Cleveland-Cliffs cites Canadian galvanized-steel import pressure as Stelco lines idle
Cleveland-Cliffs reported stronger quarterly results and optimistic 2027 guidance while flagging import competition behind idled Stelco galvanizing capacity in Hamilton.
Cleveland-Cliffs said it generated US$5.6 billion in third-quarter 2026 revenue and US$612 million in adjusted EBITDA, its strongest quarterly adjusted EBITDA result in three years. The company attributed the sequential improvement to higher shipments and selling prices, alongside lower unit costs, with average net selling prices rising US$53 per net ton from the prior quarter. [1]
The company’s outlook points to a substantially stronger 2027 if its assumptions hold. Management guided to adjusted EBITDA above US$4 billion next year, based on prevailing price forecasts and customer contract renewals already signed. It said those renewals are expected to add more than US$1 billion in year-over-year EBITDA improvement in 2027, while new agreements increasingly include minimum-volume “take or pay” terms. These are company projections rather than realized earnings, and management cautioned that forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. [1]
For Canada, the most direct operational disclosure concerned the galvanized-steel market. Chief executive Lourenco Goncalves said the domestic market could not accommodate Stelco and ArcelorMittal Dofasco alongside substantial imports, and linked those conditions to idled galvanizing lines at Stelco’s Hamilton operation. He also said Stelco had been a negative contributor to Cleveland-Cliffs’ results for more than a year after its acquisition, despite describing a broader recovery in the company’s earnings. [1]
The results underline the uneven nature of the North American steel recovery for Canadian operations. Cleveland-Cliffs recorded 4.2 million net tons of steel product sales in the quarter, up from 4 million in the second quarter, while automotive sales reached US$1.5 billion and their highest shipment level since 2023. Yet the company’s comments on Hamilton indicate that stronger North American pricing and volumes have not resolved the competitive constraints facing Canadian galvanized capacity. [1]
Management is also planning further capital deployment in the United States, including more than US$1 billion in expected 2027 capital expenditures. Its outlined projects include a US$1 billion modernization of Middletown Works and a 25% increase in grain-oriented electrical-steel production at Butler Works. Cleveland-Cliffs also expects to make an additional 500,000 net tons of 2027 shipments available by postponing a Burns Harbor blast-furnace reline until April 2028. [1]
The development is significant for steel-aluminum because it provides a current company-level account of Canadian galvanized-steel capacity being idled amid import competition, while also showing that Cleveland-Cliffs expects stronger North American commercial conditions in 2027. The rating is not higher because the evidence is limited to one company’s earnings call and does not establish a broad change in Canadian sector-wide output, prices, trade policy or import volumes. [1]