Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (CLF) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome, everyone, to the Butler Works home of the United States, Grain-Oriented Electrical Steel. I'm Jamie Sychak. I'm President of UAW Local 3303, and we're very excited to have you all here today to at least get a glimpse of what we do. While many of us may have taken us for granted every day over the years as we come and go, I can assure you I for one never will again. The world-class grain-oriented electrical steel we make here GOES is the only steel of its kind in all of North America. And it's primarily just for transformer cores. Without that market, our mill could not survive a proposed rule threatened to completely take that market away by 2027. It suggests that replacing GOES and the transformer cores with amorphous metal that's supposedly more efficient though only at lower loads. Ultimately, this threatened our country's electrical grid, our national security and our members' jobs. GOES is what's been the preferred core material for over 95% of the transformers in our grid and for good reasons. It works. It lasts, it's readily available, and it is efficient, not just at no load or static low loads, but at loading all across and is more efficient at higher loads. Recognizing that electric use and demand has and will continue to increase by at least 60% over just the next 5 to 10 years. We know that no load and low load situations just won't exist. This means that our GOES products are the right answer. Over the course of the past year, we immersed ourselves in any and all information regarding this rule, amorphous metal, transformers in the market. Ultimately, we realized first GOES is much better suited for our grid with increasing demand in electric use. Second, most people are unaware of transformer core materials at this time, a time of aging out of tremendous volume of transformers in our grid of enormous infrastructure investment by our government and of deep environmental concern driving a shift from fossil fuels to electrification. And finally, we could see that we could quite possibly be regulated out of the market and miss out on the biggest investment growth and green movement in our nation's history, ultimately leaving the United States dependent on foreign suppliers for core material. On one hand, we could see the awesome opportunity for us in our nation, the potential to bolster and ensure our electrical grid far into the future with us being at the center of the domestic supply chain. We were a static when Assistant Secretary of Electricity, Gene Rodrigues and Bridget Bartol were here just last August, reviewing the industrial decarbonization plans. On the other hand, we could feel the rug being ripped right out from beneath us, right at this time at critical because of this perilous rule proposal. Thankfully, we're very fortunate to have the very best people in place at exactly the right time. People like our Chairman and CEO, Lourenco Goncalves and the other Cliffs leaders were aligned with us immediately and kept us in the loop right from the onset. The top UAW leaders, all sounding the alarm got doors open for us. All of our electric officials from every level were supportive and kept this from going wrong. By taking the matter up with the Department of Energy, many reaching out to the Secretary, explaining the significance of this rules impact, dozens of other stakeholders from industry, power supply, the market and technical experts all weighed in providing us valuable information and insight, enabling us to keep pushing. Last and certainly not least, we found that the Department of Energy was listening and welcomed us to the conversation by recognizing us organized labor as a legitimate stakeholder in all of this. Ultimately, it was this cooperation, this alliance of government, industry and labor brought us these huge wins. For the Butler Works a bright future for the environment and attainable significant reduction in greenhouse gases and for the United States, a resilient, secure and domestically sourced 21st Century electrical grid. For that, we should all be thankful and proud. Is every one of you involved to endeavor to make this rule work. Thank you. It's now my pleasure to introduce Matt Allday.

Good afternoon. Again, my name is Matt Allday. I'm a hot mill safety coordinator here at Butler Works. I'm a proud member of the UAW Local 3303. Thank you for visiting our plant today. I've worked at Butler Works for 13 years. It's been a great job filled with many of opportunities. As you tour our facility today, I hope you've seen the proud members of the UAW Local 3303, working side by side to make the best grain-oriented electrical steel. We clock in every day here at Butler Works committed to a safe workplace, protecting our environment and advancing our products to the highest achievable quality standards. The Department of Energy believes in our efficiency and the quality of our products to be used in transformers and EV charging stations. [ Other ] works will be proud to be the producer of electrical steel needed for electrical infrastructure. We will work hard and hand-in-hand to secure our nation. I would like to thank our Chairman, President and CEO, Mr. Lourenco Goncalves, for standing with us and believing in our workforce. I would like to thank the UAW leaders for being our voice and always fighting for our members. And I would like to thank the Department of Energy for hearing those voices and securing our nation. Now it is my great honor to introduce Jennifer Granholm, Secretary of Energy.

