Taconite demand up; more production on Minnesota's Iron Range

A Cleveland-abased natural resources company based is ramping up its sales goals this year after previously announcing it was boosting production at its United Taconite plant in Minnesota.

[MadeInAmerica]

Keep people working!!!

[steve baker]

Hibbing Taconite, the largest plant Cliffs operates, is still shut down and not expected to open until Spring as of last teport.

[Jabber]

The problem at Hibtac is that it is a joint venture between two steel companies and each can satisfy their needs from their own mines.

[Joe Momma]

Hibbing Taconite is actually a joint venture between 3 companies; Arcelor Mittal which owns approximately 60%, Cliffs Natural Resources (Cleveland Cliffs) which owns 23% but is the managing partner and US Steel which owns 17%. Arcelor Mittal is the largest steel maker in the world, however they own and operate the smallest of the taconite plants on the Iron Range (Former Ipsat, Inland, etc.) and haven't seen enough of an uptick to justify reopening HibTac to share profits with two competitors.

[Big Al]

Because ArcelorMittal is the majority owner, normally most of Hibbing Taconite's pellets are dedicated to ArcelorMittal's Burns Harbor steel plant. ArcelorMittal has reduced production at Burns Harbor to one third of capacity. United Taconite (wholly owned by Cliffs Natural Resources) recently announced it would increase production for the remainder of 2009. It appears that United Taconite is now supplying the reduced needs of Burns Harbor. I would guess that this is because it is more economical to operate a smaller plant at full production than a larger plant at partial production.