Cleveland-Cliffs announced Thursday that it will indefinitely close a tin production facility in northern West Virginia and plans to lay off 900 workers after the International Trade Commission voted against imposing tariffs on tin imports.
The trade commission ruled earlier this year that no antidumping or countervailing duties will be imposed on tin products from Canada, China and Germany because those imports do not sufficiently harm the U.S. steel industry. The US Department of Commerce had determined that these products were sold in the United States at less than fair value and were subsidized by the Chinese government.
The trade commission also voted to halt a tariff investigation into tin products shipped from South Korea.
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Antidumping and countervailing duties are imposed on foreign governments that subsidize products so they can be sold below cost.
Cleveland-Cliffs said it will offer severance packages or opportunities for Weirton workers to be relocated to its other facilities. The Cleveland-based company employs 28,000 workers in the United States and Canada.
Weirton is a city of 19,000 residents along the Ohio River, about 40 miles west of Pittsburgh.
Cleveland-Cliffs President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves said the company and the United Steelworkers union “fought tirelessly” to keep the Weirton plant open.
“In what was our final effort to maintain tinplate production here in the United States, we demonstrated that we were forced to operate on an uneven playing field and that the situation was tilted in favor of importers,” Gonçalves said in a statement. . The trade commission's ruling was shocking and made it “impossible for us to viably produce tinplate.”
Cleveland-Cliffs to close tin plant in West Virginia following tariff resolution.
Goncalves added that the trade commission's decision “is a travesty for America, middle-class jobs, and our critical food supply chains. This bad outcome requires better, stronger trade laws. We will continue to work tirelessly with our advocates of Congress who fought with us. In this case, improve trade laws so that American industry and our workers are not left behind.”
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-Va., said the commerce commission turned a “blind eye” to the Cleveland-Cliffs workers.
The plant closure “is an absolute injustice not only to American workers, but to the very principle of fair competition, and will undoubtedly weaken our economic and national security,” Manchin said.
The announcement is the latest blow to the steel industry in northern West Virginia. In 2022, Cleveland-Cliffs announced the closure of a coke manufacturing facility that employed about 280 workers in Follansbee.
The Cleveland-Cliffs tin facility in Weirton was once a nearly 800-acre property operated by Weirton Steel, which employed 6,100 workers in 1994 and filed for bankruptcy in 2003.
International Steel Group purchased Weirton Steel in federal bankruptcy court in 2003. Ownership changed hands again a few years later and eventually became part of Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, which sold its U.S. holdings to Cleveland-Cliffs in 2020. .
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Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, RW.Va., said she was “devastated” by the Cleveland-Cliffs announcement and that the trade commission's decision to reverse the Commerce Department's decision on tariffs on tin products ” remains worrying and will be closely examined.”
