clf-20211231

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K


			☒			ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021


			☐			TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from to

Commission File Number: 1-8944

CLEVELAND-CLIFFS INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Ohio

34-1464672

(State or Other Jurisdiction of
Incorporation or Organization)

(I.R.S. Employer
Identification No.)

200 Public Square,

Cleveland,

Ohio

44114-2315

(Address of Principal Executive Offices)

(Zip Code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (216) 694-5700

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class

Trading Symbol(s)

Name of each exchange on which registered

Common Shares, par value $0.125 per share

CLF

New York Stock Exchange

Securities registered pursuant to section 12(g) of the Act: NONE

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☒ NO ☐

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.


Large accelerated filer	☒	Accelerated filer	☐
Non-accelerated filer	☐	Smaller reporting company	☐
		Emerging growth company	☐

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☒

As of June 30, 2021, the aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common shares held by non-affiliates of the registrant, based on the closing price of $21.56 per share as reported on the New York Stock Exchange — Composite Index, was $10,636,421,962 (excluded from this figure are the voting shares beneficially owned by the registrant’s officers and directors).

The number of shares outstanding of the registrant’s common shares, par value $0.125 per share, was 525,409,705 as of February 10, 2022.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s proxy statement for its 2022 annual meeting of shareholders are incorporated by reference into Part III.

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page Number

DEFINITIONS

PART I

Item 1.

Business

Information About Our Executive Officers

Item 1A.

Risk Factors

Item 1B.

Unresolved Staff Comments

Item 2.

Properties

Item 3.

Legal Proceedings

Item 4.

Mine Safety Disclosures

PART II

Item 5.

Market for Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Item 6.

[Reserved]

Item 7.

Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

Item 7A.

Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

Item 8.

Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

Item 9.

Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure

142

Item 9A.

Controls and Procedures

142

Item 9B.

Other Information

145

Item 9C.

Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections

145

PART III

Item 10.

Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance

146

Item 11.

Executive Compensation

146

Item 12.

Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters

146

Item 13.

Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence

146

Item 14.

Principal Accountant Fees and Services

146

PART IV

Item 15.

Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules

147

Item 16.

Form 10-K Summary

152

SIGNATURES

153

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DEFINITIONS

The following abbreviations or acronyms are used in the text. References in this report to the “Company,” “we,” “us,” “our” and “Cliffs” are to Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. and subsidiaries, collectively. References to “$” is to United States currency.


Abbreviation or acronym						Term
4.625% 2029 Senior Notes						4.625% Senior Guaranteed Notes due 2029 issued by Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. on February 17, 2021 in an aggregate principal amount of $500 million
4.875% 2031 Senior Notes						4.875% Senior Guaranteed Notes due 2031 issued by Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. on February 17, 2021 in an aggregate principal amount of $500 million
2012 Amended Equity Plan						Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. 2012 Incentive Equity Plan, as amended or amended and restated from time to time
2020 Acquisitions						The AK Steel Merger and AM USA Transaction, collectively
2021 Equity Plan						Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. 2021 Equity and Incentive Compensation Plan
A&R 2015 Equity Plan						Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. Amended and Restated 2015 Equity and Incentive Compensation Plan
ABL Facility						Asset-Based Revolving Credit Agreement, dated as of March 13, 2020, among Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., the lenders party thereto from time to time and Bank of America, N.A., as administrative agent, as amended as of March 27, 2020, December 9, 2020 and December 17, 2021, and as may be further amended from time to time
Adjusted EBITDA						EBITDA, excluding certain items such as EBITDA of noncontrolling interests, extinguishment of debt, severance, acquisition-related costs, acquisition-related loss on equity method investment, amortization of inventory step-up, impacts of discontinued operations and intersegment corporate allocations of selling, general and administrative costs
AG						Autogenous grinding
AHSS						Advanced high-strength steel

AK Steel						AK Steel Holding Corporation (n/k/a Cleveland-Cliffs Steel Holding Corporation) and its consolidated subsidiaries, including AK Steel Corporation (n/k/a Cleveland-Cliffs Steel Corporation), its direct, wholly owned subsidiary, collectively, unless stated otherwise or the context indicates otherwise
AK Steel Merger						The merger of Merger Sub with and into AK Steel, with AK Steel surviving the merger as a wholly owned subsidiary of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Merger Agreement, consummated on March 13, 2020
AK Steel Merger Agreement						Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of December 2, 2019, among Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., AK Steel and Merger Sub
AM USA Transaction						The acquisition of ArcelorMittal USA, consummated on December 9, 2020
AM USA Transaction Agreement						Transaction Agreement, dated as of September 28, 2020, by and between Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. and ArcelorMittal

ANSI						American National Standards Institute
AOCI						Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss)
APBO						Accumulated postretirement benefit obligation
ArcelorMittal						ArcelorMittal S.A., a company organized under the laws of Luxembourg and the former ultimate parent company of ArcelorMittal USA
ArcelorMittal USA						Substantially all of the operations of the former ArcelorMittal USA LLC, its subsidiaries and certain affiliates, and Kote and Tek, collectively
ASC						Accounting Standards Codification
ASTM						American Society for Testing and Materials
ASU						Accounting Standards Update
BART						Best available retrofit technology
BNSF						Burlington Northern Santa Fe, LLC
Board						The Board of Directors of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.
BOF						Basic Oxygen Furnace
CAFE						Corporate Average Fuel Economy
CARES Act						Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act
CECL						Current expected credit losses
CERCLA						Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980
CFR						Cost and freight
Clean Water Act						Federal Water Pollution Control Act
CN						Canadian National Railway Company
Compensation Committee						Compensation and Organization Committee of the Board
COVID-19						A novel strain of coronavirus that the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic in March 2020
Directors’ Plan						Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. 2021 Nonemployee Directors’ Compensation Plan
Dodd-Frank Act						Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
DOE						U.S. Department of Energy
DR-grade						Direct reduction-grade
EAF						Electric arc furnace
EBITDA						Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization

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Abbreviation or acronym						Term
EDC						Export Development Canada
EGLE						Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy
Empire						Iron ore mining property owned by Empire Iron Mining Partnership, an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Cliffs
EPA						U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
EPS						Earnings per share
ERISA						Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended
EV						Electric vehicle
Exchange Act						Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended
FASB						Financial Accounting Standards Board
FCA						Financial Conduct Authority (the authority that regulates LIBOR)
Fe						Iron
FeT						Total iron
FILO						First-in, last-out
FIP						Federal implementation plan

Former ABL Facility						Amended and Restated Syndicated Facility Agreement, dated as of March 30, 2015, among Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., the subsidiary borrowers party thereto, the lenders party thereto and Bank of America, N.A., as administrative agent, as amended and restated as of February 28, 2018, and as further amended, which was terminated on March 13, 2020 in connection with entering into the ABL Facility
FPT						Ferrous Processing and Trading Company, including certain related entities
FPT Acquisition						The purchase of FPT, subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the FPT Acquisition Agreement
FPT Acquisition Agreement						Securities Purchase Agreement, dated as of October 8, 2021, by and between Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. and Anthony Soave Revocable Trust u/a/d January 14, 1987, as amended and restated
GAAP						Accounting principles generally accepted in the United States
GHG						Greenhouse gas
GOES						Grain oriented electrical steel
HBI						Hot briquetted iron
Hibbing						Iron ore mining property owned by Hibbing Taconite Company, an unincorporated joint venture between subsidiaries of Cliffs and U.S. Steel
HRC						Hot-rolled coil steel
HVAC						Heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment
IAM						International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
IBA						ICE Benchmark Administration Limited (the entity that calculates and publishes LIBOR)
IRB						Industrial Revenue Bond
IRC						U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended
ISO						International Organization for Standardization
IT						Information technology
JSW Steel						JSW Steel (USA) Inc. and JSW Steel USA Ohio, Inc., collectively
Kote and Tek						Cleveland-Cliffs Kote L.P. and Cleveland-Cliffs Tek L.P., collectively
LIBOR						London Interbank Offered Rate
LIFO						Last-in, first-out
LoM						Life-of-mine
Long ton						2,240 pounds
LS&I						Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad Company
Merger Sub						Pepper Merger Sub Inc., a direct, wholly owned subsidiary of Cliffs prior to the AK Steel Merger
Metric ton						2,205 pounds
Minorca						Iron ore mining property owned by Cleveland-Cliffs Minorca Mine Inc. (f/k/a ArcelorMittal Minorca Mine Inc.), an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Cliffs acquired in connection with the AM USA Transaction
MMBtu						Million British Thermal Units
MPCA						Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
MSHA						Mine Safety and Health Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor
NAV						Net asset value
Net ton						2,000 pounds
NOL						Net operating loss
NOVs						Notices of violations
NOx						Nitrogen oxide
NOES						Non-oriented electrical steel

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Abbreviation or acronym						Term
Northshore						Iron ore mining property owned by Northshore Mining Company, a direct, wholly owned subsidiary of Cliffs
NPDES						National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, authorized by the Clean Water Act
NWPR						Navigable Waters Protection Rule
NYSE						New York Stock Exchange
OPEB						Other postretirement benefits
OSHA						Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor
PBO						Projected benefit obligation
PHS						Press-hardened steel
Platts 62% price						Platts IODEX 62% Fe Fines CFR North China
PPI						Producer Price Indices

QA/QC						Quality assurance/quality control
QP						Qualified person, within the meaning set forth in Item 1300 of Regulation S-K
RCRA						Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
RI/FS						Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study

S&P						Standard & Poor's
SEC						U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Second ABL Amendment						Second Amendment to Asset-Based Revolving Credit Agreement, dated as of December 9, 2020, among Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., the lenders party thereto from time to time and Bank of America, N.A., as administrative agent
Section 232						Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (as amended by the Trade Act of 1974)
Securities Act						Securities Act of 1933, as amended
SIP						State Implementation Plan
SLR						SLR International Corporation
SOFR						Secured Overnight Financing Rate
STRIPS						Separate Trading of Registered Interest and Principal of Securities
SunCoke Middletown						Middletown Coke Company, LLC, a subsidiary of SunCoke Energy, Inc.
Third ABL Amendment						Third Amendment to Asset-Based Revolving Credit Agreement, dated as of December 17, 2021, among Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., the lenders party thereto from time to time and Bank of America, N.A., as administrative agent
Tilden						Iron ore mining property owned by Tilden Mining Company L.C., an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Cliffs
TMDL						Total maximum daily load
Tooling and Stamping						Cleveland-Cliffs Tooling and Stamping Holdings LLC (f/k/a PPHC Holdings, LLC), an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Cliffs, together with its subsidiaries
Topic 805						ASC Topic 805, Business Combinations
Topic 815						ASC Topic 815, Derivatives and Hedging
TSR						Total shareholder return
Tubular Components						Cleveland-Cliffs Tubular Components LLC (f/k/a AK Tube LLC), an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Cliffs
United Taconite						Iron ore mining property owned by United Taconite LLC, an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Cliffs
U.S.						United States of America
U.S. Steel						United States Steel Corporation and its subsidiaries, collectively, unless stated otherwise or the context indicates otherwise
UAW						United Auto Workers
USMCA						United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement
USW						United Steelworkers
VEBA						Voluntary employee benefit association trusts
VIE						Variable interest entity
WLT						Wet long ton

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PART I


Item 1.			Business

Introduction

Cliffs is the largest flat-rolled steel producer in North America. Founded in 1847 as a mine operator, we are also the largest manufacturer of iron ore pellets in North America. We are vertically integrated from mined raw materials, direct reduced iron and ferrous scrap to primary steelmaking and downstream finishing, stamping, tooling and tubing. We are the largest supplier of steel to the automotive industry in North America and serve a diverse range of other markets due to our comprehensive offering of flat-rolled steel products. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, we employ approximately 26,000 people across our operations in the United States and Canada.

On November 18, 2021, we completed the acquisition of FPT, a leading prime ferrous scrap processor in the U.S. These operations consist of 22 scrap processing facilities, primarily in the Midwest region of the United States. The FPT Acquisition bolsters our raw materials position by securing access to prime scrap, which will allow us to optimize productivity at our existing EAFs and BOFs.

Competitive Strengths

As the largest flat-rolled steel producer in North America, we benefit from having the size and scale necessary in a competitive, capital intensive business. Our sizeable operating footprint provides us with the operational leverage, flexibility and cost performance to achieve competitive margins throughout the business cycle. We also have a unique vertically integrated profile from mined raw materials, direct reduced iron, and ferrous scrap to primary steelmaking and downstream finishing, stamping, tooling and tubing. This positioning gives us both lower and more predictable costs throughout the supply chain and more control over both our manufacturing inputs and our end product destination.

Our legacy business of producing iron ore pellets, which is our primary steelmaking raw material input, is another competitive advantage. By controlling our iron ore pellet supply, our primary steelmaking raw material feedstock can be secured at a stable and predictable cost and not be subject to as many factors outside of our control.

The FPT Acquisition gives us a competitive advantage in sourcing prime scrap, as we expect to leverage our long-standing flat-rolled automotive and other customer relationships into recycling partnerships to further grow our prime scrap presence. Additionally, FPT has 22 facilities located primarily in the Midwest near our steel facilities, which gives us an increased advantage in logistics.

We are also the largest supplier of automotive-grade steel in the U.S. Compared to other steel end markets, automotive steel is generally higher quality and more operationally and technologically intensive to produce. As such, it often generates higher through-the-cycle margins, making it a desirable end market for the steel industry. Given the strong demand and market environment in 2021, we were able to significantly improve our fixed price contracts, which should benefit us throughout 2022. Demand for our automotive-grade steel is expected to increase with pent-up automotive demand as a result of the semiconductor shortage. Automotive customers have requested higher volumes in contract negotiations compared to the prior year, which we believe is a sign of the semiconductor shortage easing. With our continued technological innovation, as well as leading delivery performance, we expect to remain the leader in supplying this industry.

We are the only producers of both GOES and NOES in the U.S. The recently passed Infrastructure and Jobs Act of 2021 in the U.S. provides funding to be used for the modernization of the electrical grid and the infrastructure needed to allow for increased EV adoption, both of which require our electrical steels. As a result, with increased demand for both transformers and motors for EVs, we expect to benefit from this position in what is currently a rapidly growing market.

We believe we offer the most comprehensive flat-rolled steel product selection in the industry, along with several complementary products and services. A sampling of our offering includes AHSS, hot-dipped galvanized, aluminized, galvalume, electrogalvanized, galvanneal, HRC, cold-rolled coil, plate, tinplate, GOES, NOES, stainless steels, tool and die, stamped components, rail, slab and cast ingot. Across the quality spectrum and the supply chain, our customers can frequently find the solutions they need from our product selection.

