Higher steel prices, supported by tariffs, brought Cleveland-Cliffs back to profit in the third quarter of 2026. Cash has not caught up: net debt at the end of September was still higher than at the end of 2025.
The steel in a car door or a piece of factory equipment may have come from Cleveland-Cliffs. This North American company makes steel from scratch, feeding iron ore, mostly its own, into blast furnaces (giant furnaces that turn ore into molten iron). Then it turns the metal into sheets for carmakers, manufacturers and distributors. The company earns the gap between what a ton of steel sells for and what it costs to make.
Customers pay by the ton. Some buy under yearly contracts that reset each January, at fixed prices or prices tied to a published market price. Much of the cost of running the mills stays the same whatever they produce, so running full spreads those costs over more tons. Most U.S. steel is made in electric furnaces that melt scrap metal, whose price swings; the company says its own ore gives it a cost edge. Price matters more, and trade policy largely sets it. Foreign mills can sell in the U.S. far below local prices, so the 50% tariffs the U.S. imposed on imported steel in 2025 are central. Because so much cost is fixed, a small change in price can move profit much more than sales.
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