All right. Thank you, Jamie and Matt and everybody here for the warm welcome to Butler Works. Mills, I know, like this one, an institution for over 100 years, aren't just employers they're anchors for Lyndora for the state of Pennsylvania for our entire country. That's because the rivers of steel that run from Western Pennsylvania certainly don't end at the Ohio or the Allegheny. They keep flowing nationwide and worldwide through bridges and railroad tracks, through airplanes and cars, from the frame of the Chrysler Building in New York City to the gates of the Panama Canal. Our nation was built with steel. Our nation was built with steel and will be built with steel made here in the United States. We've also seen -- you can applaud that -- we've also seen the flip side. We've seen what happens when we let our jobs and our supply chains move overseas. We've seen what happens. You -- in the Pittsburgh area, in the industrial Midwest, I was the Governor of Michigan during the time when the auto industry was on its knees and we saw so many jobs being offshored, outsourced, uprooting families, shuttering businesses, leaving communities to pick up the pieces during the first part of this century, 60,000 factories shut down across the United States. Everywhere, the steel rivers ran, folks felt the impact. Offshoring softened our manufacturing backbone in countries like China stamped on it. Today, President Biden is flipping that script. He has delivered an intentionally crafted industrial strategy to bring manufacturing back to the United States to keep manufacturing in the United States to put us on a path to lead the world in industries of the future. This isn't about next month. It's not about next year. This is about the next generation of American Technology, American Manufacturing and American workers. We know that around the world, demand is increasing for clean products produced with less pollution built to last. And we want all those products stamped made in America. Looking at this flag, we want them stamped made in America, made by American workers used here, exported around the world proudly. And this is why the President's industrial strategy incentivizes making it irresistible to manufacture here at home, here in Pennsylvania. And that's why, thanks to the President's Investing in America agenda. The Department of Energy is awarding Butler Works $75 million to decarbonize the production of grain-oriented electrical steel, making your steel among the lowest emissions in the world. It's why your brothers and sisters in Ohio are receiving hundreds of millions as well to retire their blast furnace and install to new electric furnaces, again, the largest in the world. It's why the President last week called for a tripling of tariffs on Chinese steel, but we didn't stop here. The demand for power transformers, which helps deliver obviously, power to homes and businesses that use steel produced here in Butler, that is expected to skyrocket, as you were saying, Jamie. So we buckled down. And we finalized energy efficiency standards for those power transformers to optimize energy efficiency, so we can move more energy over longer distances and to protect American steel manufacturing and American jobs. This process has not been easy. I know. I'm so grateful to this community, our labor partners, UAW, President Goncalves, I'm so grateful to you all for making your voices heard. I'm so grateful that you came to the table that we were working this in partnership. And I hope that you're just as pleased as I am with the outcome. This final rule is going to save the U.S. over $14 billion in energy costs. It's going to slash 85 million metric tons of dangerous carbon dioxide pollution equivalent to the emissions of all the homes in Texas. It provides critical long-term certainty for domestic manufacturing investments and most importantly, it protects jobs. 1,300 union jobs here at Butler Works, 160 union jobs in Zanesville, Ohio, where GOES deal is finished, and we know these are not just numbers. As the President always says, a union job is livelihood. It's more than a paycheck. It does mean food on the table. It does mean the security of a home. It does mean dignity and pride for a community. The President believes that we can grow and decarbonize critical industries like steel and create good-paying high-quality union jobs, not one or the other. We can do both. It is all connected. All of our investments are connected. All of our policies are designed to put American manufacturing and American workers back on top. And guess what, you know what? The strategy is actually working. It's actually working companies have announced over 600 new or expanded factories since the President took office, creating tens of thousands of jobs just in this energy space alone, that's 600 factories in this energy space alone from Lyndora to Las Vegas, from BRADIC to Baton Rouge, from Pittsburgh to Pasadena, the rivers of steel are roaring again. I love that [ note ] for. I cannot wait to see what we built together. I'm so grateful for our federal partners here in Congress. It is critical that their voices have been heard as well. Congressman Deluzio thank you for your fighting for this, Congressman Kelly. So glad that you are here and serving and your voice was heard as well. So glad for your senators who also made their voices heard. I'm so proud to be standing here and be able to say, Butler Works. You are going to stay in business, you're going to stay employed everybody here, and it's going to grow, grow, grow. Thank you so much for your leadership, Mr. President. So glad to be your partner in this, and I'm happy to pass the mic over to another strong UAW representative Region of Director 9 -- Region 9 Director, Daniel Vicente.

