Cleveland-Cliffs says Stelco had its ‘strongest quarter,’ says feds need to do more to save jobs

Stelco owner Cleveland-Cliffs said today in its third quarter financial results that the Canadian operation had its strongest quarter since the American steelmaker acquired the Hamilton-based company two years ago. This, despite the company laying off 500 workers across its Hamilton and Lake Erie facilities.

CEO Lourenco Goncalves says the Canadian hot-rolled steel market has improved substantially, turning Stelco into a positive contributor to company earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in the third quarter.

“However, more needs to be done by the Canadian government to correct a clearly oversupplied market for galvanized steel in Canada,” he says.

“As we haven’t seen and do not anticipate any action aimed at improving the unsustainable situation for galvanized steel, we made the difficult but necessary decision to indefinitely idle our galvanizing lines at Stelco.”

“The employees impacted by this will be brought back to work as soon as the current situation improves. In the meantime, as we concentrate on hot rolled products that actually have a market, total production tonnage at Stelco will be maintained, Stelco’s contribution to Cliffs’ EBITDA will further increase and approximately 2,000 Canadian jobs are preserved,” Goncalves says.

The Cleveland-Cliffs’ Third Quarter Report for 2026 says consolidated revenues were $5.6 billion, compared to $5.2 billion in the second quarter of this year.

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For the third quarter of this year, the company recorded net income of $165 million.

The company says this compares to a second quarter 2026 net loss of $134 million.

For the third quarter of this year, the company reported Adjusted EBITDA of $612 million, a $326 million improvement compared to Adjusted EBITDA of $286 million recorded in the second quarter of 2026.

Based on the earnings in the report, a separate breakdown of Canada is not provided.

“Prices are up 66 per cent compared to this time last year,” says McMaster University Economist Colin Mang. “Canadian exports to the United States increased by 30 per cent in the third quarter compared to the second quarter, although they are still down compared to the value in 2025 because of the American tariffs.”

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Even though Cleveland-Cliffs says it’s doing well because of the increase in the hot-rolled steel market prices, it’s still not good news for galvanized and cold rolled steel, where market conditions are much softer.

During a conference call Monday, Goncalves said Stelco had its strongest quarter and praised the Trump administration’s action on trade, and said what Stelco needs is a market to sell galvanized steel instead of financial support.

“If the Canadian government uses the power they already have, they have the ability to unilaterally exercise, to block or severely reduce imports of galvanized steel into the Canadian market,” said Goncalves. “Stelco can immediately bring back all the temporarily laid off workers. ”

But experts say the federal government is in a tough spot.

“The challenge for the Canadian government is that we have free trade agreements with other trading partners in both the Pacific Rim and in the European Union, and by putting further trade restrictions, it would anger those partners at a time that we’re trying to diversify our trade more broadly away from the United States,” said Mang.

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Goncalves also called out Carney over his decision back in January to allow 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles into the Canadian market.

“He is basically snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory and the punishment is not on companies like Stelco or even Cleveland-Cliffs,” said Goncalves. “The punishment was on Canadian workers.”

But the Canadian national director for the Steelworkers Union, Marty Warren, says the CEO should do more for its Canadian division.

“One of which is in championing tariffs against Canada,” said Warren. “Canadian steel is one of the biggest things he could do, and then speak up on behalf of U.S. products that are coming into Canada, taking away our galvanized products, our core products. Why is he not standing up and saying U.S. — I need to protect my Canadian interests.”

According to the union, so far 95 members at the Hamilton plant have been laid off, with more to come on Saturday, where 40 to 50 workers will be let go from the Lake Erie Nanticoke facility.

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