WDIO and the Mesabi Daily News are reporting that two Cleveland Cliffs Iron Range mining operations, Hibbing Taconite and Northshore Mining, will see additional layoffs and shutdowns in 2009. Northshore will be shutdown in April. HibTac will idle a line in March and then see a 15-week summer shutdown from May to September. Cliffs also operates United Taconite in Eveleth which has also seen production cutbacks this year. These are temporary shutdowns, not uncommon on the Iron Range, but will have a major dampening effect on the local economy as the national recession wears on though the second and third quarters.
The statistic not included with these layoffs is how other trade unions and contractors will be affected this summer. No one builds or remodels around here when the mines are down. Well, almost no one. Cityfolk with summer properties might, but the housing crisis gobbled up a lot of them.
Best case, this is all temporary. Ben Bernanke’s prediction of a 2010 recovery proves correct and steel demand and prices return to high levels. Worst case, we might see the first Iron Range-wide mine shutdown in the taconite age (the time after iron mining converted from pure ore to taconite production in the ’60s and ’70s).
Cross your fingers and buy a U.S.-made refrigerator! (Use it to keep the “worst case scenario” beer supply nice and cold).
UPDATE: Here is the full story from this morning’s Mesabi Daily News. The Hibbing Daily Tribune also had a brief report.
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