How's everybody doing. My name is Daniel Vicente. I sit on the International Executive Board for the United Auto Workers Union. It's an honor to be here today, and it is a wonderful day to be in Butler because collectively, as a team, we just saved 1,300 jobs in this community. We protected not just our UAW members jobs, but the welfare of our families. So this is sort of a microcosm of exactly how the system is supposed to work. UAW Local 3303, saw that there was a problem and they engaged in their democratic system as a small local. They brought it to their President, Jamie Sychak. They voiced their concerns to their elected union officials. He raised those concerns to his union official above him, and we immediately started doing what we're supposed to do, reaching out to politicians and stakeholders, regardless of political class. We see Republicans and Democrats are up here today because job security is not a partisan issue. It's an American issue. American workers have never asked to be handed things. We just want job security. When we stand together, all the stakeholders, labor and management when we communicate effectively and honestly and openly and with respect, there's nothing that we can't do together. When we stand together in these communities and bank our voices heard to our elected officials, they listen, when I got the news that the Butler steel plant was facing this threat, I immediately brought that concern to our International President, Shawn Fain, and Shawn Fain and his role brought it to President Biden, President Biden listen. President Biden used the executive to open up doors for us, allow us to plead our case, allow us to pitch why this is so critically important to our people. And today, I'm proud to stand here and say President Biden came through and saved these jobs. I want to say very much a huge thanks to the Department of Energy. You guys have been great. Even though you couldn't always tell us everything, which has working people frustrated the hell out of us. But we really appreciate you opening doors and listening to working people because we make these products and our employers design these products. We're the ones that know how to do this. And together, there's nothing that we can achieve. So President Goncalves, thank you. Labor management don't always see eye to eye. But when we do, there's no mountain we can't overcome. So thank you, brother for having us here today. I appreciate the time. This is awesome day for Butler. Thank you very much. And with that, I introduce Mr. Congressman, Mr. Mike Kelly.

