playing field for trade.

"Sometimes the friends are worse than the enemies. The enemies are easily identified," he said. "I have a problem with the Canadians. I have a bigger problem with the Mexicans. And I have an enormous problem with the South Koreans. We get a lot of lip service out of Washington, D.C. It doesn't matter what the administration is. It was bad before, it's not much better now."

Mr. Brown described how the "Made in America" provision in the Senate's infrastructure bill, which is pending now in the House, would benefit U.S. manufacturers such as Cleveland‑Cliffs.

"Cleveland‑Cliffs and Ohio steelworkers know, China cheating has hurt this industry. They know that our tax dollars shouldn't be supporting that. That's why in the next month, the House will join the Senate in passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill," he said.

Just after it began production in East Toledo, Cleveland‑Cliffs announced a billion‑dollar acquisition of Ohio‑based AK Steel, which got it into the business of producing steel itself rather than just supplying raw materials to mills.