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We are the first and the only producer of HBI in the Great Lakes region. Construction of our Toledo direct reduction plant was completed in the fourth quarter of 2020 and reached full run-rate nameplate annual capacity of 1.9 million metric tons during the middle of 2021. From this modern plant, we produce a high-quality, low-cost and low-carbon intensive HBI product that can be used in our blast furnaces and as a productivity enhancer in our BOFs and EAFs as a scrap alternative. We can use HBI to stretch our hot metal production, lowering carbon intensity and reliance on coke. As a result of our internal usage of HBI, coupled with our ongoing evaluation of coke use strategies, we idled our coke facility at Middletown Works during the third quarter of 2021 and we intend to permanently idle our Mountain State Carbon coke plant in the second quarter of 2022. With increasing tightness in the scrap market and our own internal needs for scrap and metallics, we expect our Toledo direct reduction plant to support healthy margins for us going forward.

Strategy

Maximize Our Commercial Strengths

We offer a full suite of flat steel products encompassing all steps of the steel manufacturing process. We have an industry-leading market share in the automotive sector, where our portfolio of high-end products delivers a broad range of differentiated solutions for this highly sought after customer base.

As a result of our exposure to these high-end markets, we have the highest fixed price contractual volumes in our industry. Approximately 45% of our volumes are sold under these contracts. These contracts reduce volatility and allow for more predictable through-cycle margins. Our fixed contract values are expected to dramatically improve in 2022 compared to 2021.

We are also proponents of the “value over volume” approach in terms of steel supply. We take our leadership role in the industry very seriously and intend to manage our steel output in a responsible manner. In the fourth quarter of 2021, we elected to pull forward repairs and maintenance to match automotive demand that was negatively impacted by the semiconductor shortage. Going forward, we will continue to use our operational flexibility to align with our “value over volume” approach in terms of steel supply.

Optimize Our Fully Integrated Steelmaking Footprint

We are a fully-integrated steel enterprise with the size and scale to achieve margins above industry averages for flat-rolled steel. Our focus remains on both maintaining and enhancing our cost advantage while also lowering carbon emissions. The combination of our ferrous raw materials, including iron ore, scrap, and HBI, allows us to do so relative to peers who must rely on more unpredictable and unreliable raw material sourcing strategies.

In 2022, we intend to use more scrap and HBI in our melting processes to stretch our production of liquid pig iron from traditional inputs. The use of higher amounts of these raw materials in our blast furnaces ultimately boosts liquid steel output, which will reduce coke needs and lower carbon emissions from our operations. With our acquisition of FPT, we have ample access to scrap along with internally sourced HBI.

Expand our Ferrous Scrap Recycling Presence

Throughout our entire footprint, we consume a very significant amount of scrap in our EAFs and BOFs, more than half of which can now be obtained through internal sources. Prime scrap is a byproduct of industrial manufacturing. As manufacturing in the U.S. has moved offshore and yields have improved, prime scrap supply has been shrinking for the last 50 years. As the steel industry continues to increase its focus on decarbonization and brings new flat-rolled EAF capacity online over the next five years, securing additional access to prime scrap will continue to be an important strategic initiative.

Our expansion in this area began with the FPT Acquisition and will continue to grow by pairing FPT's processing capabilities with our long-standing customer relationships. As the largest supplier of flat-rolled steel in North America, we are the largest source of the steel that generates prime scrap in manufacturing facilities. Based on this, we seek to leverage our long-standing flat-rolled automotive and other customer relationships into recycling partnerships to grow our prime scrap presence. The FPT Acquisition allows us to optimize productivity at our existing EAFs and BOFs, as we have no current plans to add additional steelmaking capacity.

Advance our Participation in the Green Economy

We are seeking to expand our customer base with the rapidly growing and desirable electric vehicle market. At this time, we believe the North American automotive industry is approaching a structural inflection point, with the adoption of electrical motors in passenger vehicles. As this market grows, it will require more advanced steel

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applications to meet the needs of electric vehicle producers and consumers. With our unique technical capabilities and leadership in the automotive industry, we believe we are positioned better than any other North American steelmaker to supply the steel and parts necessary to fill these needs.

We also have the right products to meet the growing demand for renewable energy as well as for the modernization of the U.S. electrical grid. We offer plate products that can be used in windmills, which we estimate contain 130 tons of steel per megawatt of electricity. In addition, panels for solar power are heavy consumers of galvanized steel, where we are a leading producer. We estimate solar panels consume 40 tons of steel per megawatt of electricity.

We are currently the sole producer of electrical steel in the U.S., which can facilitate the modernization of the U.S. electrical grid. Along with charging networks, electrical steels are also needed in the motors of electric vehicles.

Enhance our Environmental Sustainability

Our commitment to operating our business in a more environmentally responsible manner remains constant. One of the most important issues impacting our industry, our stakeholders and our planet is climate change. In early 2021, we announced our commitment to reduce GHG emissions 25% from 2017 levels by 2030. This goal represents combined Scope 1 (direct) and Scope 2 (indirect) GHG emission reductions across all of our operations.

Prior to setting this goal with our newly acquired steel assets, we exceeded our previous GHG reduction target at our legacy facilities six years ahead of our 2025 goal. In 2019, we reduced our combined Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions by 42% on a mass basis from 2005 baseline levels. Our goal is to further reduce those emissions in coming years.

Additionally, many of our steel assets have improved plant and energy efficiency through participation in programs like the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Plants program, including their Better Climate Challenge and the EPA’s Energy Star program. With our longstanding focus on plant and energy efficiency, we aim to build on our previous successes across our newly integrated enterprise.

Our GHG reduction commitment is based on executing the following five strategic priorities:

•Developing domestically sourced, high quality iron ore feedstock and utilizing natural gas in the production of HBI;

•Implementing energy efficiency and clean energy projects;

•Investing in the development of carbon capture technology;

•Enhancing our GHG emissions transparency and sustainability focus; and

•Supporting public policies that facilitate GHG reduction in the domestic steel industry.

Improve Financial Flexibility

Given the cyclicality of our business, it is important to us to be in the financial position to easily withstand any negative demand or pricing pressure we may encounter. During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to issue secured debt to provide insurance capital through the uncertain industry conditions caused by the pandemic. Now that business conditions have improved, allowing us to generate a healthy free cash flow during 2021 that is expected to continue into 2022, we have the ability to reduce debt, return capital to shareholders through our share repurchase program and make investments to both improve and grow our business. We have also been able to reduce our diluted share count and effectively return capital to shareholders via the cash redemption of our Series B Participating Redeemable Preferred Stock during the third quarter of 2021.

We anticipate that a strong market environment and significantly improved fixed price contracts will provide us ample opportunities to reduce our debt with our own free cash flow generation in the coming years. We will also continue to review the composition of our debt, as we are interested in both extending our average maturity profile and increasing our ratio of unsecured debt to secured debt, which we demonstrated by executing a series of favorable debt and equity capital markets transactions during February 2021. In addition, in June 2021, we redeemed all $396 million aggregate principal amount outstanding of our 5.750% 2025 Senior Notes. In December 2021, we increased our liquidity by amending our ABL Facility to increase the aggregate revolver commitments from $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion. These actions give us additional financial flexibility and will better prepare us to navigate more easily through

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potentially volatile industry conditions in the future. In January 2022, we redeemed all $294 million aggregate principal amount outstanding of our 1.500% 2025 Convertible Senior Notes.

Business Operations

We have a vertically integrated portfolio, which begins at the mining stage and goes all the way through the manufacturing of steel products, including stamping, tooling and tubing. We have the unique advantage as a steel producer of being fully or partially self-sufficient with our production of raw materials for steel manufacturing, which includes iron ore pellets, HBI, scrap and coking coal. We operate iron ore mines in Michigan and Minnesota, which produce iron ore pellets, and a direct reduction plant in Ohio that produces HBI. Additionally, with our recently completed FPT Acquisition, we now operate scrap facilities in Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Florida and Ontario. We also operate a coal mining complex in West Virginia and produce coke from our facilities in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana and West Virginia.

We believe such vertical integration represents a sustainable business model that is in the best interest of all stakeholders and the surest way to secure a long-term competitive advantage. We are focused on securing additional access to prime scrap as the steel industry continues to increase its focus on decarbonization and with demand coming from new flat-rolled EAF capacity set to come online over the next five years. We continue to strive to operate responsibly and produce cleaner steel, which is the most recycled material on the planet. Additionally, our investment in the Toledo direct reduction plant, which was completed in the fourth quarter of 2020, also helps to support environmental stewardship, as the increased use of HBI in our blast furnaces stretches liquid steel output, which reduces coke needs and emissions. From a focus on key environmental processes, such as steel recycling and reduction of carbon emissions, to corporate and social responsibility, sustainability is central to our values and operations.

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The following table lists our steel producing and finishing properties, their location and their products and services:

Property

Segment

State/ Province

Products and Services

Burns Harbor

Steelmaking

Indiana

Hot-rolled, cold-rolled, and hot-dipped galvanized sheet and coke

Burns Harbor Plate and Gary Plate

Steelmaking

Indiana

Carbon steel plate, high-strength low alloy steel plate, ASTM grades steel plate

Butler Works

Steelmaking

Pennsylvania

Flat-rolled electrical and stainless steel, stainless and carbon semi-finished slabs

Cleveland

Steelmaking

Ohio

Hot-rolled and hot-dipped galvanized sheet

Coatesville

Steelmaking

Pennsylvania

Steel plate - carbon, high-strength low-alloy, commercial allow, military alloy, flame-cut

Columbus

Steelmaking

Ohio

Hot-dipped galvanized steel

Conshohocken

Steelmaking

Pennsylvania

Coiled and discrete plate, military alloy, commercial alloy, heat-treated carbon

Coshocton Works

Steelmaking

Ohio

Flat-rolled stainless steel

Dearborn Works

Steelmaking

Michigan

Carbon semi-finished slabs, hot-dipped galvanized, AHSS

Indiana Harbor

Steelmaking

Indiana

Carbon semi-finished slabs, hot-rolled, cold-rolled and hot-dipped galvanized sheet

Kote and Tek

Steelmaking

Indiana

Cold-rolled, hot-dipped galvanized and galvannealed, electrogalvanized coil

Mansfield Works

Steelmaking

Ohio

Semi-finished hot bands, high chrome ferritic and martensitic stainless steels

Middletown Works

Steelmaking

Ohio

Hot-rolled, cold-rolled, hot-dipped galvanized, aluminized sheet and coke

Piedmont

Steelmaking

North Carolina

Plasma - cuts plate steel products into blanks

Riverdale

Steelmaking

Illinois

Hot-rolled sheet

Rockport Works

Steelmaking

Indiana

Cold-rolled carbon, coated and stainless steels

Steelton

Steelmaking

Pennsylvania

Railroad rails, specialty blooms, flat bars and cast ingots

Weirton

Steelmaking

West Virginia

Tinplate, cold-rolled sheet

Zanesville Works

Steelmaking

Ohio

Electrical steels

Our Other Businesses primarily includes the Tubular Components and Tooling and Stamping properties that provide customer solutions with carbon and stainless steel tubing products, advanced-engineered solutions, tool design and build, hot- and cold-stamped steel components, and complex assemblies.

Refer to Part I - Item 2. Properties for additional information.

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Customers and Markets

We primarily sell our products to customers in four broad market categories: automotive; infrastructure and manufacturing, which includes electrical power; distributors and converters; and steel producers, which consume iron ore and metallics and further process semi-finished materials. The following table presents the percentage of our net revenues to each of these markets during the year:


Market	2021		2020
Automotive	25	%	45	%
Infrastructure and manufacturing	27	%	15	%
Distributors and converters	38	%	13	%
Steel producers	10	%	27	%

The change in percentages of net revenues to each market in 2021 compared to 2020 was driven primarily by the AM USA Transaction, which increased overall sales to automotive customers, but reduced the total percentage exposure, increased exposure to infrastructure and manufacturing and distributors and converters customers, and drove more in-house iron ore sales, which reduced the percentage of sales to steel producers.

Approximately 45% of our flat-rolled steel shipments are sold under fixed base price contracts. These contracts are typically one year in duration and expire at various times throughout the year. Some of these contracts have a surcharge mechanism that passes through certain changes in input costs. A certain portion of our flat-rolled steel shipments are sold based on the spot market at prevailing market prices or under contracts that involve variable pricing that is tied to an independently published steel index.

We sell our steel products principally to customers in North America. For the vast majority of international sales, we are not the importer of record and do not bear the responsibility for paying any applicable tariffs.

Automotive Market

We specialize in manufacturing difficult-to-produce, high-quality steel products, combined with demanding delivery performance, customer technical support and collaborative relationships, to develop breakthrough steel solutions that help our customers meet their product requirements. In addition, many of our competitors do not have the capability to supply the full portfolio of products that we make for our automotive customers, such as steel for exposed automotive applications, the most sophisticated grades of AHSS and value-added stainless steel products. The exacting requirements for servicing the automotive market generally allows for higher selling prices for products sold to that market than for the commodity types of carbon and stainless steels sold to other markets.

The largest end user for our steel products is the automotive industry in North America, which makes light vehicle production a key driver of demand. During 2021, North American light vehicle production was 13 million units, the same as the prior year. Production each of the past two years was down 3 million units compared to the prior ten-year average primarily due to the global semiconductor shortage, as well as other material shortages and supply chain disruptions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. This has caused several outages amongst light vehicle manufacturers despite strong consumer demand. In light of these production outages, we have been able to redirect certain volumes originally intended for this end market to the spot market, where demand has been strong and pricing has reached all-time highs.

Furthermore, during 2021, consumer demand for sport utility vehicles, trucks and crossovers continued to increase while demand for smaller sedans and compact cars declined. We benefit from intentionally targeting larger vehicle platforms to take advantage of consumer preferences, and we have focused on and have been successful in getting sourced on numerous sport utility vehicle, truck, crossover and larger vehicle platforms. As a result, a significant portion of the carbon automotive steel that we sell is used to produce these popular larger vehicles. In addition to benefiting from our exposure to consumers’ strong demand for larger vehicles, these vehicles also typically contain a higher volume of steel than smaller sedans and compact cars, providing us the opportunity to sell a greater proportion of our steel products to our automotive customers.

Automotive manufacturers are under pressure to achieve heightened federally mandated CAFE standards. The CAFE standards generally require automobile manufacturers to meet an average fuel economy goal across the fleet of vehicles they produce with certain milestone dates. As a result, our automotive customers continue to explore various avenues for achieving the standards, including light weighting components and developing more fuel-efficient engines. Light weighting efforts include the use of alternatives to traditional carbon steels, such as AHSS and other materials. While this could reduce the aggregate volume of steel consumed by the automotive industry, we expect

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that demand will increase for current and next-generation AHSS and that our AHSS and other innovative steels will command higher margins. We are collaborating with our automotive customers and their suppliers to develop innovative solutions using our developments in light weighting, efficiency, and material strength and formability across our extensive product portfolio, in combination with our automotive stamping and tube-making capabilities. We are also working with our customers to develop steels with greater heat resistance for exhaust systems that support new, fuel-efficient engines that run at higher temperatures.