Really appreciate it. It is really good to be with you today. A couple of years ago, people were raising their voice about what was happening to our Butler Works. What was happening to this deal that we made right here and have been making here for 125 years. So those were moments in time when your voice was heard. Your letters may or may not have been read. 3303 UAW, when your voice has come together, it's not a moment in time, it is a movement. You are the ones that should be getting all the accolades today. Please stand up and cheer for each other because of you, we are here today to say this mill is going to keep on making steel, what an odd concept right here. It's happening right here. It's because of you and your union leadership. I am always fascinated about who shows up when trophies are given up. This never would have happened if it wasn't for all of you, you know that, right? And if there's anybody that doubts why we're here today, if there are anybody that doubts why we're going to continue to make grain-oriented electric steel right here in Butler, Pennsylvania do not look to an administration, do look, but you should look at the steel nation. Do you know how much you've built. Do you know how much you've meant to this country. Do you know how important you are and do you know how long it took for people to say, "You know what, maybe -- maybe this is a mistake what we're doing." Maybe we need to look at what's made us strong. Maybe we need to look what has always been the greatest nation in the world because of opportunity -- equal opportunity, not always equal outcome, but men and women that were willing to get up every day and go to work to make this country stronger and stronger and stronger in this mill for 125 years has never ever failed to answer the call through World Wars, through everything that we have faced is because of the men and women of the United States, Americans who got up every day to make America stronger. I do not need to hear about policy that was wrong headed. What I do need to hear is that all of you will continue to stand any time you think somebody is not paying attention to what and who made America great. You all are phenomenal. I can't tell you how proud I am to represent you. You are the heartbeat of America. You are what made America great and will keep America great going into the future. What a rebirth -- when I look at you all Jamie, [ Erin ], all of you guys, all of you girls. There's no other place in the world that we can come together like this. Chris and I had put some legislation forward, Senators Cruz and Brown made the same efforts, but it wasn't till 3303 UAW stood up and said, "You need to listen not to me but to we." You're tough, you're talented and you are the backbone of America. I can't tell you how proud I am to represent you all and everything that you stand for and everything you mean. Mr. Goncalves, thank you. When I looked at the size and scope of the market for grain-oriented electric steel. It's not decades. It's lifetimes. When we repurpose our ability to move electricity from one point to the next may it always be grain-oriented electric steel that's made in America and not some far up country who we cannot depend on, it is you, it is we that make a difference. Thank you so much. God bless you all. And you know what, 3303, let's keep working. Great job, guys. Now my partner, most of the time, we know what [indiscernible] accuse of that because everything has to be politicized today. Chris Deluzio.

Thank you, Congressman Kelly. We may have our disagreements now. And again, you guys know Congress is pretty divided, but I'm very proud of our work together here for all of your jobs for this facility for our country. I think it matters that you can still see that Congress can achieve some things stand up for people across those party lines. Big welcome Secretary Granholm. It's great to have you here. Great to see UAW out numbers. Lourenco, great to see you and your team here as well. I'm a Western PA guy, born and raised, like a lot of us here, I suspect. We all know some values, right? Hard work, patriotism, sacrifice. It's deep in our bones. These are lessons that we all learn that we all know that we all live. And we know this, too. For generations, our people have made this steel on a lot of other things that have built this country. We've always answered the call to do the hard work to step up to serve in uniform and do the hard jobs across generations. Now that pride in our work hasn't always been respected -- hasn't always been seen the same way we've seen it in boardrooms are down in Washington. We don't know. For decades, we saw bad trade deals. We saw huge corporations plotting the strip us for parts in Western PA. And for too long, politicians, big powerful corporations, drunk on some Wall Street ideology, that chase the cheapest labor, that chase the cheapest and weakest rules that said the only thing that mattered was profit. [ President Biden ] and I had [ shipping ] jobs overseas or trying to [ or met ] $0.01 more in profit. Well, I think I've got some good news and I'm not alone for folks around here. That's not how things are going to go anymore. We're fighting for our jobs and our dignity, and we are winning. And that's what you're seeing right here today. You're seeing workers stand up for their jobs. You're seeing industry stand up. You're seeing politicians help them get it done to protect our jobs and our security in this country. My team and I were not alone in this. We worked -- you heard from Congressman Kelly, you heard us mention our senators, local officials. Congressman Kelly and I started with letter legislation. We had help in the Senate. We had help right here in Butler -- Butler County. And the key thing that matters, you can scream into the wood. We had a secretary who heard us with administration that heard us, and they heard from all of you. Now we celebrate that administration. We celebrate the secretary, we celebrate the President hearing us and respecting Western Pennsylvania jobs and our dignity. And that rule is going to protect not just these jobs today, we'll shore up our grid to meet the energy needs for years and years to come. And ultimately, this new rule, it's so good for grain-oriented electrical steel, it's going to create opportunities for expansion and growth across our region. That's a really big deal. This adds on to the President's announcement in Pittsburgh last week, calling for higher tariffs on steel and aluminum coming from China. And it's clear that Biden administration is committed to supercharging our domestic steel industry and defending and standing up for the union way of life. Well, me to, count me in. That matters in regions like ours. We have to continue this work to keep our good union jobs in this country, in this region to grow our businesses, to strengthen our supply chains, and we also got a whole job stealing trade cheats accountable, and those tariffs speak to exactly that. We can do this while keeping a deep commitment to strengthening our country's energy security, reducing emissions, again, while keeping American businesses and workers right at the center of it all. So I'll keep up that fight. I know how our allies and Congress. It's a fight to [indiscernible] out Western PA throughout Pennsylvania, so we got America, more than it's about any political party. And we all know a win to protect jobs here doesn't happen by any one person doing something. And these workers who I'm looking at standing up are a big part of what we got done -- so we're a lot of local officials right here in Butler County. I have honored to introduce one of those guys, Butler County Commissioner, Kevin Boozel, come on up.

