Biden Administration Helps Cleveland-Cliffs Middletown Steel Plant Secure $1.8 Billion
One of Butler County’s oldest companies is looking to the future with $1.8 billion in upgrades that supporters say will add jobs, benefit the environment and ensure long-term stability of the business.
Cleveland-Cliffs Middletown Works, founded as Armco Steel in 1900, plans to invest more than $500 million in federal grants and $1.3 billion in its own funds over a five-year period to upgrade the Middletown plant.
This investment will secure 2,500 jobs at Middletown Works, where the unionized workforce is represented by the International Association of Machinists.
“This is absolutely huge for the men and women who work here, and for the community,” said Shawn Coffey, union president of Local 1943. “It’s a bold statement by the company. This shows that we will be making steel for a lot longer.”
The plant will retire one blast furnace, install two electric melting furnaces and use hydrogen-based ironmaking technology. The project aims to eliminate 1 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year from the largest supplier of steel to the U.S. automotive industry, the company announced last week.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown said the federal partnership with Cleveland-Cliffs will ensure union steelworkers in Middletown remain “at the forefront of the global steel industry. The Cleveland-Cliffs Middletown Works plant will support growing industries in Ohio while creating good-paying jobs, and ensuring that Ohio remains a national leader in manufacturing and innovation.”