Automotive manufacturers have also been increasing their development of EVs and battery electric vehicles in order to meet the CAFE standards and growing customer adoption of EVs. Many motors used in EVs being sold in the U.S. today are imported from foreign suppliers, but more local sourcing and manufacturing of motors is expected to occur in the future. As the only North American producer of high-efficiency NOES, which is a critical component of EV motors, we are positioned to potentially benefit from the growth of EVs going forward. We believe our strong foundation in electrical steels and long-standing relationships with automotive manufacturers and their suppliers will provide us with an advantage in this market as it continues to grow and mature. Likewise, the growing customer adoption of EVs may also increase demand for improvements in the electric grid to support higher demand for more extensive battery charging, which our GOES could support.

The majority of our sales to the automotive market are under annual fixed price contracts. In 2022, our selling prices to this end market will be substantially higher as a result of favorable renewals. The improved prices in our fixed price contracts were driven by stronger market conditions and our unique product offering of automotive grade steel.

Infrastructure and Manufacturing Market

We sell a variety of our steel products, including plate, carbon, stainless, electrical, tinplate and rail, to the infrastructure and manufacturing market. This market includes sales to manufacturers of HVAC, appliances, power transmission and distribution transformers, storage tanks, ships and railcars, wind towers, machinery parts, heavy equipment, military armor, food preservation, and railway lines. Domestic construction activity and the replacement of aging infrastructure directly affects sales of steel to this market. Residential construction spending surged in 2021 due to overwhelming demand for new houses. Nonresidential construction spending was slightly down in 2021; however, the sector saw a surge in spending in the second half of the year and will likely continue into 2022 with the passing of the Infrastructure and Jobs Act of 2021. The Infrastructure and Jobs Act of 2021 will likely also increase demand for steel products related to renewable energy, as well as the modernization of the U.S. electrical grid. Our plate products can be used in windmills, which we estimate contain 130 metric tons of steel per megawatt of electrical generating capacity. Additionally, we estimate solar panels consume 40 metric tons of steel per megawatt of electrical generating capacity. We also expect to see an increase in charging stations for EVs which we will benefit from as we are the sole producer of electrical steel in the U.S.

Sales to this end market are made under a combination of annual fixed price contracts and index-linked pricing arrangements. Our selling prices under our annual fixed price contracts will be substantially higher in 2022 as a result of favorable renewals.

Distributors and Converters Market

Virtually all of the grades of steel we produce are sold to the steel distributors and converters market. This market generally represents downstream steel service centers, which source various types of steel from us and fabricate it according to their customers' needs. Our steel is typically sold to this market on a spot basis or under short-term contracts linked to steel pricing indices. Demand and pricing for this market can be highly dependent on a variety of factors outside our control, including global and domestic commodity steel production capacity, the relative health of countries’ economies and whether they are consuming or exporting excess steel production, the provisions of international trade agreements and fluctuations in international currencies and, therefore, are subject to market changes in steel prices.

The price for domestic HRC, the most significant index in driving our revenues and profitability of our Steelmaking segment, averaged $1,573 per net ton for 2021, a record year that was also 174% higher than 2020. The record prices for steel products in 2021 was a result of both supply and demand factors, each driven by a rapid recovery since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

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Steel Producers Market

The steel producers market represents third-party sales to other steel producers, including those who operate blast furnaces and EAFs. It includes sales of raw materials and semi-finished and finished goods, including iron ore pellets, coal, coke, HBI, scrap and steel products.

The largest component of sales to this market during the year ended December 31, 2021 was third-party slab sales, which are primarily made under a long-term supply agreement that was initiated in connection with the closing of the AM USA Transaction.

Following the 2020 Acquisitions, production from our iron ore mines is predominantly consumed by our steelmaking operations. On a full-year basis, we would expect between 22 million and 24 million long tons of our iron ore pellets to be consumed by our steelmaking operations. During 2021, 2020 and 2019, we sold 4 million, 12 million and 19 million long tons of iron ore product, respectively, to third parties from our share of production from our iron ore mines. The merchant portion of our iron ore pellet production is sold pursuant to long-term supply agreements and through spot contracts.

We also entered into the scrap business with the FPT Acquisition in 2021. FPT is one of the largest processors of prime scrap in the country, representing approximately 15% of the entire U.S. merchant market. We believe this acquisition is a complementary addition to our footprint as prime scrap demand is expected to grow as new flat-rolled EAF capacity is set to come online over the next five years, and the worldwide focus on decarbonization continues. We expect to be able to leverage our long-standing flat-rolled automotive and other customer relationships into recycling partnerships to further grow our prime scrap presence.

The price of busheling scrap, a necessary input for flat-rolled steel production in EAFs in the U.S., averaged $602 per long ton during 2021, a 97% increase from the prior year. We expect the price of busheling scrap to remain elevated throughout 2022 due to decreasing prime scrap generation from original equipment manufacturers and the growth of EAF capacity in the U.S., along with a push for expanded scrap use globally. The expected rising price of busheling scrap was a key strategic rationale for the FPT Acquisition.

Applied Technology, Research and Development

We have an extensive history of being an innovator dating back more than a century. From upstream research and development, to downstream applications, we have dedicated technical and engineering resources that begin with improving customers' production and manufacturing performance to applications for their end product use.

We have a world-class research and development team expanding our capabilities to bring new steel products to the marketplace. Rapidly evolving and highly competitive markets for our steel products require our customers to seek new, comprehensive steel solutions, and we believe we are well positioned to deliver the most robust solutions through our broad portfolio of offerings. Collaboration across our research groups and operations generates innovative and comprehensive solutions for our customers, which we believe enhances our competitive advantage.

Our ongoing efforts to enhance technical collaboration at our state-of-the-art Research and Innovation Center in Middletown, Ohio, have increased the introduction of new steel solutions to the marketplace. Creating innovative products and breakthrough solutions is a strategic priority, as we believe differentiation through producing higher value steels to meet challenging requirements enables us to maintain and enhance our margins. We conduct a broad range of research and development activities aimed at improving existing products and processes and developing new ones. Our innovation of steel has produced a highly diversified steel product portfolio. As part of our underlying strategy to focus on higher-value materials and minimize exposure to commodity products, we have invested in research and innovation totaling $17 million and $15 million in 2021 and 2020, respectively.

We have also been a leader in iron ore mining and processing technology through the application of new technology to the centuries-old business of mineral extraction. We have also been a pioneer in iron ore pelletizing with over 60 years of experience. We are able to produce customized, environmentally-friendly pellets to meet blast furnace specifications and produce standard, fluxed and DR-grade pellets.

HBI

We are a pioneer in the development of emerging reduction technologies, a leader in the extraction of value from challenging resources and a front-runner in the implementation of safe and sustainable technology. We are also devoted to promoting environmental sustainability, evidenced with the development of our direct reduction plant in Toledo, Ohio. Construction of our Toledo direct reduction plant was completed in the fourth quarter of 2020, and the

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plant reached full run-rate nameplate annual capacity of 1.9 million metric tons of HBI per year in 2021. From this modern plant, we produce a high-quality, low-cost and low-carbon intensive HBI product that can be used throughout our footprint. We intend to use more HBI in our melting process to stretch our production of liquid pig iron from traditional inputs. The use of higher amounts of HBI in our blast furnaces ultimately stretches liquid steel output, which reduces coke needs and lowers carbon intensity.

Carbon Steel

We focus much of our research and innovation efforts on carbon steel applications for automotive manufacturers and their suppliers. We are particularly focused on AHSS for the automotive market, and we produce virtually every AHSS grade currently used by our customers. Our AHSS grades, such as Dual Phase 590, 780, 980 and 1180, have been adopted by our customers for both stamped and roll-formed parts, and our TRIP and NEXMET® products have demonstrated enhanced strength, formability and opportunities for automotive light weighting in cold-stamped applications. We are also pursuing application of NEXMET 490EX in surface-critical, exposed auto body panels as an alternative to aluminum.

Third Generation Advanced High-Strength Steel

Our third generation NEXMET AHSS products enable our customers to achieve significant light weighting in the unexposed structural components of their vehicles. NEXMET 1200, for example, offers superior formability similar to conventional Dual Phase 600 steel, but at twice the strength level. We have expanded the application of the NEXMET technology to our tubular products and stamped components businesses. These AHSS products allow automotive engineers to design lightweight parts that meet rigorous service and safety requirements. The NEXMET family of steels helps our customers achieve vehicle weight savings for ambitious fuel efficiency standards while avoiding significant capital costs required to re-design production facilities to use alternative materials.

Both galvanized and cold-rolled NEXMET AHSS are progressing through product qualification with several original equipment manufacturer customers. A number of stamping and component assembly trials have been completed successfully, with more planned and underway. Because the timing of automotive design and production cycles spans several years, widespread automotive customer adoption of revolutionary new material such as NEXMET AHSS may also extend over several years. We expect that other automotive vehicle platforms will incorporate NEXMET AHSS in their designs and that NEXMET AHSS will become a strong differentiator for us going forward.

Downstream Steel Applications

Our portfolio of steel solutions includes the operations of Tooling and Stamping, which provides advanced-engineered solutions, tool design and build, hot and cold-stamped components and complex assemblies for the automotive market. In addition to Tooling and Stamping, our downstream operations include Tubular Components, which manufactures advanced tubular products for automotive and other applications using carbon and stainless steels. We believe that collaboration among our steelmaking operations and our downstream businesses can accelerate the adoption of our innovative steel products by automotive manufacturers and their first tier suppliers.

Our research and technical experts have undertaken numerous collaborative projects that are generating robust solutions for our customers. Our expertise in tool design and stamping capabilities has allowed us to create prototype components using our innovative new sheet materials and present customers with new potential steel solutions. This approach has and, we expect, will continue to demonstrate to customers that they can significantly light weight automotive parts on an accelerated timeline and in a cost-effective manner by using our highly formable grades of AHSS in place of traditional material types.

In addition, our collaborative projects are enhancing our collective knowledge and experience in the stamping of new, advanced grades of steel, advanced engineered solutions, and tool design and build. For example, our Tooling and Stamping segment specializes in hot-stamping PHS for automotive applications. Our experience as a leader in PHS and expertise in hot-stamping has enabled us to have greater insight into these high-growth areas and has accelerated product development and customer adoption of these automotive light weighting solutions. Likewise, collaboration with the Tubular segment strategically advances our mission to innovate in AHSS for the automotive industry, as we have been at the forefront of producing tubular products from PHS and third-generation AHSS. We believe the combination of our stamping and advanced die-making capabilities, leading tube making capabilities and breakthrough material introductions will enhance our ability to deliver innovative, steel solutions to our customers.

We have recently been awarded contracts with several customers to supply complex assemblies and stamped automotive parts. In winning these contracts, we have been able to leverage our hot-stamping tooling

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leadership, in addition to our innovative hot-stamping process, to capture new strategic opportunities and demonstrate that we are one of the few businesses in North America that has the technical capabilities to produce a major complex assembly and stamping work of this nature.

Competition

Our Steelmaking segment principally competes with domestic and foreign producers of flat-rolled carbon, plate, tinplate, stainless, rail and electrical steel, carbon and stainless tubular products, aluminum, carbon fiber, concrete and other materials that may be used as a substitute for flat-rolled steels in manufactured products. Our Tooling and Stamping and Tubular Components businesses both compete against other niche companies in highly fragmented markets.

Price, quality, on-time delivery, customer service and product innovation are the primary competitive factors in the steel industry and vary in importance according to the product category and customer requirements. Steel producers that sell to the automotive market face competition from aluminum manufacturers (and, to a lesser extent, other materials) as automotive manufacturers attempt to develop vehicles that will enable them to satisfy more stringent, government-imposed fuel efficiency standards. To address automotive manufacturers’ light weighting needs that the aluminum industry is targeting, we and others in the steel industry have developed AHSS grades that we believe provide weight savings similar to aluminum, while being stronger, less costly, easier to repair, more sustainable and more environmentally friendly. Aluminum penetration has been primarily limited to specific automotive applications, such as outer panels and closures, rather than entire body designs. In addition, our automotive customers who continue to use steel, as opposed to aluminum and other alternative materials, are able to avoid the significant capital expenditures required to re-tool their manufacturing processes to accommodate the use of non-steel materials.

Mini-mills (producers using EAFs) comprise about 70% of steel production and 42% of flat-rolled steel production in the U.S. Their primary raw material is scrap metal, which has unpredictable and often volatile pricing. Due to the announced flat-rolled mini-mill capacity additions in the U.S. and increasing focus on industry decarbonization, we expect the price of scrap to remain elevated over historical averages, providing our integrated footprint a competitive advantage. Mini-mills also generally offer a narrower range of products than integrated steel mills, but the increasing use of pig iron and direct reduced iron have enabled them to modestly expand their product capabilities in recent years. However, we believe mini-mills often do not have the equipment capabilities to produce the product range that integrated facilities offer, nor do we believe they possess our depth of customer service, technical support, and research and innovation.

Domestic steel producers, including us, face significant competition from foreign producers. For many reasons, these foreign producers often are able to sell products in the U.S. at prices substantially lower than domestic producers. Depending on the country of origin, these reasons may include government subsidies; lower labor, raw material, energy and regulatory costs; less stringent environmental regulations; less stringent safety requirements; the maintenance of artificially low exchange rates against the U.S. dollar; and preferential trade practices in their home countries. In 2021, finished steel imports increased 48% compared to the prior year, as a result of a larger disparity between foreign and domestic prices, but still remain below levels seen between 2013 and 2018. We believe this is at least partially attributable to the implementation of certain trade restrictions on imported steel over the past five years, including both targeted trade cases and the more broad Section 232 tariffs. Modifications to these trade restrictions by government authorities could directly or indirectly impact import levels in the future. Import levels are also affected to varying degrees by the relative level of steel production in China and other countries, the strength of demand for steel outside the U.S., and the relative strength or weakness of the U.S. dollar against various foreign currencies. Imports of finished steel into the U.S. accounted for approximately 22% of domestic steel market consumption in 2021.

We continue to provide significant pension and healthcare benefits to a greater number of our retirees compared to certain other domestic and foreign steel producers that do not provide such benefits to any or most of their retirees, which increases our overall cost of production relative to certain other steelmakers. However, we have taken a number of actions to reduce pension and healthcare benefits costs, including negotiating progressive labor agreements that have significantly reduced total employment costs at our union-represented facilities, transferring all responsibility for healthcare benefits for various groups of retirees to VEBAs, offering voluntary lump-sum settlements to pension plan participants, lowering retiree benefit costs for salaried employees, and transferring pension obligations to highly rated insurance companies. These actions have not only reduced some of the risks associated with our pension funding obligations, but more importantly have reduced our risk exposure to performance of the financial markets, which are a principal driver of pension funding requirements. We continue to actively seek opportunities to reduce pension and healthcare benefits costs.