So it's my pleasure to represent the local government, I suppose, but I think that it's a team effort as well. Kim and Leslie and I and Mark and everyone that heard the union speak early, started contacting people every day, writing letters, doing everything we can -- but I can tell you that a lot of that help came from every one of the people that are behind those cameras and the people that work here, the men and women that work here, they give their sweat and tears for this job, and they do it for their families. And it's so critical to me, personally, as being a union son, I also own a union in my past, I can tell you what that means. I know what it means in the '70s and the '80s when Pullman was closing and Johns Manville, where my dad worked at and what it took out of our family and what we gave up. We gave up nearly a home in Meridian. We gave up a lot of luxury that other people enjoyed, but we stuck it up and how do you win this with grit, I love grit. Grit is better than any education I ever received. You don't ever give up. While I may have a smaller soapbox than our fellow congressmen here in our union, I got a little soapbox. But we stack our soapboxes on top of each other, and we get there. And the biggest thing that UAW 3303 has done is stacked or creates all the way to the ceiling. That's how you reach the top. That's how you got to the President. That's how you got to this administration to correct an overzealous role. Now those roles are put out there for a reason. We don't have to agree with them. We don't have to like them. But obviously, we don't want to go back to the '70s, '60s of smog and fog. So there's got to be some kind of a compromise, right? So we've got to work on that. The investment you're making in reducing the carbon is fabulous. The folks that are working here are now ready to work even harder for you Mr. President. I think that they are standing with you. They've stood with you at the harder time. When we heard about the rule, there's several things that got put on hold, including investment. Why would you invest in something that you don't know is going to last 4 years and I can't do it, no blame. Future unknown, employees unknown, unsure if I have a job, we went through this. I'll never forget the pink slip showing up a door of the box 5 days before Thanksgiving in my house because they closed John Manville. And that's how my dad found out they closed. Horrible -- Horrible. What's great about today is you have a union and an owner that work together and sees like that can make it work together every day from here on out, as somebody said lifetimes. You now have a future. You now have familial future. Your kids don't have to leave like they told us in the '80s. You got a lead to get a good job. You don't. They're right here because of plants like yours. We now have better national security. I was at U.S. Steel when the President came in. He gave a shout-out to you. Cliffs to you, President, Mr. President. He gave a shout-out to Butler and Lyndora during his speech. I got to speak to him about his son, who I didn't realize until that day had died from his military experience in Iraq. I had no idea that it was from the burn pits, and that's why he was so excited about getting the burn pit at. We talked about that. He thanked my son's for their service. He also didn't let go of my hand, the secret service guy kept bumping him, but he kept talking. We got to the point we started talking about is cat in the White House. It's where I go. That cat came from Western Pennsylvania, went from the milk house to the White House. Dr. Joe Biden was speaking at a farm in Lawrence County, and it kept walking on the stage with her. So she asked how is that cat. That's how that cat ended up in a White House. True story. There's a book about it you should go read it. My story here is this, we have a lot to be proud of here but it's mostly you. It's our workforce. It's our grit. It's how we make things happen. And we are seeing this administration reinvesting in you, in us, in Western Pennsylvania and the United States. And I thank you every single one of you for making your voice heard don't ever, don't ever, don't ever get complacent. We have to stay there. That's why you have a union. It's why you have you guys, stay with it, be strong, be greedy, get it done. Thank you very much. It is now my pleasure to introduce Mr. Goncalves.

