Steel prices continue to climb

It swings between dizzying highs in which steelmakers can rope in billions of dollars of profits and abysmal lows in which they can post staggering losses just as big, if not bigger.

Steel prices soared to record highs in 2021, started to come back down to earth last year but are now resuming their upward trajectory.

Cleveland-Cliffs, one of the Region's biggest industrial companies, has again raised the price of steel, its fourth price hike in the last month.

The Cleveland-based steelmaker is increasing the price of hot-rolled steel by $100 a ton.

It's now charging a minimum of $1,200 per net ton for its spot market base price for all carbon hot-rolled, cold rolled and coated steel products.

The company, which has operations in East Chicago, Burns Harbor, Gary, Riverdale and New Carlisle, has increased hot-rolled, cold-rolled and coated steel products by a total of $300 over the last month or so.

Cleveland-Cliffs, which has a plate heat treat facility at its Burns Harbor Works steel mill and a plate operation inside U.S. Steel's Gary Works mill in Gary, also just raised the base price of steel plate products that go into Navy ships and other applications by $60 a ton.

Cleveland-Cliffs was a longtime mine operator that dates back to 1847 and long sent iron ore to Northwest Indiana's lakefront steel mills via ore freighters. In late 2020, it acquired its largest customers, ArcelorMittal USA and AK Steel in Ohio, making it the largest flat-rolled steel producer in the United States in the largest round of consolidation for the industry.

The vertically integrated steelmaker does everything across the spectrum of the steelmaking process, from mining, direct reduced iron, ferrous scrap, primary steelmaking, finishing, stamping tooling and tubing. It's now the largest supplier of steel to North America's automotive industry, supplying metal to most major automakers with U.S. production facilities.

The company employs more than 27,000 people, including more than 7,500 at its mills and finishing lines in Northwest Indiana.