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Environmental Matters

Our operations are subject to various laws and regulations governing the protection of the environment. We monitor these laws and regulations, which change over time, to assess whether the changes affect our operations. We conduct our operations in a manner that is protective of public health and the environment.

Environmental matters and their management continue to be an important focus at each of our operations. From 2017 to 2021, we invested approximately $1 billion into our Toledo direct reduction plant, which provides a low carbon intensity raw material to our steelmaking operations. The HBI produced from the plant requires less energy to produce compared to traditional feedstock and can be used in blast furnaces to reduce emissions by improving energy efficiency and reducing the amount of coke required for steel production.

In the construction and operation of our facilities, substantial costs have been and will continue to be incurred to comply with regulatory requirements and avoid undue effect on the environment. In 2021, 2020, and 2019, our capital expenditures relating to environmental matters totaled $62 million, $34 million and $9 million, respectively. Our current estimate for capital expenditures for environmental improvements in 2022 is approximately $120 million for various water treatment, air quality, dust control, tailings management and other miscellaneous environmental projects. Additionally, we expect capital expenditures for environmental improvements for each of 2023 and 2024 to be generally in line with 2022's estimated spending.

Regulatory Developments

Various governmental bodies continually promulgate new or amended laws and regulations that affect us, our customers, and our suppliers in many areas, including air and water discharges, waste management and disposal, the classification of materials and products and other environmental, health, and safety matters. Although we believe that our environmental policies and practices are sound and do not expect that the application of any current laws, regulations or permits would reasonably be expected to result in a material adverse effect on our business or financial condition, we cannot predict the collective potential adverse impact of the expanding body of laws and regulations. Moreover, because all domestic steel, scrap and mining producers operate under the same federal environmental regulations, we do not believe that we are more disadvantaged than our domestic competitors by our need to comply with these regulations. Some foreign competitors may benefit from less stringent environmental requirements in the countries where they produce, resulting in lower compliance costs for them and providing those foreign competitors with a cost advantage on their products.

Specifically, there are several notable proposed or potential rulemakings or activities that could have a material adverse impact on our facilities in the future depending on their ultimate outcome: climate change and GHG regulation; selenium discharge regulation; Minnesota's sulfate wild rice water quality standard; Minnesota's mercury TMDL and mercury reduction rules; and the regulation of discharges to groundwater.

Climate Change and GHG Regulation

With the complexities and uncertainties associated with the U.S. and global navigation of the climate change issue as a whole, one of our potentially significant risks for the future is mandatory carbon pricing obligations, whether it be in the form of additional costs for emission allowances or restriction of production, as examples. Policymakers are in the design process of carbon regulation at the state, regional, national and international levels. The current regulatory variety of carbon compliance schemes presents a challenge for multi-facility entities to identify their near-term risks. Amplifying the uncertainty, the dynamic forward outlook for carbon pricing obligations presents a challenge to large industrial companies to assess the long-term net impacts of carbon compliance costs on their operations. Our exposure on this issue includes both the direct and indirect financial risks associated with the regulation of GHG emissions, as well as potential physical risks associated with climate change adaptation. We are continuing to review the physical risks related to climate change. As an energy-intensive business, we have a broad range of GHG emissions sources, such as iron ore furnaces and kilns, diesel mining equipment and integrated steelmaking facilities, among others. As such, among our most significant regulatory risks are: (1) the costs associated with on-site emissions levels (direct impacts); and (2) indirect costs passed through to us from power and fuel suppliers (indirect impacts).

Internationally, mechanisms to reduce emissions are being implemented in various countries, with differing designs and stringency, according to resources, economic structure and politics. The Paris Agreement to reduce global GHG emissions and limit global temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial temperatures became effective in November 2016 with 196 signatory countries. The U.S. became a signatory to the Paris Agreement with a pledge to reduce its GHG emissions by 26% to 28% from 2005 levels by 2025. The U.S. withdrew from the treaty in November 2020 and then subsequently rejoined the Paris Agreement in February 2021.

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Continued attention to issues concerning climate change, the role of human activity in it and potential mitigation through regulation may have a material impact on our customer base, operations and financial results in the future.

In the U.S., future federal and/or state carbon regulation potentially presents a significantly greater impact to our operations. To date, the U.S. Congress has not legislated carbon constraints. In the absence of comprehensive federal carbon legislation, numerous state, regional and federal regulatory initiatives are under development or are becoming effective, thereby creating a disjointed approach to GHG emissions control and potential carbon pricing impacts. We intend to remain active in the discussions related to legislative and regulatory changes at the federal and state levels.

Due to the potential variety of federal, state or regional carbon restriction schemes, our business and customer base could suffer negative financial impacts over time as a result of increased energy, environmental and other costs to comply with the limitations that would be imposed on GHG emissions. We believe our exposure can be reduced substantially by numerous factors, including currently contemplated regulatory flexibility mechanisms, such as allowance allocations, fixed process emissions exemptions, offsets and international provisions; emissions reduction opportunities, including energy efficiency, biofuels and fuel flexibility; and business opportunities associated with pursuing combined heat and power partnerships and new products, including DR-grade pellets, HBI, fluxed pellets and other efficiency-improving technologies.

Selenium Discharge Regulation

In Michigan, the Empire and Tilden mines have implemented compliance plans to manage selenium according to applicable permit conditions. A water treatment system for both facilities is anticipated sometime before 2028. As of December 31, 2021, included within our Empire asset retirement obligation is a discounted liability of approximately $100 million, which includes the estimated costs associated with the construction of Empire's portion of the required infrastructure and expected future operating costs of the treatment facilities. Additionally, included within our Tilden future capital plan is approximately $20 million for the construction of Tilden's portion of the required infrastructure. We are continuing to assess and develop cost effective and sustainable selenium treatment technologies.

In July 2016, the EPA published new selenium fish tissue limits and lower lentic and lotic water column concentration criteria, which may someday increase the cost for treatment should EGLE adopt these new standards in lieu of the existing limits required by the Great Lakes Water Quality Initiative. Accordingly, we cannot reasonably estimate the timing or long-term impact of these water quality criteria on our business.

Minnesota’s Sulfate Wild Rice Water Quality Standard

The Minnesota Governor established a Wild Rice Task Force by Executive Order in May 2018 that provided recommendations on wild rice restoration and regulation. The existing sulfate water quality standard for lakes and streams that contain wild rice has not been applied to any of our discharge permits or enforced historically by Minnesota. Further, the standard may be unenforceable because of legislation that prohibits the MPCA from enforcing it until the obsolete standard is updated based on modern science.

Minnesota submitted a list of impaired water revisions to the EPA in 2020. In 2021, the EPA disapproved of Minnesota’s draft impaired waters list and subsequently announced its proposed list of wild rice water bodies that were impaired due to sulfate under the Clean Water Act’s Section 303(d) process, which resulted in the addition of 32 waters in November 2021. At this time, it is unknown how the MPCA intends to implement requirements to address sulfate impaired waters.

For these reasons, the impact of potential obligations to address sulfate concentrations in certain water discharges from our Minnesota iron ore mining and pelletizing operations is not estimable at this time, but it could have a material adverse impact if we are required to significantly reduce sulfate in certain discharges.

Minnesota's Mercury TMDL and Mercury Reduction Rules

In September 2014, Minnesota promulgated the Mercury Air Emissions Reporting and Reduction Rules, mandating mercury air emissions reporting and reductions from certain sources, including taconite facilities. The rules apply to all of our Minnesota iron ore mining and pelletizing operations and required submittal of a Mercury Reduction Plan to the MPCA in 2018 with plan implementation requirements becoming effective on January 1, 2025. In the Mercury Reduction Plan, facilities evaluated if available control technologies can technically achieve a 72% mercury reduction rate. If available control technologies cannot technically achieve a 72% mercury reduction rate, the facilities must propose alternative mercury reduction measures. One of the main tenets agreed upon for evaluating potential

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mercury reduction technologies during TMDL implementation and 2014 rule development proceedings was that the selected technology must meet the following “Adaptive Management Criteria”: the technology must be technically feasible; must be economically feasible; must not impact pellet quality; and must not cause excessive corrosion in the indurating furnaces or air pollution control equipment.

The Mercury Reduction Plans for our Minnesota facilities were submitted to the MPCA in December 2018. In 2020, the MPCA requested additional information on certain plans, and we responded in a timely manner. There is currently no proven technology to cost effectively reduce mercury emissions from taconite furnaces to achieve the targeted 72% reduction rate, while satisfying all four Adaptive Management Criteria. The Mercury Reduction Plans that were submitted to the MPCA include documentation that describes the results of detailed engineering analysis and research testing on potential technologies to support this determination. The results of this analysis will continue to guide dialogue with the MPCA. Potential impacts to us are not estimable at this time because the revised Mercury Reduction Plans and additional technical information are currently being reviewed by the MPCA.

Regulation of Discharges to Groundwater

In general, states traditionally have regulated discharges of pollutants to groundwater through various programs such as wellhead protection programs and regulations related to remediation. In April 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court held in County of Maui v. Hawaiʻi Wildlife Fund that the EPA (and delegated states) have jurisdiction under the NPDES program if a point source discharges to groundwater and is the “functional equivalent” of a discharge to Waters of the United States. Until now, the NPDES program in the states we operate in has regulated only direct discharges to surface waters that constitute Waters of the United States from point sources. Although we do not anticipate that broadening EPA jurisdiction over groundwater discharges will materially adversely affect our operations, the impact to our operations is not reasonably estimable at this time.

Other Government Laws and Regulations

In addition to environmental laws and regulations, we are subject to various laws and regulations around the world. For example, changes in trade regulations, including tariffs or other import or export restrictions, could lead to lower or more volatile global steel prices, impacting our profitability. In addition, health and safety regulations, including laws or regulations promulgated in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and OSHA and MSHA regulations, have necessitated, and may continue to necessitate, increased operating costs or capital investments to promote a safe working environment. We are also required to comply with complex foreign and U.S. laws and regulations, which may include the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other anti-bribery laws, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation and other U.S. and foreign privacy regulations, and transportation and logistics regulations. The laws and regulations noted above, as well as other applicable laws and regulations, or the manner in which they are interpreted or enforced, may require us to make material investments in the form of additional processes, training and capital, among other things. For a discussion of the risks associated with certain applicable laws and regulations, see Part I – Item 1A, Risk Factors.

Raw Materials and Energy

Our steelmaking operations require iron ore, HBI, coke, coal, ferrous and carbon and stainless scrap, chrome, nickel and zinc as primary raw materials. We also consume natural gas, electricity, industrial gases and diesel fuel at our operations. As a vertically integrated steel company, we are able to internally supply a majority of our raw materials needed for our steelmaking operations. We also attempt to reduce the risk of future supply shortages and price volatility in other ways. If multi-year contracts are available in the marketplace for those raw materials that we cannot supply internally, we may use these contracts to secure sufficient supply to satisfy our key raw material needs. When multi-year contracts are not available, or are not available on acceptable terms, we purchase the remainder of our raw materials needs under annual contracts or conduct spot purchases. We also regularly evaluate alternative sources and substitute materials. Additionally, we may hedge portions of our energy and raw materials purchases to reduce volatility and risk. We believe that we have secured, or will be able to secure, adequate supply to fulfill our raw materials and energy requirements for 2022.

The raw materials needed to produce a ton of steel will fluctuate based upon the specifications of the final steel products, the quality of raw materials and, to a lesser extent, differences among steel production equipment. For example, generally, in our integrated steelmaking facilities, we consume approximately 1.4 net tons of coal to produce one net ton of coke. The process to produce one ton of raw steel generally requires approximately 1.4 net tons of iron ore pellets, 0.4 net tons of coke and 0.3 net tons of steel scrap. At normal operating levels, we also consume approximately 6 MMBtu’s of natural gas per net ton of raw steel produced. Additionally, on average, our EAFs require 1.1 net tons of ferrous or stainless scrap to produce one net ton of high quality steel. We consume approximately 420 kilowatt-hours of electricity per net ton of steel produced. While these estimated consumption amounts are presented

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to give a general sense of raw material and energy consumption used in our steel production, substantial variations may occur.

Our investment into HBI production provides us access, when needed, to clean iron units in order to make advanced steel and stainless products. This access to our own production provides us flexibility and allows us to avoid the risks and carbon footprints of imported iron substitutes. Iron substitutes imported into the U.S. are traditionally sourced from regions of the world that have historically experienced greater political turmoil and have lower pollution standards than the U.S. Our investment demonstrates our raw material and company strategy in responsibly managing the risks of pricing, availability and overall carbon footprint of our critical inputs.

Our acquisition of FPT provides us sourcing and processing capabilities for both prime and obsolete scrap. This access is critical as prime scrap demand is expected to grow as new flat-rolled EAF capacity is set to come online over the next five years. The FPT Acquisition included 22 facilities that are primarily located in the Midwest near our steel facilities. We plan to pair the operational footprint of FPT with our long-standing flat-rolled automotive and other customer relationships to develop recycling partnerships that will further grow our prime scrap presence. Additionally, the FPT Acquisition furthers our commitment to being an environmentally-friendly, low-carbon intensity steelmaker with a cleaner materials mix as we are able to better optimize productivity at our existing EAFs and BOFs. Our investment in FPT further demonstrates our commitment to a vertically integrated business model.

Iron Ore

We own or co-own five active iron ore mines in Minnesota and Michigan. Based on our ownership in these mines, our share of annual rated iron ore production capacity is approximately 28 million long tons, which supplies all of the iron ore needed for our steelmaking operations. Refer to Part I - Item 2. Properties for additional information.

Coke and Coal

We own five cokemaking facilities, including two coke batteries located within our steelmaking facilities, one of which is temporarily idled. These facilities currently provide over half of the coke requirements for our steelmaking operations and have an annual rated capacity of 3.9 million net tons. Additionally, we have coke supply agreements with suppliers that provide our remaining requirements. Our purchases of coke are made under annual or multi-year agreements with periodic price adjustments. We typically purchase most of our metallurgical coal under annual fixed-price agreements. We have annual rated metallurgical coal production capacity of 2.3 million net tons from our Princeton mine, which supplies a portion of our metallurgical coal needs. We believe there are adequate external supplies of coke and coal available at competitive market prices to meet our needs. Refer to Part I - Item 2. Properties for additional information.

Steel Scrap and Other Materials

Following the FPT Acquisition, the majority of our scrap requirements are generated or processed from internal sources, including scrap generated at our steel production facilities. We believe that supplies of additional steel scrap, chrome, nickel and zinc adequate to meet the needs of our steelmaking operations are readily available from outside sources at competitive market prices.

Energy

We consume a large amount of natural gas, electricity, industrial gases and diesel fuel, which are significant costs to our operations. The majority of our energy requirements are purchased from outside sources. Access to long-term, low-cost sources of energy in various forms is critically important to our operations.