[indiscernible] you are hard to follow at Pennsylvania, it's great to have Congressman Kelly here with me. It's also great to have Congressman Deluzio who has been working with us for this and other things related to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and affecting Cleveland-Cliffs. Without this -- ourselves, we have never met in person until today. So that's how things work when you have the people, the companies, the workers, the communities, the elected officials and the U.S. government all working together, all listened to each other. We are unbeatable when we are together. And today, we don't have just one union here. We have 3. I have my friend Shawn Coffey is here, Shawn, can you please stand up? Shawn is the President of the IAM in Middletown, Ohio, our partners great plant, one of our major plants in -- at Cleveland-Cliffs. We also have Tim Miller. Tim, can you please stand up? Tim is the assistant to the International President of the USW, my dear friend and partner, Dave McCall with whom we are in the middle of a big, big fight for America, for the workers of America for manufacturing in America and for the fight against the complex of inferiority that we keep fighting every day. We don't have anything to learn from anyone. Our technology is the [indiscernible] technology. Our technology is the ones that these guys that now at the other side of the world, they pound their chest and say technology. It's our technology. That's the K on AK steel that was taken to Japan and then it stole to China. We don't have anything to learn. What we need to learn is with ourselves is the UAW, which by the way, has just unionized the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I told Daniel Vicente and Jamie Sychak that to celebrate that, we are no longer shipping is due to Volkswagen in Mexico because it makes no sense to send [ GOES ] to Mexico and then they produce stuff and send back to the United States. Let's send to Tennessee and produce here in America -- that's how companies and workers work together. Unions are needed, unions are necessary. And I don't know where is that part when we don't see it eye to eye because when we are doing the right thing, doing the bid of the country, we got people like Secretary Granholm. She has been present. She has been listening. She has been paying attention in active, making things happen. And that's what we need. We are not republicans, we're not democrats. We're Americans. And we need to understand that what happened here during the '80s and '90s and the early 2000s was wrong, and we are fixing something that was wrong. We are better. It was so reinvigorating to see Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo yesterday on CBS saying we are way ahead in technology on chips. We are way ahead of the Chinese. We need to keep this way. But we need to continue to manufacture here in America. We can work downstream. I also would like to acknowledge the presence of my friend, the CEO of [indiscernible]. Tim can you please stand up. He is the biggest producer of transformers in this country. And as far as I know, there's a shortage of transformers in this country now and we're going to have a bigger shortage as soon as the Infrastructure Act and the IRA and the CHIPS Act continue to produce a consequent -- positive consequences. So I'm working with Tim to make possible to have a new plant producing more transformers -- of course, that will generate more production of grain-oriented electrical steels here in Butler, Pennsylvania and generate more jobs. That's what we should be doing instead of fighting against each other. We don't need to fight against each other. When we fight against each other, China wins, Japan wins, Mexico wins and all these guys, they are not friends. They are not friends. We are more than friends. We are a family. That's why they call themselves brothers and sisters, right? So that's what we are. We are a family, and we want to continue to be family and this government is listening to us at the local level, at the state level, not so long ago as here with Governor Shapiro at the federal level. Our part -- we are happy, Madam Secretary. You said, hope you are happy. We are -- we are because that's what we like to do. We'd like to continue to work. We'd like to continue to generate jobs. We'd like to continue to generate more and more strengths in manufacturing in America. And then we will be back being the envy of the world because that's what we are, the best country in the history of mankind, the best people that almighty god has ever put together. Let's continue to do our thing. Thank you so much. And that ends our program. Thank you so much for being here. It was a great pleasure to have you all.