Cleveland-Cliffs, America’s third-largest steel producer, announced that it intends to shutter—or as it puts it, “suspend indefinitely”—six of its steel plants and coal mines, which will mean the layoff of 2,200 workers, starting June 30.
Cleveland-Cliffs attributes some of the layoffs to a “weak domestic automotive market,” and some of them to the impact of President Trump’s tariffs. But, some of this devolution represents the contraction of the rail industry and the long-term contraction of the U.S. physical economy.
Cleveland-Cliffs announced on May 2 that it will close its plant in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, which does steel plate finishing, laying off 155 workers. It will also close its plant in Riverdale, Illinois, which is a strip mill that produces hot-rolled coil products, employing approximately 275 workers. It will idle a steel plant in Dearborn, Michigan, laying off 600 workers.
Also, Cleveland-Cliffs will idle, in whole or in part, two iron ore mines in Minnesota, axing 630 workers.
Finally, it will close its plant in Steelton, Pennsylvania, which has a 151-year history and has been refurbished several times. This plant forges quality ingots, and blooms principally for railroads and some for industrial applications. It is one of only three U.S. steel plants that manufactures railroad rails. Now it is being “indefinitely” shuttered. Some 560 workers will be laid off. That shutdown has nothing to do with tariffs or the slowdown of the automotive industry.
This is the actual process of the U.S. physical economy, and only a fundamental shift in U.S. policy from top to bottom, towards an anti-entropic economic recovery, within the setting of a new security and development architecture, will save it.
