CLEVELAND — Cleveland-Cliffs President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves has called Northeast Ohio home for more than a decade since taking the helm of the Cleveland-based company in 2014, but if he is able to acquire US Steel, he'll be moving out of state.
"I will relocate to Pittsburgh, and US Steel will finally have a CEO residing in Pittsburgh," Goncalves said Monday during a nearly two-hour news conference in Western Pennsylvania.
He also said 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."
Goncalves also said, "The name of the surviving entity will be the United States Steel Corporation. Cliffs will be part of United States Steel Corporation," he said. "The mining side will be Cleveland Cliffs, the steel side will be United States Steel."
"Not very different than when NationsBank acquired Bank of America," he said. NationsBank decided to keep the name Bank of America because they believe that Bank of America was more powerful than NationsBank. Well, I confess the name United States Steel Corporation must survive."
Goncalves created headlines in August of 2023 when he made an unsolicited bid for US Steel with the backing of the United Steelworkers Union.
It was a bid rejected by the US Steel board but one that opened the door for other offers, which Japanese-owned Nippon stepped up with, and US Steel's Board of Directors accepted.
That brought immediate calls from Democrats and Republicans in Washington, including then Senators Sherrod Brown and JD Vance, for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CIFIUS) to block the deal for national security reasons.
That committee, though, failed to rule either way, leaving the decision to President Biden, who blocked it on Jan. 3.
Nippon and US Steel filed a federal lawsuit challenging that decision and filed a separate suit against Goncalves, Cleveland-Cliffs and the United Steelworkers Union for what the suit claims were illegal and coordinated actions aimed at preventing the deal. Claims Cliffs claimed were a "desperate attempt to distract from their own failures."
Cliffs cannot make a formal bid unless or until Nippon abandoned its plans, a deadline the Biden administration extended over the weekend until June.
"We can't make anything happen until the current management, the current board of US Steel make the decision to abandon... the merger agreement with Nippon Steel," Goncalves said Monday. "Until they do that they can't do anything, we have our hands tied. If I present an offer today they can't take it."
Because of that, nothing is set in ston,e and that's why the Greater Cleveland Partnership tells News 5 they will work to get Goncalves to rethink any decision about potentially moving out of Cleveland.
"From its founding in 1847 to its position today as the second largest steelmaker in North America, Cleveland-Cliffs has been one of our region’s leading companies and contributor to our strong business environment," said GCP CEO Baiju Shah in a statement.
"We applaud the company’s efforts to strengthen US manufacturing and national security through its continued growth as well as its many contributions to our community. With its deep roots here, we strongly believe its headquarters should remain in Cleveland, and we will work with others to make that case to the company."
News 5 reached out to Cleveland-Cliffs for further clarification of Goncalves' comments but did not hear back.
