Cleveland-Cliffs Provides Preliminary Fourth-Quarter 2020 Results

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE: CLF) today announced its preliminary fourth-quarter financial results for the period ended December 31, 2020. The Company completed its acquisition of ArcelorMittal USA on December 9, 2020. Due to the extensive accounting integration associated with the transaction, only selected preliminary financial information is available at this time. The Company will announce its full fourth-quarter 2020 earnings results before the U.S. market open on Thursday, February 25, 2021.

The preliminary results announced today cover the entire fourth-quarter 2020 period for both the AK Steel and legacy Cleveland-Cliffs businesses, and include the performance of Cleveland-Cliffs Steel (formerly ArcelorMittal USA) from the period of December 9, 2020, through December 31, 2020:

• Fourth-quarter 2020 consolidated revenues of approximately $2.2 to $2.3 billion, a ~320% increase over the prior-year period.
• Fourth-quarter 2020 adjusted EBITDA* of approximately $280 to $290 million, a ~150% increase over the prior year-period, and a six-year high.
• Fourth-quarter 2020 steel sales volume of 1.9 million net tons.

The state-of-the-art Direct Reduction plant recently built in Toledo, OH began operations in November of 2020, and production of Hot Briquetted Iron (HBI) started in December of 2020. Cliffs anticipates shipping HBI to third-party customers later in the first quarter of 2021, and expects the plant to reach its full production rate by the second quarter of 2021.

Lourenco Goncalves, Cliffs’ Chairman, President, and CEO said: “We ended 2020 on a particularly high note. With the completion of our second transformational acquisition creating the largest flat-rolled steel producer in North America and the start-up of the most modern and environmentally friendly Direct Reduction plant in the world, Cliffs enters 2021 with the right size, the right product mix, and the right customer mix for the business environment in which we operate. Our fourth quarter strong results are just a sample of what we should be able to accomplish in 2021, when the contributions of the recent acquisition of ArcelorMittal USA and the sales of HBI to third-party customers will be fully reflected in the numbers. With the backdrop of a resilient steel pricing environment and the growing number of steel companies competing for an increasingly scarce scrap supply in 2021 and beyond, Cleveland-Cliffs will continue to benefit from our differentiated business model with self-sufficiency in pellets and HBI.”