Toledo: Cleveland Cliffs Iron Ore Plant

Posted June 15, 20178 yr

$700-million iron ore plant set for former E. Toledo industrial site

Cleveland-based company chooses area for its new iron processing facility

ByTom Troy | BLADE STAFF WRITER

Published on June 15, 2017

A company that will employ at least 130 people making hot briquetted iron for the manufacture of steel in a $700 million development will locate on a vacant former industrial site in East Toledo, local economic development authorities announced today.

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., headquartered in Cleveland, has selected for its new factory a site owned since 2008 by the Toledo Lucas County Port Authority, the company said, ending months of closely guarded negotiations over site incentives.

James Tuschman, chairman of the Port Authority Board of Trustees, said the site was chosen because of the availability of land, rail and highway access, a port, natural gas, and water.

http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2017/06/15/Kaptur-welcomes-Cliffs-to-Port-of-Toledo.html

"In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck

6 months later...

January 13, 20187 yr

Toledo Plan Commission gives OK to iron-processing plant

January 11, 2018

The Toledo City Plan Commission approved a procedural step Thursday toward construction of a $700 million iron-processing plant on a former refinery site on the Toledo-Oregon border.

By a 4-0 vote, the commission approved a factory site plan submitted by IronUnits, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cliffs Natural Resources, albeit with dozens of mostly technical conditions related to roadway access, utilities, landscaping, and other details about the project.

http://www.toledoblade.com/business/2018/01/11/Toledo-Plan-Commission-gives-OK-to-iron-processing-plant.html

3 months later...

April 15, 20187 yr

I'm skeptical of the environmental claims, but it's good for industrial Toledo.

Cleveland-Cliffs CEO vows to build clean, world-class plant in East Toledo

ByTom Henry | BLADE STAFF WRITER

Published on April 5, 2018 | Updated 1:11 p. m

As three of northwest Ohio’s most prominent elected officials and two of its highest-profile business leaders concluded their rosy, welcoming remarks Thursday at the groundbreaking for the Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.’s upcoming $700-million iron-briquette manufacturing facility, there was still an elephant in the room nobody was talking about: the environment.

Then Lourenco Goncalves, president and chief executive officer, hit that issue head-on with a series of bold predictions.

He promised to make that industrial facility in East Toledo “the most environmentally compliant plant in the world.”

Unlike many executives in the steel industry, he never talked about ever trying to roll back environmental regulations.

Instead, he chastised China for weak environmental laws and said his company aims to serve as a model across the world by showing how an important feedstock for steel mills can be made in a self-contained facility with little or no fugitive dust emitted.

http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2018/04/05/Cleveland-Cliffs-CEO-vows-to-build-clean-world-class-plant-in-East-Toledo.html