Cleveland-Cliffs is rebuilding the blast furnace at its flagship automotive steel plant, and the federal government is covering half.
The company said on Aug. 21 that the Department of Energy had finalized a framework rescoping a previously awarded $500 million grant into a $1 billion project at Middletown Works in Middletown, Ohio. Work begins within weeks. The blast furnace rebuild is targeted for completion in the first quarter of 2030.
What’s in the scope
Four pieces: the blast furnace rebuild itself, upgrades to material-handling infrastructure, AI-enabled process controls, and a new cogeneration facility that captures blast furnace gas and burns it for on-site power.
The cogeneration piece is the one that changes the plant’s economics. Blast furnace gas is a low-calorific byproduct that integrated mills have historically flared or underused. Capturing it for power generation converts a waste stream into an offset against purchased electricity, which is a large line item at a mill running around 3 million tons of raw steel a year.
What it is and isn’t
This preserves capacity rather than adding it. Middletown’s output stays roughly where it is. A blast furnace reline or rebuild is a scheduled overhaul, not an expansion, and the interesting decision is that Cliffs is rebuilding the blast furnace route at all rather than converting to electric arc.
The company’s earlier DOE award contemplated a different technology path. Rescoping it to a conventional rebuild with efficiency upgrades is a bet that automotive-grade flat-rolled steel keeps needing the integrated route for the qualities that electric arc furnaces still struggle to hit consistently.
The construction picture
Cliffs reports a peak construction workforce above 1,500 including local union building trades, and says the project preserves 2,300 jobs. Both figures come from the company’s own release and haven’t been independently verified.
No EPC contractor or construction manager has been named publicly. Blast furnace rebuilds are a specialist market with a short list of qualified refractory and mechanical contractors, and the award will be worth tracking.
Exchange also tracks the Gary Works Blast Furnace 14 reline and the U.S. Steel Mon Valley hot strip mill, both in the same category of work inside operating mills.
Source: Cleveland-Cliffs, Aug. 21, 2026.