CLEVELAND — Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves is big on the future of a new era of manufacturing and the role Cleveland can play in it.
"Cleveland is the center of the resurgency. Cleveland will be leading what in the next 10, 20 years will be a new United States of America," Goncalves said during a forum at the City Club of Cleveland. It's a future he sees the rest of the world looking to replicate.
It's a rebirth Cliffs has been a part of growing from $2 billion in revenue in 2019 to nearly $20 billion in 2024. Goncalves may be best known, though, as the man whose unsolicited bid for U.S. Steel in 2023, with the backing of the United Steelworkers Union, set in motion a saga that is still playing out. The Cliffs deal was rejected by U.S. Steel's board in favor of one from Japanese owned Nippon Steel, a deal the Biden Administration blocked in January for national security reasons. U.S. Steel and Nippon have challenged the ruling in court, but Goncalves told the Cleveland crowd that it will be a question of "not if but when we acquire U.S. Steel."
Goncalves spoke exclusively with News 5 and told me that, with President Trump also against a foreign sale, he sees no path forward for the Nippon deal.
"I believe that it's a matter of time in terms of having a deal with Nippon Steel unraveled," he said. "So they'll have no option, they will have to sell to Cleveland Cliffs."
While most CEOs of Fortune 200 companies tend to weigh their words, Goncalves is not one of them. He tends to tell you what he's thinking, which he did in January while speaking in Pennsylvania, saying if a deal went through, Cliffs would become part of U.S. Steel, with its headquarters being in Pittsburgh.
"I will relocate to Pittsburgh and U.S. Steel will finally have a CEO residing in Pittsburgh," adding that Cliffs' Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel will also be moving because the combined company's "headquarters will be in Pittsburgh."
They were comments that raised local concerns.
Cliffs has been based in Cleveland since its founding in 1847 and is a major corporate partner in the community. Goncalves clarified his remarks to me and said that will not change and he won't be moving.
"Cleveland Cliffs will always be based in Public Square but the Steel company will be headquartered in Pittsburgh," he said. "Cleveland Cliffs will be the holding and U.S. Steel will be part of Cleveland Cliffs."
"My house will still be here, [and] my office will still be on 200 Public Square, so there's no reason for concern. Remember, we acquired AK Steel and never shut down the office in West Chester. We acquired ArcelorMittal USA and we never shut down the office in Chicago and the office in Burns Harbor. So we are good at keeping things in the right spot," said Goncalves. "Actually the [U.S. Steel] office that they have over there right now is a ghost. Everybody works from home, the CEO lives in Illinois, the CFO lives in Connecticut and the General Counsel lives in Florida. So we are going to have people full-time over there, I will be part time over there, I will have an office there but my main office will be here at 200 Public Square Cleveland, 44114."
While the Biden administration blocked the Nippon deal, it delayed the order to be abandoned until June. Goncalves told me U.S. Steel is a different company now, so his offer may not be the same.
"Different environment, different condition of the assets. We need to redo due dilligence because I'm not sure if the status of the assets would warrant my original bid. It would probably be lower," he said.
Goncalves may be waiting, but he is not standing still.
"I'm not in a holding pattern by any stretch. If we were in a holding pattern I would not have acquired Stelco and we initiated the process of acquiring Stelco in August of 2024," he said of the purchase of the Canadian steelmaker last year.
News 5 asked about the move by Ancora Holdings, a Mayfield Heights-based institutional asset management company that is calling on U.S. Steel to drop the merger agreement with Japanese-owned Nippon Steel, end its litigation seeking to keep the deal alive and oust its Chief Executive and replace him with Alan Kestenbaum, the man who previously ran Stelco.
"I'm not familiar with the details but I see the Ancora bid as a confirmation of what I had just said. That there are other alternatives for U.S. Steel, different from selling to Nippon Steel for sure and different from having the stataus quo of the current management, the current board staying there," Goncalves said.
