Cliffs Natural Resources reverts to original Cleveland-Cliffs name

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – US iron-ore specialist Cliffs Natural Resources has renamed the company to its historical name Cleveland-Cliffs, as part of celebrating its 170th anniversary, the company announced on Tuesday.

Under the name Cleveland-Cliffs, the company has been operating for decades as an important part of the North American iron and steel industry.

The company’s NYSE stock ticker symbol ‘CLF’ will remain the same.

“The historical name Cleveland-Cliffs is synonymous with our strong heritage and is the perfect one for our next era of growth. As we did more than 60 years ago, when we adopted pelletising as a smart business opportunity to use American iron-ore and provide the domestic blast furnaces with customised pellets, Cleveland-Cliffs is once again reinventing itself as the supplier of high-quality iron units to the Great Lakes region.

“With our expansion into the production of hot-briquetted iron (HBI) to supply the growing electric arc furnace steel industry, Cleveland-Cliffs is the best name to represent our strong present and our bright future,” CEO Lourenco Goncalves stated in a news release.

Cliffs recently reported strong second-quarter results, recording net income of $77-million in the second quarter ended June 30, compared with $30-million in the comparable period of 2016.

Revenues of $569-million in the period were 15% higher year-over-year, and 17% higher than the analyst consensus estimate of $486-million. The top-line beat came mainly on the back of higher volumes in the US iron-ore division.

Cliffs downgraded its net income guidance from $380-million to about $310-million for this year. It also reduced its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation guidance to $650-million from $700-million. The new guidance assumed that iron-ore and steel prices will continue to average their year-to-date average pricing for the rest of the year.

Iron-ore prices have gained about 22% since the start of the year to change hands at $73/t on Monday.