Natural gas is procured for our operations utilizing a combination of long-term, annual, quarterly, monthly and spot contracts from various suppliers at market-based pricing. We believe access to low-cost and reliable sources of natural gas is available to meet our operations’ requirements.

We purchase electricity for all of our operations in either regulated or deregulated markets. Due to the distinct nature of these markets, we procure electricity through either long-term or annual contracts. Some of our operations also use self-generated coke oven gas and/or blast furnace gas to produce electricity, which is an environmentally-friendly practice that also reduces our need to purchase electricity from external sources. We also closely monitor developments at the state and federal levels that could impact electricity availability or cost and incorporate such changes into our electricity supply strategy in order to maintain reliable, low-cost supply. We are currently evaluating the use of renewable energy to complement our existing supply. We believe there is an adequate supply of competitively priced electricity to fulfill our requirements.

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We purchase industrial gases under long-term contracts with various suppliers. We believe we have access to adequate supplies of industrial gases to meet our needs.

We predominantly purchase diesel fuel for our mining operations under long-term contracts with various suppliers. We believe we have access to adequate supplies of diesel fuel to meet our needs.

Human Capital

Cliffs has a long, proven history of attracting and retaining exceptional talent. We believe our employee-centric management philosophy is the key to our success. Even though many other employers are facing unprecedented labor shortages, we continued to grow during 2021.

As of December 31, 2021, we employed approximately 26,000 people. Approximately 25,500 were employed in the U.S. Approximately 24,000 employees were employed at production facilities, with the balance employed in corporate support roles. The vast majority of our approximately 21,000 hourly employees were subject to collective bargaining agreements (approximately 18,500) with various labor unions.

Labor Relations

Our labor relations philosophy is a cornerstone of our talent strategy. At Cliffs, we know that maintaining strong, positive relationships with labor unions is key to our long-term growth. We recognize and respect the right of our employees to freely associate and collectively bargain, and we do not engage in harassment, intimidation or retaliation for their efforts to bargain collectively. 

More than three-quarters of Cliffs’ workforce are represented by three prominent unions—USW, UAW and IAM. The hardworking men and women of Cliffs are the lifeblood of our Company. Our employees operate and maintain our facilities and are, ultimately, responsible for safely delivering a quality product to our customers. Therefore, we engage with our unions as business partners, and together, we have achieved a number of successes that benefit our business and our people alike.  

In 2021, labor contracts for workers represented at our Rockport, Dearborn, Mansfield and Monessen facilities were successfully ratified. We are proud to report we did not experience any strikes or lockouts last year. We expect to continue productive dialogue with our labor partners into 2022 as a number of other site agreements reach expiration and will be renegotiated. This positive partnership with our unions helps us remain competitive for talent and protects our customers and their supply chains from disruptions due to labor disagreements.

Talent Retention

We believe that our future success largely depends upon our continued ability to attract and retain a highly skilled workforce. We provide our employees with competitive salaries, incentive-based bonus programs that provide above-market compensation opportunities when our Company performs well, development programs that enable continued learning and growth, and a robust benefit package that promotes well-being across all aspects of their lives, including health care, retirement planning and paid time off. In addition to these programs, we have used targeted, equity-based grants with vesting conditions to facilitate retention of key personnel. These tools have enabled us to increase the retention of key personnel, including our corporate and site leadership teams and critical technical talent.

Robust Employee Benefits Programs

The success of our business is fundamentally connected to the well-being of our people. Accordingly, we are committed to the health, safety and wellness of our employees. We provide our employees and their families with access to a variety of innovative, flexible and convenient health and wellness programs, including benefits that provide protection and security so they can have peace of mind concerning events that may require time away from work or that impact their financial well-being; that support their physical and mental health by providing tools and resources to help them improve or maintain their health and encourage engagement in healthy behaviors; and that offer choice where possible so they can customize their benefits to meet their needs and the needs of their families.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

We continue to foster a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion at Cliffs. Through our OneCliffs Way of Doing Business (our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics), we outline our Core Values, which include Trust, Respect and Open Communication. To us, this means encouraging and accepting different views, and supporting and advancing gender and racial diversity. Further, our OneCliffs Way of Doing Business provides that we will not make employment-related decisions nor will we discriminate based on race, color, national origin, gender, age, religion, mental or

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physical disability, veteran status, sexual orientation or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We strive to make Cliffs a safe place to work for all. Harassment and/or intimidation are not tolerated anywhere in our Company, and we hope our people make a career at Cliffs doing meaningful and challenging work.

COVID-19

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we implemented significant changes in our operations and workplaces in the best interest of our employees, as well as the communities in which we operate, which exceeded government regulations. This includes having all employees who could perform their work remotely work from home when necessary, while implementing numerous safety measures for employees continuing critical on-site work at our operations.

Additionally, in an effort to best protect our workforce and the Company, we launched a vaccine incentive program in July 2021 that was developed in partnership with our labor unions. Throughout the 45 days the program was in place, the vaccination rate more than doubled and we achieved a vaccination rate of over 75% throughout our workforce. The initiative resulted in a payout of $45 million in total cash incentive to our vaccinated workforce. The successful vaccination program allowed us to operate efficiently and safely throughout the remainder of 2021 and into 2022.

Safety

Safe production is our primary core value as we continue toward achieving a zero injury culture at our facilities. We constantly monitor our safety performance and make continuous improvements to affect change. Best practices and incident learnings are shared globally to ensure each facility can administer the most effective policies and procedures for enhanced workplace safety. Progress toward achieving our objectives is accomplished through a focus on proactive sustainable safety initiatives, and results are measured against established industry and Company benchmarks, including our Company-wide Total Reportable Incident Rate. During 2021, our Total Reportable Incident Rate (including contractors) was 1.37 per 200,000 hours worked.

Refer to Exhibit 95 Mine Safety Disclosures (filed herewith) for mine safety information required in accordance with Section 1503(a) of the Dodd-Frank Act.

Available Information

Our headquarters are located at 200 Public Square, Suite 3300, Cleveland, Ohio 44114-2315, and our telephone number is (216) 694-5700. We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act and its rules and regulations. The Exchange Act requires us to file reports, proxy statements and other information with the SEC.

The SEC maintains a website that contains reports, proxy statements and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC. These materials may be obtained electronically by accessing the SEC’s home page at www.sec.gov.

We use our website, www.clevelandcliffs.com, as a channel for routine distribution of important information, including news releases, investor presentations and financial information. We also make available, free of charge on our website, our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to these reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file these documents with, or furnish them to, the SEC. In addition, our website allows investors and other interested persons to sign up to receive automatic email alerts when we post news releases and financial information on our website.

We also make available, free of charge, the charters of the Audit Committee, Strategy and Sustainability Committee, Governance and Nominating Committee, and Compensation and Organization Committee, as well as the Corporate Governance Guidelines, and the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics adopted by our Board of Directors. These documents are available through our investor relations page on our website at www.clevelandcliffs.com. The SEC filings are available by selecting “Investors” and then “SEC Filings,” and corporate governance materials are available by selecting "Investors" and then “Governance” for the Board Committee Charters, the Corporate Governance Guidelines, and the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics.

References to our website or the SEC’s website do not constitute incorporation by reference of the information contained on such websites, and such information is not part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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Copies of the above-referenced information are also available, free of charge, by calling (216) 694-5700 or upon written request to:

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.

Investor Relations

200 Public Square, Suite 3300

Cleveland, OH 44114-2315

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INFORMATION ABOUT OUR EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

Following are the names, ages and positions of the executive officers of the Company as of February 11, 2022. Unless otherwise noted, all positions indicated are or were held with Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.


Name	Age	Position(s) Held
Lourenco Goncalves	64	Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer (August 2014 – present); and Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Metals USA Holdings Corp., an American manufacturer and processor of steel and other metals (May 2006 – April 2013).
Clifford Smith	62	Executive Vice President & President, Cleveland-Cliffs Steel (September 2021 – present); Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer (January 2019 – September 2021); and Executive Vice President, Business Development (April 2015 – January 2019).
Keith Koci	57	Executive Vice President & President, Cleveland-Cliffs Services (September 2021 – present); Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer (February 2019 – September 2021); and Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Metals USA Holdings Corp. (2013 – February 2019).
Celso Goncalves	34	Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer (September 2021 – present); Senior Vice President, Finance & Treasurer (March 2020 – September 2021); Vice President, Treasurer (January 2018 – March 2020); and Assistant Treasurer (September 2016 – January 2018).
Terry Fedor	57	Executive Vice President, Operations, East (September 2021 – present); Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, Steel Mills (March 2020 – September 2021); Executive Vice President, Operations (February 2019 – March 2020); and Executive Vice President, U.S. Iron Ore (January 2014 – February 2019).
Traci Forrester	50	Executive Vice President, Environmental & Sustainability (May 2021 – present); Executive Vice President, Business Development (May 2019 – May 2021); Vice President, Deputy General Counsel & Assistant Secretary (January 2018 – May 2019); and Deputy General Counsel & Assistant Secretary (January 2017 – May 2019).
James Graham	56	Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer & Secretary (November 2014 – present).
Maurice Harapiak	60	Executive Vice President, Human Resources & Chief Administration Officer (January 2018 – present); and Executive Vice President, Human Resources (March 2014 – January 2018).
Kimberly Floriani	39	Senior Vice President, Controller & Chief Accounting Officer (August 2021 – present); Vice President, Corporate Controller & Chief Accounting Officer (April 2020 – August 2021); and Director, Accounting & Reporting (August 2015 – April 2020).

All executive officers serve at the pleasure of the Board. There are no arrangements or understandings between any executive officer and any other person pursuant to which an executive officer was selected to be an officer of the Company. Celso Goncalves, our Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, is the son of Lourenco Goncalves, our Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. There is no other family relationship between any of our executive officers, or between any of our executive officers and any of our directors.

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Item 1A.			Risk Factors

An investment in our common shares or other securities is subject to risks inherent in our businesses and the industries in which we operate. Described below are certain risks and uncertainties, the occurrences of which could have a material adverse effect on us. The risks and uncertainties described below include known material risks that we face currently, but our material risks are constantly evolving and the below descriptions may not include future risks that are not presently known, that are not currently believed to be material or that are common to all businesses. Investors should not interpret the disclosure of any risk to imply that such risk has not already materialized. Although we have extensive risk management policies, practices and procedures in place that are aimed to mitigate these risks, the occurrence of these uncertainties may nevertheless impair our business operations and adversely affect the actual outcome of matters as to which forward-looking statements are made. This report is qualified in its entirety by these risk factors. Before making an investment decision, investors should consider carefully all of the risks described below together with the other information included in this report and the other reports we file with the SEC.

Management has identified several categories of material risks that we are subject to, including: (I) economic and market, (II) regulatory, (III) financial, (IV) operational, (V) sustainability and development and (VI) human capital. Although the risks are organized by these headings, and each risk is discussed separately, many are interrelated.

I. ECONOMIC AND MARKET RISKS

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic volatility has had, and is expected to continue to have, an adverse impact on our businesses.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to impact countries, communities, supply chains and markets. Responses by individuals, governments and businesses to ever-changing developments in the COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to reduce its spread, including quarantines, travel restrictions, business closures, and mandatory stay-at-home or work-from-home orders, have led to significant disruptions to overall business and economic activity. While vaccines are now widely available and the economy experienced a partial recovery during 2021, due to the number of unvaccinated individuals and the novel strains and multiple variants of the COVID-19 virus periodically being encountered on a global basis that may be more resistant to existing vaccines, it is currently unknown for how long and to what extent consumer and business activity will continue to be impacted by the volatility caused by the pandemic.

Among other things, the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected our businesses by temporarily curtailing certain of our end markets, and certain of our mining and production facilities were idled for various periods during 2020 in response to the decrease in customer demand. While we were able to resume operations at our temporarily idled facilities later in 2020 or 2021, we cannot predict whether any of our production facilities or mines will experience disruptions in the future as a result of adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are also subject to risks arising out of the turbulence of the economic recovery associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, including inflationary pressures, which may increase the costs of our labor, raw materials, energy supplies and other production inputs, which could have an adverse impact on our results of operations and profitability.

In addition, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the risk that a significant portion of our workforce and on-site contractors will suffer illness or otherwise be unable to perform their ordinary work functions. While we have periodically instituted remote work policies where practical across our footprint, the safe and responsible operation of our production facilities often requires that workers be on-site. Accordingly, during 2021, we experienced direct and indirect workforce impacts from COVID-19 at many of our operations. We also may need to reduce our workforce as a result of declines in our business caused by any further adverse developments in the COVID-19 pandemic leading to a downturn in the economy, and there can be no assurance that we will be able to rehire our workforce once our business has recovered. We have experienced, and may continue to experience, supply chain disruptions or operational issues with our vendors or logistics providers, as our suppliers and contractors face similar challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Because the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, we cannot predict the full extent to which our businesses, results of operations, financial condition or liquidity will ultimately be impacted. To the extent the COVID‑19 pandemic adversely affects our businesses, it may also have the effect of exacerbating many of the other risks described in this ‘‘Risk Factors’’ section, any of which could have a material adverse effect on us.

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The volatility of commodity prices, including steel, iron ore and scrap metal, directly and indirectly affects our ability to generate revenue, maintain stable cash flows and fund our operations.

Our profitability is dependent upon the prices of the steel, iron ore and scrap metal that we sell to our customers. As an integrated producer of steel, iron ore and scrap metal, we experience direct impacts of steel price fluctuations through customer sales, as well as direct and indirect impacts of iron ore and scrap metal price fluctuations through third-party sales and the impacts that fluctuations in iron ore and scrap metal prices have on steel prices. The prices of steel, iron ore and scrap metal have fluctuated significantly in the past and are unpredictable and affected by factors beyond our control, including: international demand for raw materials used in steel production; availability of scrap metal substitutes such as pig iron; commodity price speculation; rates of global economic growth, especially construction and infrastructure activity that requires significant amounts of steel; changes in the levels of economic activity in the U.S., China, India, Europe and other industrialized or developing economies; changes in China’s emissions policies and environmental compliance enforcement practices; changes in the production capacity, production rate and inventory levels of other steel producers, iron ore suppliers and scrap metal processors and traders; changes in trade laws; volumes of unfairly traded imports; imposition or termination of duties, tariffs, import and export controls and other trade barriers impacting the steel and iron ore markets; climate change and other weather-related disruptions, infectious disease outbreaks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, or natural disasters that may impact the global supply of steel, iron ore or scrap metal; and the proximity, capacity and cost of infrastructure and transportation.

