CLEVELAND, June 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Cliffs Natural
Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) announced today that it will be
restarting operations in August at its United Taconite mining
facility (UTAC) in Minnesota. This restart will occur two months
earlier than the anticipated October
2016 start date previously reported last week following the
announcement of the Company's 10-year supply agreement with a major
steel client. The August restart of UTAC was made possible due to
additional business recently contracted with U.S. Steel
Canada to supply the majority of
their iron ore pellet requirements for the third and the fourth
quarters of 2016.
The new iron ore pellet tonnage ordered by U.S. Steel
Canada brings Cliffs' sales volume
expectations for the year to a higher level than anticipated in the
Company's previous forecast. Accordingly, Cliffs is revising
its 2016 sales volume guidance to 18 million long tons from its
previous guidance of 17.5 million long tons. In addition, 2016
production volume guidance has been increased by 500,000 long tons
to 16.5 million long tons.
Lourenco Goncalves, Cliffs'
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, stated: "The vast
majority of the steel companies in North
America are currently enjoying stronger order books, and
their demand for high quality iron ore pellets from a reliable
supplier is increasing. With that, Cliffs' business continues to
gain very positive momentum, with the improvement of the existing
business with our long established clients and the addition of new
ones." Mr. Goncalves added: "We are very pleased to announce an
increase of our pellet supply to U.S. Steel Canada, who became a new Cliffs' client in
2016. US Steel Canada used to be a captive client of its former
parent company U.S. Steel Corporation. We are also very pleased to
announce a higher sales guidance for 2016, thanks to this new
business with U.S. Steel Canada,
which came at a higher tonnage than we had previously
anticipated." Mr. Goncalves concluded: "Most importantly, I
am happy to bring our entire UTAC team back to work a lot earlier
than previously announced last week."
United Taconite is comprised of an iron ore mine and a pellet
processing plant, and is located in Minnesota. The operation employs approximately
450 employees.
About Cliffs Natural Resources Inc.
Cliffs Natural
Resources Inc. is a leading mining and natural resources company in
the United States. The Company is
a major supplier of iron ore pellets to the North American steel
industry from its mines and pellet plants located in Michigan and Minnesota. Cliffs also operates an iron ore
mining complex in Western
Australia. Driven by the core values of safety, social,
environmental and capital stewardship, Cliffs' employees endeavor
to provide all stakeholders operating and financial transparency.
News releases and other information on the Company are available at
www.cliffsnaturalresources.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains
statements that constitute "forward-looking statements" within the
meaning of the federal securities laws. As a general matter,
forward-looking statements relate to anticipated trends and
expectations rather than historical matters. Forward-looking
statements are subject to uncertainties and factors relating to
Cliffs' operations and business environment that are difficult to
predict and may be beyond our control. Such uncertainties and
factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those
expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These
statements speak only as of the date of this release, and we
undertake no ongoing obligation, other than that imposed by law, to
update these statements. Uncertainties and risk factors that
could affect Cliffs' future performance and cause results to differ
from the forward-looking statements in this release include, but
are not limited to: trends affecting our financial condition,
results of operations or future prospects, particularly the
continued volatility of iron ore prices; availability of capital
and our ability to maintain adequate liquidity, in particular
considering borrowing base reductions from the sale of non-core
assets; our level of indebtedness could limit cash flow available
to fund working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions and
other general corporate purposes or ongoing needs of our business,
which could prevent us from fulfilling our debt obligations;
continued weaknesses in global economic conditions, including
downward pressure on prices caused by oversupply or imported
products, including the impact of any reduced barriers to trade,
recently filed and forthcoming trade cases, reduced market demand
and any change to the economic growth rate in China; our ability to reach agreement with our
iron ore customers regarding any modifications to sales contract
provisions, renewals or new arrangements; uncertainty relating to
restructurings in the steel industry and/or affecting the steel
industry; our ability to maintain appropriate relations with unions
and employees and enter into or renew collective bargaining
agreements on satisfactory terms; the impact of our customers
reducing their steel production or using other methods to produce
steel; our ability to successfully execute an exit option for
certain of our Canadian entities that minimizes the cash outflows
and associated liabilities of such entities, including the
Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (Canada) process; our ability to successfully
identify and consummate any strategic investments and complete
planned divestitures; our ability to successfully diversify our
product mix and add new customers beyond our traditional blast
furnace clientele; the outcome of any contractual disputes with our
customers, joint venture partners or significant energy, material
or service providers or any other litigation or arbitration; the
ability of our customers and joint venture partners to meet their
obligations to us on a timely basis or at all; the impact of
price-adjustment factors on our sales contracts; changes in sales
volume or mix; our actual levels of capital spending; our actual
economic iron ore reserves or reductions in current mineral
estimates, including whether any mineralized material qualifies as
a reserve; events or circumstances that could impair or adversely
impact the viability of a mine and the carrying value of associated
assets, as well as any resulting impairment charges; the results of
prefeasibility and feasibility studies in relation to projects;
impacts of existing and increasing governmental regulation and
related costs and liabilities, including failure to receive or
maintain required operating and environmental permits, approvals,
modifications or other authorization of, or from, any governmental
or regulatory entity and costs related to implementing improvements
to ensure compliance with regulatory changes; our ability to
cost-effectively achieve planned production rates or levels;
uncertainties associated with natural disasters, weather
conditions, unanticipated geological conditions, supply or price of
energy, equipment failures and other unexpected events; adverse
changes in currency values, currency exchange rates, interest rates
and tax laws; risks related to international operations;
availability of capital equipment and component parts; the
potential existence of significant deficiencies or material
weakness in our internal control over financial reporting; and
problems or uncertainties with productivity, tons mined,
transportation, mine-closure obligations, environmental
liabilities, employee-benefit costs and other risks of the mining
industry. For additional factors affecting the business of Cliffs,
refer to Part I – Item 1A. Risk Factors of our Annual Report on
Form 10-K for the year ended December 31,
2015. You are urged to carefully consider these risk
factors.
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SOURCE Cliffs Natural Resources Inc.