CLEVELAND, OH-- Cliffs Natural Resources is idling another of its iron ore mines to catch up with pellet demand, but the U.P. won’t be affected.
In a Tuesday press release the company cited the large amount of foreign steel dumped in the U.S. market and pellet oversupply for its decision to temporarily shut down the Northshore Mining operation in Minnesota by December 1. About 540 employees, except for maintenance crews, will be laid off until the first quarter of 2016.
Cliffs idled its United Taconite operations in Minnesota in August, resulting in the layoff of 420 employees.
According to Lourenco Goncalves, Cliffs’ Chairman, President, and CEO, “The historic high tonnage of foreign steel dumped into the U.S. continues to negatively impact the steel production levels of our domestic customers. As our pellet inventory at both Northshore and United Taconite is adequate to meet current customer demand, we will be able to optimize our working capital and cash flow by temporarily idling production at Northshore."
Operations will continue at Hibbing Taconite in Minnesota and the Empire and Tilden mines in the Upper Peninsula.