Our earnings, therefore, fluctuate with the prices of the products we sell. Although we experienced generally higher prices for our products during 2021 as compared to 2020, to the extent that commodity prices, including the HRC price, coated and other specialty steel prices, international steel prices and scrap metal prices, significantly decline for an extended period of time, whether due to the COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise, we may have to further revise our operating plans, including curtailing production, reducing operating costs and deferring capital expenditures. We also may have to record impairments on our goodwill, intangible assets, long-lived assets and/or inventory. Sustained lower prices also could cause us to further reduce existing mineral reserves if certain reserves no longer can be economically mined or processed at prevailing prices. We may be unable to decrease our costs in an amount sufficient to offset reductions in revenues and may incur losses. These events could have a material adverse effect on us.

We sell a significant portion of our steel products to the automotive market and fluctuations or changes in the automotive market could adversely affect our business operations and financial performance.

The largest end user for our steel products is the automotive industry in North America. Beyond these direct sales to the automotive industry, we make additional sales to distributors and converters, which may ultimately resell some of that volume to the automotive market. In addition to the size of our exposure to the automotive industry, we face risks arising from our relative concentration of sales to certain specific automotive manufacturers, including several significant customers that previously idled certain automotive production facilities for varying lengths of time in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, automotive production and sales are cyclical and sensitive to general economic conditions and other factors, including interest rates, consumer credit, spending and preferences, and supply chain disruptions, such as the current semiconductor shortage. If automotive production and sales decline, our sales and shipments to the automotive market are likely to decline in a corresponding manner. Similarly, while certain market and industry experts are predicting an increase in new vehicle builds during 2022 as compared to 2020 and 2021, if this increase fails to materialize, our sales to the automotive market could be adversely affected. Adverse impacts that we may sustain as a result include, without limitation, lower margins because of the need to sell our steel to less profitable customers and markets, higher fixed costs from lower steel production if we are unable to sell the same amount of steel to other customers and markets, and lower sales, shipments, pricing and margins generally as our competitors face similar challenges and compete vigorously in other markets that we serve. These adverse impacts would negatively affect our sales, financial results and cash flows. Additionally, the trend toward light weighting in the automotive industry, which requires lighter gauges of steel at higher strengths, could result in lower steel volumes required by that industry over time.

Moreover, despite our newly acquired position as the largest flat-rolled steel producer in North America, competition for automotive business has intensified in recent years, as steel producers and companies producing alternative materials have focused their efforts on capturing and/or expanding their market share of automotive business because of less favorable conditions in other markets for steel and other metals, including commodity products. As a result, the potential exists that we may lose market share to existing or new entrants or that automotive manufacturers will take advantage of the intense competition among potential suppliers during periodic contract renewal negotiations to pressure our pricing and margins in order to maintain or expand our market share with them, which could negatively affect our sales, financial results and cash flows.

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Global steelmaking overcapacity, steel imports and oversupply of iron ore could lead to lower or more volatile global steel and iron ore prices, directly or indirectly impacting our profitability.

Significant existing global steel capacity and new or expanded production capacity in recent years could potentially cause capacity to exceed demand globally. Although certain of our U.S. competitors temporarily shut down production capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic, much of the previously idled capacity has been restarted, and certain of our competitors have announced and are moving ahead with plans to develop new steelmaking capacity in the near term. In addition, certain foreign competitors, which may have cost advantages due to being owned, controlled or subsidized by foreign governments, have substantially increased their steel production capacity in the last few years and in some instances appear to have targeted the U.S. market for imports. The risk of even greater levels of imports may continue, depending upon foreign market and economic conditions, changes in trade agreements and treaties, laws, regulations or government policies affecting trade, the ability of foreign producers to circumvent U.S. trade sanctions and policy (including in the market for electrical steels), the value of the U.S. dollar relative to other currencies and other variables beyond our control. In addition, higher sustained market prices of steel and iron ore products could cause new producers to enter the market or existing producers to further expand productive capacity, which could in turn lead to lower steel prices and increasing prices of steelmaking inputs, such as scrap metal. Excess steel and iron ore supply combined with reduced global steel demand, including in China, and increased foreign imports could also lead to lower steel and iron ore prices. Downward pressure on steel and/or iron ore prices could have an adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition and profitability.

Severe financial hardship or bankruptcy of one or more of our major customers or key suppliers could adversely affect our business operations and financial performance.

Sales and operations of a majority of our customers are sensitive to general economic conditions, especially, with respect to our steel customers, as they affect the North American automotive, housing, construction, appliance, energy, defense and other industries. Some of our customers are highly leveraged. If there is a significant weakening of current economic conditions, whether because of operational, cyclical, supply chain or other issues, including further adverse developments in the COVID-19 pandemic, it could cause customers to reduce, delay or cancel their orders with us, impact significantly the creditworthiness of our customers and lead to other financial difficulties or even bankruptcy filings by our customers. Failure to receive payment from our customers for products that we have delivered could adversely affect our results of operations, financial condition and liquidity. The concentration of customers in a specific industry, such as the automotive industry, may increase our risk because of the likelihood that circumstances may affect multiple customers at the same time. Such events could cause us to experience lost sales or losses associated with the potential inability to collect all outstanding accounts receivable and reduced liquidity. Similarly, if our key suppliers face financial hardship or need to operate in bankruptcy, such suppliers could experience operational disruption or even face liquidation, which could result in our inability to secure replacement raw materials on a timely basis, or at all, or cause us to incur increased costs to do so. Such events could adversely impact our operations, financial results and cash flows.

II. REGULATORY RISKS

U.S. government actions on trade agreements and treaties, laws, regulations or policies affecting trade could lead to lower or more volatile global steel prices, impacting our profitability.

In recent years, the U.S. government has altered its approach to international trade policy, both generally and with respect to matters directly and indirectly affecting the steel industry, including by undertaking certain unilateral actions affecting trade, renegotiating existing bilateral or multilateral trade agreements, and entering into new agreements or treaties with foreign countries. For example, in March 2018, the U.S. government issued a proclamation pursuant to Section 232 imposing a 25% tariff on imported steel. These Section 232 tariffs were imposed on the basis of national security and addressed imported steel that was being unfairly traded by certain foreign competitors at artificially low prices. In retaliation against the Section 232 tariffs, the European Union subsequently imposed its own tariffs against certain steel products and other goods imported from the U.S. Moreover, in light of the U.S. government leadership changes resulting from the November 2020 federal congressional and presidential elections, further changes in U.S. international trade policy may be forthcoming. For example, the U.S. government and the European Union recently agreed to a tariff rate quota system that will allow more European Union imports to enter the U.S. market free of Section 232 tariffs. The U.S. government may also negotiate reductions or eliminations of Section 232 duties with other trading partners. If the Section 232 tariffs are further removed or substantially lessened, whether through legal challenge, legislation, executive action or otherwise, imports of foreign steel would likely increase and steel prices in the U.S. would likely fall, which could materially adversely affect our revenues, financial results and cash flows.

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In addition, during 2020, the USMCA was implemented among the U.S., Mexico and Canada in place of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Because all of our steel manufacturing facilities are located in North America and one of our principal markets is automotive manufacturing in North America, we believe that the USMCA has the potential to positively impact our business by incentivizing automakers and other manufacturers to increase manufacturing production in North America and to use North American steel. However, it is difficult to predict the short- and long-term implications of changes in trade policy and, therefore, whether the USMCA or other new or renegotiated trade agreements, treaties, laws, regulations or policies that may be implemented by the U.S. government, or otherwise, will have a beneficial or detrimental impact on our business and our customers’ and suppliers’ businesses. Adverse effects could occur directly from a disruption to trade and commercial transactions and/or indirectly by adversely affecting the U.S. economy or certain sectors of the economy, impacting demand for our customers’ products and, in turn, negatively affecting demand for our products. Important links of the supply chain for some of our key customers, including automotive manufacturers, could be negatively impacted by the USMCA or other new or renegotiated trade agreements, treaties, laws, regulations or policies. Any of these actions and their direct and indirect impacts could materially adversely affect our revenues, financial results and cash flows.

Although we may currently benefit from certain antidumping and countervailing duty orders, any such relief is subject to periodic reviews and challenges, which can result in revocation of the orders or reduction of the duties. For example, during 2022, the U.S. government is scheduled to review antidumping and countervailing duty orders on some of our key products, including corrosion-resistant steel, cold-rolled steel, hot-rolled steel and cut-to-length plate. In addition, previously granted and future petitions for trade relief may not be successful or fully effective at preventing harm. Even if received, it is uncertain if any relief will be continued in the future or will be adequate to counteract completely the harmful effects of unfairly traded imports.

We are subject to extensive governmental regulation, which imposes potential significant costs and liabilities on us. Future laws and regulations or the manner in which they are interpreted and enforced could increase these costs and liabilities or limit our ability to produce our raw materials and products.

New laws or regulations, or changes in existing laws or regulations, or the manner of their interpretation or enforcement, could increase our cost of doing business and restrict our ability to operate our businesses or execute our strategies. This includes, among other things: changes in MSHA regulations, such as respirable silica standards; reevaluation of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, such as revised nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, ozone and particulate matter criteria; changes in the interpretation of OSHA regulations, such as standards for occupational exposure to noise, certain chemicals or hazardous substances and infectious diseases; and the possible taxation under U.S. law of certain income from foreign operations.

In addition, we and our operations are subject to various international, foreign, federal, state, provincial and local laws and regulations relating to protection of the environment and human health and safety, including those relating to air quality, water pollution, plant, wetlands, natural resources and wildlife protection (including endangered or threatened species), reclamation, remediation and restoration of properties and related surety bonds or other financial assurances, land use, the discharge of materials into the environment, the effects that industrial operations and mining have on groundwater quality and availability, the management of electrical equipment containing polychlorinated biphenyls, and other related matters. Despite implementation of rigorous environmental protocols and management systems, we cannot be certain that we have been or will be at all times in complete compliance with such laws and regulations. If we violate or fail to comply with these laws or regulations, we could be fined, required to cease operations, subject to criminal or civil liability, or otherwise sanctioned by regulators or barred from participating in government contracts. In addition, federal or state regulatory agencies have the authority, under certain circumstances following significant health and safety incidents, such as fatalities, to order a mine or production facility to be temporarily or permanently closed. Compliance with the complex and extensive laws and regulations to which we are subject imposes substantial costs on us, which could increase over time because of heightened regulatory oversight, adoption of more stringent environmental, health and safety standards and greater demand for remediation services leading to shortages of equipment, supplies and labor, as well as other factors.

Specifically, there are several notable proposed or recently enacted rulemakings or activities to which we would be subject or that would further regulate and/or tax us and our customers, which may also require us or our customers to reduce or otherwise change operations significantly or incur significant additional costs, depending on their ultimate outcome. These emerging or recently enacted rules, regulations and policy guidance include, but are not limited to: governmental regulations imposed, modified or rescinded in response to developments in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; trade regulations, such as the USMCA and/or other trade agreements, treaties or policies; changes in tariff policy, including with respect to the 25% tariff on certain imported steel imposed under Section 232; climate change mitigation strategies and GHG regulation; selenium discharge regulation; revisions to the sulfate wild rice water quality standard and its implementation; Minnesota’s Mercury TMDL and associated federal rules governing mercury air emission reductions; evolving water quality standards and the regulation of discharges to groundwater;

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the Regional Haze FIP Rule; and revised National Ambient Air Quality Standards, particularly for ozone and particulate matter. In addition, the Biden Administration has indicated via executive orders and in public statements that it will propose more stringent environmental regulation, in particular related to climate change. Any new or more stringent legislation, regulations, rules, interpretations or orders, when enacted and enforced, including any related to required reductions in, or taxes on, levels of carbon emissions, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition or profitability.

Our operations may be impacted by the recent enactment, and ongoing consideration, of significant federal and state laws and regulations relating to certain mine-related issues, such as the stability of tailings basins, mine drainage and fill activities, reclamation and safety in underground and surface mines. With respect to underground mines, for example, these laws and regulations include requirements for constructing and maintaining caches for the storage of additional self-contained self-rescuers throughout the mines; installing rescue chambers in the mines; continuous tracking of and communication with personnel in the mines; installing cable lifelines from the mine portal to all sections of the mine to assist in emergency escape; submission and approval of emergency response plans; and additional safety training. Additionally, there are requirements for the prompt reporting of accidents and increased fines and penalties for violations of these and existing regulations. These laws and regulations may cause us to incur substantial additional costs.

In addition, certain of our operations are subject to the risks of doing business abroad and we must comply with complex foreign and U.S. laws and regulations, which may include, but are not limited to, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other anti-bribery laws, regulations related to import/export and trade controls, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation and other U.S. and foreign privacy regulations, and transportation and logistics regulations. These laws and regulations may increase our costs of doing business in international jurisdictions and expose our operations and our employees to elevated risk. We require our employees, contractors and agents to comply with these and all other applicable laws and regulations, but failure to do so could result in possible administrative, civil or criminal liability and reputational harm to us and our employees.

As a supplier on federal, state and local public procurement projects, including projects that may arise out of proposed or recently enacted governmental legislation regarding infrastructure investments, we may be subject to certain stringent procurement regulations that may present compliance challenges or may increase the costs of securing certain business. We may also be indirectly affected through regulatory changes that impact our customers, which in turn could reduce the quantity of our products they demand, adversely impact the terms upon which they purchase or the prices for our products they are willing to pay. Regulatory changes that impact our suppliers could decrease the availability of products or services they sell to us or could increase the price they demand for products or services they sell to us.

Our operations use hazardous materials and inadvertently may impact the environment, which could result in material liabilities to us.

Our operations currently use, and have in the past used, hazardous materials and substances, and we have generated, and expect to continue to generate, solid and hazardous waste. We have been, and may in the future be, subject to claims under international, foreign, federal, state, provincial and local laws and regulations for toxic torts, natural resource damages and other damages as well as for the investigation and clean-up of soil, surface water, sediments, groundwater and other natural resources and reclamation of properties. Such claims for damages, as well as investigation, remediation and reclamation requirements, have arisen and may arise in the future out of current, future or former conditions at sites that we or our acquired companies own, lease or operate, as well as sites that we or our acquired companies formerly owned, leased or operated, and at contaminated sites that are or have been owned, leased or operated by our joint venture partners. We may also have liability for contamination at third-party sites where we have sent hazardous wastes. Our liability for these claims may be strict and/or joint and several, such that we may be held responsible for more than our share of the contamination or other damages, or even for entire claims regardless of fault. We may be named as a potentially responsible party at other third-party sites in the future, and we cannot be certain that the costs associated with these additional sites will not exceed any reserves we have established or otherwise be material.

We may be unable to obtain, maintain, renew or comply with permits necessary for our operations or be required to provide additional financial assurances, which could reduce our production, cash flows, profitability and available liquidity.

