Cleveland-Cliffs
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Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. is a Cleveland, Ohio business firm that specializes in the mining and beneficiation of iron ore. The firm, which believes it is the largest producer of beneficiated iron ore pellets in North America, is an independent company whose shares, as of December 2006, are traded on the New York Stock Exchange. On the same date, the firm stated that it had approximately 4,000 employees and a 28% share of the iron ore pellet market.[1] Its ticker symbol is CLF.
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[edit] History: 1800s
The first predecessor of the firm to come into existence was the Cleveland Iron Mining Company, founded in 1847. Samuel L. Mather and six associates had learned of rich iron ore deposits recently discovered in the highlands of the Upper Peninsula region of Michigan. Soon afterwards, the first Soo Canal opened in 1855, allowing iron ore to be shipped from Lake Superior to Lake Erie.
Technological improvements, such as the Bessemer furnace, made it possible for the North American Great Lakes to produce steel on an industrial scale. The south shore of Lake Erie was close to a supply of coal, making that region an efficient point for the construction of steel mills.
The final decades of the 1800s were a period of business consolidation from the partnership-sized businesses of an earlier generation to a new type of business firm, the stock-market-traded corporation intent on maximizing market share. The former Cleveland Iron Mining Co. was a survivor of this shakeout, purchasing many of its competitors. One key acquisition in 1890, of the Cliffs Iron Company, led the combined firm to change its name to the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company.
The consolidated Cleveland-Cliffs invested substantial sums in its operations to improve the logistics of iron ore transport. In 1892, the firm built the Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad to carry iron ore from the mines directly to company-owned docks on Lake Superior.
[edit] History: 1900s
William G. Mather, the son of Samuel, guided Cleveland-Cliffs as President and later as Chairman of the Board during the period of 1890-1947, participating in the transition from the hard-rock iron ore of Upper Michigan to the soft hematite of Minnesota's Mesabi Range and adjacent lodes.
Under Mather, Cleveland-Cliffs was a leader in the development of the classic-type lake freighter, a bulk-cargo vessel especially designed to carry Great Lakes commodities. The 618-foot (188 m)-long William G. Mather, launched in 1925, is a surviving example of this boat type. For almost a century, the black-hulled Cleveland-Cliffs boats were familiar sights on the upper Lakes.
Demand for American iron ore hit peaks during World War I, World War II, and the consumer boom that followed the second war. As the Cold War continued, reserves of mineable hematite dwindled in northern Minnesota and Cleveland-Cliffs returned some of its focus to its traditional areas of interest around Marquette, Michigan, where new deposits of magnetite were opened.
The period following the recessions of 1974-75 and 1981-83 were harsh ones for the iron ore industry. Cleveland-Cliffs shrank its operations, laid off many of its workers, and withdrew from the Great Lakes shipping industry in 1984.
[edit] The present: 2000s
In the years after 2000, a sharp increase in steel production in China and other developing countries led to a significant upswing in the price of global iron ore. This trend benefited Cleveland-Cliffs after the two lean decades that had preceded it. To remain competitive Cleveland-Cliffs decided to expand globally and to diversify into other minerals, leading to the acquisition of iron ore properties in Brazil and Australia and coal properties in Australia and the US.
The stock of Cleveland Cliffs has appreciated substantially since early 2000. A ten thousand dollar investment in 2003 would be worth nearly a million dollars today.
In June of 2007 Cleveland Cliffs purchased its first domestic coal property. The company, called PinnOak, once belonged to U.S. Steel; it mines coal in Alabama and West Virginia.
The firm has deposited many of its papers, covering transactions prior to 1981, in the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes at Bowling Green State University. [2]
