Cleveland-Cliffs

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. will be a pre-eminent producer and merchant of ore and other ferrous metallic products. We will be known for our operational excellence, joint venture management expertise, and technology leadership. We are dedicated to building value for our shareholders, partners, customers, and employees by increasing the competitiveness of our existing operations; producing superior products, services, and innovative solutions for the steel industry; providing a safe, challenging, and rewarding workplace; and extending the Cliffs franchise internationally. The company merges with Iron Cliffs Mining Company to form the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company. Plans to form a top-ranking steel company through the union of several competitors fail during the onset of the Great Depression. A financial reorganization leads to the union of Cleveland-Cliffs and Cliffs Corporation. With six iron ore mines in Michigan, Minnesota, and Eastern Canada, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. is North America's leading producer of iron ore pellets, which are used in the steelmaking process. The company's capacity stands at 36.9 million tons of ore, which represents nearly 28 percent of the continent's annual pellet capacity. Throughout its history, Cleveland-Cliffs has faced competition from imports, takeover attempts, shareholder revolts, ill-advised diversification efforts, and the vagaries of the cyclical steel sector. In the early years of the new century, the company focused on bolstering its assets while the industry restructured and consolidated. As the years went by and surface mines in the region were depleted, firms like Cleveland Iron Mining were forced to seek underground sources. Up to this time, mining was a fairly simple, but extremely labor-intensive, process. Below-ground mining necessitated the development of such specialized devices as power drills, hoisting and conveying machinery, pumps, and ventilation equipment. Cleveland Iron Mining in 1877 became one of the first firms to use these types of equipment to locate ore bodies. The company also pioneered the use of electricity at its mines, often establishing its own on-site hydroelectric and coal-fired generators. These one-time necessities grew into a profitable sideline in the early twentieth century. During the late nineteenth century, Cleveland Iron Mining diversified into timber harvesting as a predictable adjunct to its mining efforts, since timber was used to support mine shafts and as fuel for blast furnaces. At its zenith, the mining company's lumber output topped 80 million feet of timber, and its timberland holdings peaked at 750,000 acres. As this property was cleared, it was often sold. After the turn of the century, the company formed a joint venture in paper production with the Munising Paper Company. It also acquired an interest in the Munising Woodenware Company, a manufacturer of wooden bowls, clothes pins, and rolling pins. The company divested itself of these timber sidelines in the 1930s. The discovery of high-grade iron ore deposits at open-pit sites in Minnesota's Mesabi Range in the 1890s--and the new competitive front it opened--accelerated changes already underway in the Michigan-based segment of the iron mining industry. Between 1893 and 1905, many steel companies consolidated vertically through the acquisition of iron ore properties in the Lake Superior district. In order to protect their interests, several large mining companies merged and/or acquired their smaller competitors. This early shakeout formed the enduring structure of the industry. A major transition at Cleveland Iron Mining reflected this change. In 1891, the company merged with the Iron Cliffs Mining Company to form the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company. Organized in 1864 by Samuel Tilden, the Iron Cliffs Company held broad mining interests but suffered from an aging and disinterested management. The merger was spurred by Jeptha H. Wade, Sr., former co-founder and president of Western Union