We must obtain, maintain and comply with numerous permits that require approval of operational plans and impose strict conditions on various environmental, health and safety matters in connection with our steel production and processing and mining and other operations. These include permits and approvals issued by various federal,

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state, provincial, foreign and local agencies and regulatory bodies, with which we may not always be able to comply. The permitting rules are complex and may change over time, making our ability to comply with the applicable requirements more difficult or potentially impractical and costly, possibly precluding the continuance of ongoing operations or the development of future operations. Interpretations of rules may also change over time and may lead to requirements, such as additional financial assurances, making it costlier to comply. Moreover, despite our ongoing efforts to reduce our environmental footprint and improve the resiliency of our business model, heightened levels of regulatory oversight focused on addressing climate change and industrial activities that generate GHG emissions, such as our steelmaking, cokemaking and mining operations, could impact, delay or disrupt our ability to obtain new or renewed permits or modifications to existing permits.

In addition, the public, including special interest groups and individuals, have certain rights under various statutes to comment upon, submit objections to, and otherwise engage in the permitting process, including bringing citizens’ lawsuits to challenge such permits or activities. Accordingly, required permits may not be issued or renewed in a timely fashion (or at all), or permits issued or renewed may include conditions that we cannot meet or otherwise be conditioned in ways that may restrict our ability to conduct our production, mining and processing activities efficiently or include requirements for additional financial assurances that we may not be able to provide on commercially reasonable terms (or at all), which could reduce available borrowing capacity under our ABL Facility. Such conditions, restrictions or requirements could also reduce our production, cash flows or profitability.

III. FINANCIAL RISKS

Our existing and future indebtedness may limit cash flow available to invest in the ongoing needs of our businesses, which could prevent us from fulfilling our obligations under our senior notes, ABL Facility and other debt, and we may be forced to take other actions to satisfy our obligations under our debt, which may not be successful.

As of December 31, 2021, we had $5,369 million aggregate principal amount of long-term debt outstanding, $1,452 million of which was secured (excluding $175 million of outstanding letters of credit and $291 million of finance leases), and $48 million of cash on our balance sheet. On December 17, 2021, we amended our ABL Facility to, among other things, increase the tranche A revolver commitments available under the ABL Facility by an additional $1,000 million and exchange $150 million of tranche B revolver commitments available thereunder for tranche A revolver commitments. After giving effect to this amendment, the aggregate principal amount of tranche A revolver commitments under our ABL Facility is $4,500 million, and there are no longer any tranche B commitments under our ABL Facility. As of December 31, 2021, $1,609 million was outstanding under our ABL Facility, and the principal amount of letters of credit obligations and other commitments totaled $175 million. As of December 31, 2021, the available borrowing capacity on our ABL Facility was $2,716 million.

We dedicate a portion of our cash flow from operations to the payment of debt service, reducing the availability of our cash flow to fund capital expenditures, acquisitions or strategic development initiatives, and other general corporate purposes. Our ability to make scheduled payments on or to refinance our debt obligations depends on our ability to generate cash in the future and our financial condition and operating performance, which are subject to prevailing economic and competitive conditions and to certain financial, business and other factors beyond our control, including the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. There can be no assurance that we will maintain a level of cash flows from operating activities sufficient to permit us to pay the principal, premium, if any, and interest on our debt. In addition, any failure to comply with covenants in the instruments governing our debt could result in an event of default that, if not cured or waived, would have a material adverse effect on us.

Our level of indebtedness could have further consequences, including, but not limited to, increasing our vulnerability to adverse economic or industry conditions, placing us at a competitive disadvantage compared to other businesses in the industries in which we operate that are not as leveraged and that may be better positioned to withstand economic downturns, limiting our flexibility to plan for, or react to, changes in our businesses and the industries in which we operate, and requiring us to refinance all or a portion of our existing debt. We may not be able to refinance on commercially reasonable terms or at all, and any refinancing of our debt could be at higher interest rates and may require us to comply with more onerous covenants, making it more difficult to obtain surety bonds, letters of credit or other financial assurances that may be demanded by our vendors or regulatory agencies, particularly during periods in which credit markets are weak.

A portion of our borrowing capacity and outstanding indebtedness bears interest at a variable rate based on LIBOR. According to the FCA, the IBA will permanently cease to publish each of the LIBOR settings by June 2023. It is unclear whether new methods of calculating LIBOR will be established such that it continues to exist after such end date, and there is considerable uncertainty regarding the publication or representativeness of LIBOR beyond such

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end date. The U.S. Federal Reserve, in conjunction with the Alternative Reference Rates Committee, is seeking to replace U.S. dollar LIBOR with a newly created index, SOFR. Our ABL Facility provides a mechanism to automatically transition to a SOFR-based benchmark when all USD LIBOR settings are no longer provided or are no longer representative. In addition, our ABL Facility includes an option for us and the agent to jointly elect to transition early to a SOFR-based benchmark, or in certain circumstances, an alternative benchmark replacement. It is not possible to predict the effect of these changes, other reforms or the establishment of alternative reference rates. To the extent these interest rates increase, our interest expense will increase. If sources of capital for us are reduced, capital costs could increase materially. Restricted access to capital markets and/or increased borrowing costs could have an adverse effect on our results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and liquidity.

If we are unable to service our debt obligations, we could face substantial liquidity problems and we may be forced to reduce or delay investments and capital expenditures, or to sell assets, seek additional capital, including additional secured or unsecured debt, or restructure or refinance our debt, and we may be unable to continue as a going concern. We may be unable to consummate any proposed asset sales or recover the carrying value of these assets, and any proceeds may not be adequate to meet any debt service obligations then due. Any of these examples potentially could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations, profitability, shareholders’ equity and capital structure.

Changes in credit ratings issued by nationally recognized statistical rating organizations could adversely affect our cost of financing and the market price of our securities.

Credit rating agencies could downgrade our ratings due to various developments, including incurring additional indebtedness and other factors specific to our businesses, a prolonged cyclical downturn in the steel, scrap metal and mining industries or macroeconomic trends (such as global or regional recessions), increases in pension and OPEB obligations, and trends in credit and capital markets more generally. Any decline in our credit ratings may result in an increase to our cost of future financing or limit our access to the capital markets, which could harm our financial condition, hinder our ability to refinance existing indebtedness on acceptable terms, or have an adverse effect on the market price of our securities and the terms under which we purchase goods and services.

Our actual operating results may differ significantly from our guidance.

From time to time, we release guidance, including that set forth under “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations–Outlook” in our Annual Reports on Form 10-K and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, regarding our future performance. This guidance, which consists of forward-looking statements, is prepared by our management and is qualified by, and subject to, the assumptions and the other information included in our Annual Reports on Form 10-K and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Our guidance is not prepared with a view toward compliance with published guidelines of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and neither our independent registered public accounting firm nor any other independent or outside party compiles or examines the guidance and, accordingly, no such person expresses any opinion or any other form of assurance with respect thereto.

Guidance is based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while presented with numerical specificity, are inherently subject to business, economic, regulatory and competitive uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control and are based upon specific assumptions with respect to future business decisions, some of which will change. The principal reason that we release such data is to provide a basis for our management to discuss our business outlook with analysts and investors. We do not accept any responsibility for any projections or reports published by any such third parties.

Guidance is necessarily speculative in nature, and it can be expected that some or all of the assumptions of the guidance furnished by us will not materialize or will vary significantly from actual results. Accordingly, our guidance is only an estimate of what management believes is realizable as of the date of release. Actual results will vary from the guidance. Investors should also recognize that the reliability of any forecasted financial data diminishes the further in the future that the data are forecast. In light of the foregoing, investors are urged to put the guidance in context and not to place undue reliance on it.

Any failure to successfully implement our operating strategy or the occurrence of any of the risks described in our Annual Reports on Form 10-K or our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q could cause actual operating results to differ from the guidance, and such differences may be adverse and material.

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We may be subject to various lawsuits, claims, arbitrations or governmental proceedings that could result in significant expenditures.

We are from time to time subject to various lawsuits, claims, arbitrations or governmental proceedings relating to commercial and business disputes, environmental matters, government investigations, occupational or personal injury claims, property damage, labor and employment matters, or suits involving legacy operations and other matters. For example, certain of our subsidiaries have been named in lawsuits claiming exposure to asbestos, many of which have been dismissed and/or settled for non-material amounts. Nevertheless, it is likely that similar types of claims will continue to be filed in the future, and we could experience material adverse judgments or incur significant costs to defend such claims or any other existing and future lawsuits, claims, arbitrations or governmental proceedings. The insurance we maintain may not be adequate to protect us in the event of significant claims.

IV. OPERATIONAL RISKS

Our operating expenses could increase significantly if the prices of raw materials, electrical power, fuel or other energy sources increase.

Our operations require significant use of energy and raw materials. Although we are fully self-sufficient in iron ore and partially self-sufficient in coke, metallurgical coal and scrap metal, we are wholly or partially dependent on third-party suppliers for certain critical raw materials and production inputs, including industrial gases, graphite electrodes, chrome, zinc, coke, metallurgical coal and scrap metal. Prices for electricity, natural gas, diesel fuel, oils and raw materials can fluctuate widely with availability and demand levels from other users, including fluctuations caused by the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. For example, increased electricity demand to the grid in response to physical climate-related risks and electrification of the economy could adversely impact energy prices. During periods of peak usage, although some operations have contractual arrangements in place whereby they receive certain offsetting payments in exchange for electricity load reduction, supplies of energy and raw materials in general may be curtailed and we may not be able to purchase them at historical rates. A disruption in the transmission of energy, inadequate energy transmission infrastructure, or the termination of any of our energy supply contracts could interrupt our energy supply and adversely affect our operations. While we have some long-term contracts with electrical, natural gas and raw material suppliers, we are exposed to fluctuations in energy, natural gas and raw material costs that can affect our production costs. We enter into many market-based pricing supply contracts for electricity, natural gas and diesel fuel for use in our operations. Those contracts expose us to price increases in energy costs, which could cause our profitability to decrease significantly. As an example, our Toledo direct reduction plant is subject to changes in the market price of natural gas, which is a key input in the direct reduction of iron ore pellets to produce HBI, and natural gas experienced a substantial market price increase during the fourth quarter of 2021. In addition, U.S. public utilities may impose rate increases and pass through additional capital and operating cost increases to their customers related to new or pending U.S. environmental regulations or other charges that may require significant capital investment and use of cleaner fuels in the future. In particular, the recent decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia vacating and remanding the Affordable Clean Energy Rule, as well as recent executive orders from President Biden regarding the environment and climate change, indicate that new or revised regulations under the Biden Administration could result in rate increases from U.S. utilities.

The majority of our steel shipments are sold under contracts that do not allow us to pass through all increases in raw materials, supplies and energy costs. Some of our customer contracts include variable-pricing mechanisms allowing us to adjust the total sales price based on changes in specified raw materials, supplies and energy costs. Those adjustments, however, rarely reflect all of our underlying raw materials, supplies and energy cost changes. The scope of the adjustment may also be limited by the terms of the negotiated language, including limitations on when the adjustment occurs. Our need to consume existing inventories may also delay the impact of a change in prices of raw materials or supplies. Significant changes in raw material costs may also increase the potential for inventory value write-downs in the event of a reduction in selling prices and our inability to realize the cost of the inventory. In addition, even though we are partially self-sufficient in scrap metal, if the market price of scrap metal were to experience a sustained price increase, our cost to produce steel would be adversely affected due to the higher prices we would need to pay to acquire third-party scrap metal for consumption in our operations.

Our sales and competitive position depend on transporting our products to customers at competitive rates and in a timely manner, and our ability to optimize our operational footprint depends on predictably and cost effectively moving products and raw materials internally among our facilities.

Disruption of the rail, trucking, lake and other waterway transportation services because of weather-related problems, including ice and winter weather conditions on the Great Lakes or St. Lawrence Seaway, climate change,

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strikes, lock-outs, driver shortages and other disruptions in the trucking industry, train crew shortages or other rail network constraints, global or domestic pandemics or epidemics (such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic) or other infectious disease outbreaks, in each case causing a business disruption, or other events and lack of alternative transportation options could impair our ability to move products internally among our facilities and to supply products to our customers at competitive rates or in a timely manner and, thus, could adversely affect our operations, revenues, margins and profitability. Further, dredging issues and environmental changes, particularly at Great Lakes ports, could impact adversely our ability to move certain of our products or result in higher freight rates. Similarly, we depend on third-party transportation services for delivery of raw materials and other production inputs to us, and failures or delays in delivery would have an adverse effect on our ability to maintain steady-state production and processing operations to meet customer obligations.

Natural or human-caused disasters, weather conditions, disruption of energy, unanticipated geological conditions, equipment failures, infectious disease outbreaks, and other unexpected events may lead our customers, our suppliers or our facilities to curtail production or shut down operations.

Operating levels within our industry and the industries of our customers and suppliers are subject to unexpected conditions and events that are beyond the industries’ control. Those events, including the occurrence of an infectious disease, widespread illness or public health emergency, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, could cause industry members or their suppliers to curtail production or shut down a portion or all of their operations, which could reduce the demand for our products and adversely affect our revenues, margins and profitability. For example, the temporary production shutdowns in the automotive industry that occurred during 2020 as a result of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated reduction in demand for our products led to our decision to temporarily idle certain steelmaking facilities and iron ore mines.

Our operating levels are subject to conditions beyond our control that can delay deliveries or increase the cost of production for varying lengths of time. Factors that could cause production disruptions could include adverse weather conditions due to climate change or otherwise (such as extreme winter weather, tornadoes, floods, and the lack of availability of process water due to drought) and natural and human-caused disasters, lack of adequate raw materials, energy or other supplies, and infectious disease outbreaks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. During 2021, for example, while it did not result in material financial consequences, we experienced a severe weather event involving a tornado that damaged one of our Tooling and Stamping production facilities and a third-party warehouse located in Kentucky, which adversely impacted our operations, destroyed some of our finished goods inventory and disrupted certain scheduled deliveries to customers. In addition, factors that could adversely impact production and operations at our mining operations include tailings dam failures, pit wall failures, unanticipated geological conditions, including variations in the amount of rock and soil overlying deposits of iron ore and metallurgical coal, and processing changes.

Our mining operations, processing facilities, steelmaking and logistics operations depend on critical pieces of equipment. This equipment may, on occasion, be out of service because of unanticipated failures or unplanned outages. In addition, most of our mines and production and processing facilities have been in operation for several decades, and the equipment is aged. In the future, we may experience additional lengthy shutdowns or periods of reduced production because of equipment failures. Further, remediation of any interruption in production capability may require us to make large capital expenditures that could have a negative impact on our profitability and cash flows. Our business interruption insurance would not cover all of the lost revenues associated with equipment failures. Longer-term business disruptions could result in a loss of customers, which could adversely affect our future sales levels and revenues.

Many of our production facilities and mines are dependent on one source for electric power, natural gas, industrial gases and/or certain other raw materials or supplies. A significant interruption in service from our suppliers due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, terrorism or sabotage, weather conditions such as heat waves that may be attributable to climate change, natural disasters, equipment failure or any other cause could result in substantial losses that may not be fully recoverable, either from our business interruption insurance or responsible third parties.

