State officials celebrate in Weirton as 600 manufacturing jobs return to region
Several West Virginia officials gathered in Weirton Monday to celebrate the return of 600 manufacturing jobs in the region thanks to the opening of a new electrical distribution transformer production plant.
The plant will be opened and operated by Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. which, until February, operated a tin mill at the same location. Upon its closure, about 900 workers were left without jobs.
The new distribution transformer production plant is scheduled to go online in 2026 and will cost a total of $150 million while offering reemployment opportunities to at least 600 local workers. Of that $150 million, $50 million will come from the state of West Virginia to Cleveland-Cliffs in the form of a forgivable loan approved Monday by the state’s Economic Development Authority.
During a press event in Weirton, Gov. Jim Justice and other state officials praised Cleveland-Cliffs’ top executive Lourenco Goncalves for his leadership in getting the idled plant and many of the employees who ran it back to work.
“We shut down the plant, but we did not abandon the workforce,” Goncalves said during the press event. “And then, because of the workforce we started thinking how can we intelligently put that workforce back to do something that’s not only meaningful for Weirton and for the great state of West Virginia but also for the United States of America? Well, we had an opportunity right in front of our eyes.”
Distribution transformers are used to regulate the voltage of electricity as it flows through the grid before entering into households. They are made using specialized grain-oriented electrical steel, which Cleveland-Cliffs produces in other plants across the country, according to a news release.
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