Today, I have a news analysis piece running in the Minnesota Reformer: “Cliffs offer to buy U.S. Steel holds huge implications for the Iron Range.”
On Sunday, the two biggest iron ore and steelmaking companies on the Iron Range signaled discussions that could lead to a consequential sale.
U.S. Steel announced it was fielding offers for all or part of its company. Cleveland-Cliffs declared it was one of the companies making an offer, a big one that included backing from the United Steelworkers of America. U.S. Steel rejected the offer, but implied that the talks were only just beginning.
This is a big deal for a lot of general and specific reasons and could reshape iron ore mining in Minnesota.
You can read my full analysis in today’s edition of the Minnesota Reformer.
Do you have mixed feelings about this? I may very well be missing something, but it seems like it could be a really good thing for the iron range to revitalize it and create jobs.
Am I missing something?
Mixed feelings is a good way to put it. Any consolidation like this will eventually lead to fewer jobs. They might be more stable jobs, but fewer overall. And it gives one company compete leverage over the region. Even the Oliver Iron Mining Company never had that. Cliffs has been a relatively good citizen, but times and leadership can change. And yet the merger would also solve a lot of short term problems. So yeah, mixed.
The big question I have is in regard to the business relationships CC has with some of the other major world players on the mining stage. With complete ownership of USSteel would CC then control land rights and if so would they be more likely to sell those rights to interests that would be even more destructive to the water and land ?