A disruption in or failure of our IT systems, including those related to cybersecurity, could adversely affect our business operations, reputation and financial performance.

We rely on the accuracy, capacity, integrity and security of our IT systems for the operation of many of our business processes and to comply with regulatory, legal and tax requirements. While we maintain some of our critical IT systems, we are also dependent on third parties to provide important IT services relating to, among other things, off-site content hosting, operational process technology at our facilities, human resources, electronic communications and certain finance functions. Further, in connection with our recent acquisitions, we inherited certain legacy

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hardware and software IT systems that can be supported only by a very limited number of specialists in the market, and our increased reliance on these legacy IT systems may increase the risk of IT system disruption or failure, which could adversely affect our operations.

Despite the security measures that we have implemented, including those related to cybersecurity, our IT systems could be breached or damaged by computer viruses, natural or human-caused incidents or disasters, or unauthorized physical or electronic access or intrusions. Though we have controls in place, we cannot provide assurance that a cyberattack will not occur. Furthermore, despite our efforts to audit certain critical vendors’ information security controls, we may have little or no oversight with respect to security measures employed by third-party service providers, which may ultimately prove to be ineffective at countering threats. We may also experience increased risk of IT system failures or cyberattacks as many of our employees continue to work from home on a periodic basis as part of our response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Failures of our IT systems, whether caused maliciously or inadvertently, may result in the disruption of our business processes, or in the unauthorized release of sensitive, confidential, personally identifiable or otherwise protected information, or result in the corruption of data, each of which could adversely affect our businesses. For example, cybersecurity vulnerabilities could result in an interruption of the functionality of our automated manufacturing operating or health and safety systems, which, if compromised, could cease, threaten, delay or slow down our ability to produce or process steel or any of our other products for the duration of such interruption or lead to unanticipated health or safety incidents, which could result in reputational harm and may adversely affect our employees, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows. In addition, any compromise of the security of our IT systems could result in a loss of confidence in our security measures and subject us to litigation, regulatory investigations and negative publicity that could adversely affect our reputation and financial condition. Our customers, suppliers and vendors may also access or store certain of our sensitive information on their IT systems, which, if breached, attacked or accessed by unauthorized persons, could likewise expose our sensitive information and adversely impact our businesses. Furthermore, as cybersecurity threats continue to evolve and become more sophisticated, we may be required to incur significant costs and invest additional resources to protect against and, if required, remediate the damage caused by such disruptions or system failures in the future. The amount of insurance coverage we maintain may be inadequate to cover claims or liabilities resulting from cybersecurity attacks.

The closure of an operating facility or mine entails substantial costs. If our assumptions underlying our accruals for closure costs prove to be inaccurate or we prematurely close one or more of our facilities or mines, our results of operations and financial condition would likely be adversely affected.

If faced with overcapacity in the market or other adverse conditions, including as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we may seek to rationalize assets through asset sales, temporary shutdowns, indefinite idles or facility closures. If we indefinitely idle or permanently close any of our facilities or mines, our production and revenues would be reduced unless we were able to increase production at our other facilities or mines in an offsetting amount, which may not be possible, and could result in customers responding negatively by taking current or future business away from us if we seek to transition production to a different facility. Alternatively, we could fail to meet customer specifications at the facilities to which products are transitioned, resulting in customer dissatisfaction or claims.

The closure of a steelmaking or other operating facility or mining operation involves significant closure costs, including reclamation and other environmental costs, the costs of terminating long-term obligations, including customer, energy and transportation contracts and equipment and real property leases, and certain accounting charges, including asset impairment and accelerated depreciation. In addition, a permanent facility or mine closure could accelerate and significantly increase employment legacy costs, including our expense and funding costs for pension and OPEB obligations and multiemployer pension withdrawal liabilities. For example, a number of employees would be eligible for immediate retirement under special eligibility rules that apply upon a steelmaking facility or mine closure. All employees eligible for immediate retirement under the pension plans at the time of the permanent closure also could be eligible for OPEB, thereby accelerating our obligation to provide these benefits. Certain closures would precipitate a pension closure liability significantly greater than an ongoing operation liability and may trigger certain severance liability obligations. In addition, we are party to several joint ventures relating to iron ore mining, downstream steel processing and scrap metal recycling, and if our joint venture partners experience financial hardships or fail to perform their obligations upon closure, we may be required to assume significant additional obligations on behalf of the joint venture, including costs of environmental remediation and pension and OPEB obligations.

We base our assumptions regarding the life of our mines on detailed studies we perform from time to time, but those studies and assumptions are subject to uncertainties and estimates that may not be accurate. We recognize the costs of reclaiming open pits, stockpiles, tailings ponds, roads and other mining support areas based on the

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estimated mining life of our properties. If our assumptions underlying our accruals for closure costs, including reclamation and other environmental costs, prove to be inaccurate or insufficient, or our liability in any particular year is greater than currently anticipated, our results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected. In addition, if we were to significantly reduce the estimated life of any of our mines, the mine closure costs would be applied to a shorter period of production, which would increase costs per ton produced and could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

We incur certain costs when production capacity is idled, as well as increased costs to resume production at previously idled facilities.

Our decisions concerning which facilities to operate and at what production levels are made based in part upon our customers’ orders for products, as well as the quality, performance capabilities and cost of our operations. During depressed market conditions, we may concentrate production at certain facilities and not operate others in response to customer demand, and as a result we may incur idle costs that could offset our anticipated savings from not operating the idled facility. For example, due to reduced demand arising out of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, certain of our steelmaking facilities and iron ore mines were temporarily idled during portions of 2020 and we continued to incur certain fixed costs at those facilities. We cannot predict whether our operations will experience additional similar or dissimilar disruptions in the future.

When we restart idled facilities, we incur certain costs to replenish inventories, prepare the previously idled facilities for operation, perform the required repair and maintenance activities, and prepare employees to return to work safely and resume production responsibilities. The amount of any such costs could be significant, depending on a variety of factors, such as the period of idle time, necessary repairs and available employees, and is difficult to project.

We face ongoing risks relating to our recent mergers and acquisitions activities.

In recent years, we have completed several significant acquisition transactions, including the AK Steel Merger, the AM USA Transaction and the FPT Acquisition. These recent acquisitions have transformed our business and involve a number of significant risks and uncertainties that may adversely affect us over the short, medium and long terms, including the following:

•inability to realize anticipated synergies or other expected benefits or cost savings;

•additional debt incurred or assumed in connection with the acquisitions could limit our financial flexibility;

•diversion of financial resources to the new operations or acquired businesses;

•assumption of substantial additional environmental exposures, commitments, contingencies and remediation and reclamation projects;

•liabilities for acquired pension and OPEB obligations, which could require us to make significant cash expenditures and funding contributions in excess of current estimates and contribution rates;

•impairment of recorded tangible and intangible asset values, including goodwill, could result in material non-cash charges to our results of operations in the future;

•failure to successfully separate from legacy systems and to integrate acquired systems, business processes, policies and procedures;

•exposure to unknown liabilities and unforeseen costs that were not disclosed to us or discovered during due diligence;

•potential loss of key employees, suppliers or customers; and

•other challenges associated with managing the larger, more complex and integrated combined businesses.

If one or more of these risks and uncertainties were to materialize, we could experience reduced revenues, higher costs, lower profitability and other adverse impacts to our operations and businesses.

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We may not have adequate insurance coverage for some business risks.

Our operations are generally subject to a number of hazards and risks that could result in personal injury or damage to, or destruction of, equipment, properties or facilities. Depending on the nature and extent of a loss, the insurance that we maintain to address risks that are typical in our businesses may not be adequate or available to fully protect or reimburse us, or our insurance coverage may be limited, canceled or otherwise terminated. Insurance against some risks, such as liabilities for environmental pollution, tailings basin breaches, or certain hazards or interruption of certain business activities, may not be available at an economically reasonable cost, or at all. Even if available, we may self-insure where we determine it is most cost effective to do so. As a result, despite the insurance coverage that we carry, accidents or other negative developments involving our production, mining, processing or transportation activities causing losses in excess of policy limits, or losses arising from events not covered under insurance policies, could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and cash flows. In addition, the potential increase in extreme weather events due to climate change or otherwise may adversely impact our access to cost effective insurance in the future. The risk of increased insurance costs may have greater impact where the adverse event, such as the tornado we recently experienced at our Tooling and Stamping operations in Kentucky, results in us asserting an insurance claim, the cost of which our insurers may seek to recoup during a future insurance renewal through increased premiums or limitations on coverage.

V. SUSTAINABILITY AND DEVELOPMENT RISKS

As our customers, competitors and investors seek to reduce their carbon footprint, transition to carbon neutrality and enhance the sustainability of their respective businesses, we face increased financial, regulatory, legal and reputational risks and potential loss of business opportunities because our operations utilize carbon-based energy sources and produce GHG emissions.

As described in detail in Part I - Item 1, Business - Environment - Regulatory Developments - Climate Change and GHG Regulation above, because our operations use carbon-based energy and produce GHG emissions, we are subject to a number of risks relating to decarbonization initiatives being undertaken by regulators and other stakeholders as part of global efforts to address the potential impacts of climate change. For example, as part of climate change mitigation strategies, federal, state or local governmental authorities may introduce mandatory carbon pricing obligations, carbon emissions limitations, carbon taxes or carbon trading mechanisms, any of which could impose significant costs on our operations, including causing us to incur higher energy costs, invest in costly and potentially unproven emissions control or reduction technologies, and engage in more intensive environmental monitoring and reporting efforts. In addition, complying with current or future international treaties and federal, state or local laws or regulations concerning climate change and GHG emissions could negatively impact our ability, and that of our customers and suppliers, to compete with companies located in areas not subject to or not complying with such constraints. We may also face more limited access to, or increased costs of, capital to the extent financial institutions and investors increase expectations relating to lowering GHG emissions or reduce investments in carbon-intensive businesses. Further, increased pressure from customers or other business partners seeking to reduce their indirect carbon footprints could result in the potential loss of business opportunities if we are unable to meet their carbon, GHG emissions or sustainability expectations.

In order to maintain consistent operational performance and foster growth in our businesses, we must maintain our social license to operate with our stakeholders.

Maintaining a strong reputation and consistent operational, environmental and safety track records is vital in order to continue to foster business growth and maintain our permission to operate. As stakeholders’ sustainability expectations increase and regulatory requirements continue to evolve, maintaining our social license to operate becomes increasingly important. Our ability to maintain our reputation and strong operating track record could be threatened, including by challenges relating to the integration of our recent acquisitions or by circumstances outside of our control, such as disasters caused or suffered by other companies in the steel and mining industries. Our social license to operate could also be adversely affected and claims could be made against us to the extent that environmental factors negatively impact local communities, such as air emissions, discharges to water, dust, odors, noise and other factors that are inherent in industrial activities like our steelmaking, cokemaking, scrap metal processing and mining operations, even if such activities are conducted in accordance with legal, regulatory and permit requirements. If we are not able to respond effectively to these and other challenges to our social license to operate, our reputation could be damaged significantly. Damage to our reputation could adversely affect our operations, current and prospective business relationships, and ability to foster growth projects.

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The cost and time to implement a strategic capital project may prove to be greater than originally anticipated.

From time to time, we undertake strategic capital projects, such as our recently-completed Toledo direct reduction plant, in order to enhance, expand or upgrade our production, mining and processing capabilities or to diversify our customer base. Our ability to achieve the anticipated production volumes, revenues or otherwise realize acceptable returns on strategic capital projects that we may undertake is subject to a number of risks, many of which are beyond our control, including a variety of market (such as a volatile pricing environment for our products), operational, permitting and labor-related factors. Further, the cost to implement any given strategic capital project ultimately may prove to be greater and may take more time than originally anticipated. Inability to achieve the anticipated results from the implementation of our strategic capital projects, incurring unanticipated implementation costs or penalties, or the inability to meet contractual obligations could adversely affect our results of operations and future earnings and cash flow generation.

We rely on estimates of our recoverable mineral reserves, which is complex due to geological characteristics of the properties and the number of assumptions made.

We regularly evaluate, and engage third-party QPs to review and validate, our mineral reserves based on revenues and costs and update them as required in accordance with SEC regulations. Estimates of mineral reserves and future net cash flows necessarily depend upon a number of variable factors and assumptions, some of which are beyond our control, such as production capacity, effects of regulations by governmental agencies, future prices for minerals we mine, future industry conditions and operating costs, severance and excise taxes, development costs, and costs of extraction and reclamation. Estimating the quantity and grade of mineral reserves requires us to determine the size, shape and depth of our mineralized bodies by analyzing geological data, such as samplings of drill holes, and a QP to review and validate our determinations. Estimated mineral reserves could be affected by future industry conditions, future changes in the SEC’s mining property disclosure requirements, variation in geological conditions and ongoing mine planning. Actual volume and grade of reserves recovered, production rates, revenues on third-party sales and expenditures with respect to our reserves will likely vary from estimates, and if such variances are material, our sales and profitability could be adversely affected.

Defects in title or loss of any leasehold interests in our mining properties could limit our ability to mine these properties or result in significant unanticipated costs.

Many of our operations are conducted on properties we lease, license or as to which we have easements or other possessory interests. We generally do not maintain title insurance on our properties. A title defect or the loss of any lease, license, easement or other possessory interest for any mining property could adversely affect our ability to mine any associated reserves. In addition, from time to time the rights of third parties for competing uses of adjacent, overlying or underlying lands, such as for roads, easements, public facilities or other mining activities, may affect our ability to operate as planned if our title is not superior or mutually acceptable arrangements cannot be negotiated. Any challenge to our title could delay the exploration and development of some reserves, resources, deposits or surface rights, cause us to incur unanticipated costs, and could ultimately result in the loss of some or all of our interest in those properties. In the event we lose reserves, resources, deposits or surface rights, we may be required to shut down or significantly alter impacted mining operations, thereby affecting future production, revenues and cash flows.

VI. HUMAN CAPITAL RISKS

We may encounter labor shortages for critical operational positions, which could adversely affect our ability to produce our products.

We are predicting a long-term shortage of skilled workers in heavy industry and in certain highly specialized IT roles, and competition for available workers limits our ability to attract and retain employees as well as engage third-party contractors. As our experienced employees retire and we lose their specialized institutional knowledge of our legacy businesses and systems, we have encountered challenges and may continue to have difficulty replacing them at competitive wages. In addition, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a number of workers resigning or retiring sooner than would typically be expected, and the pandemic may continue to result in increased government restrictions and regulation, including quarantines of our personnel and potential inability to access facilities, which has adversely affected and could continue to adversely affect our operations.

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Our profitability could be adversely affected if we fail to maintain satisfactory labor relations.

Our production is dependent upon the efforts of our employees. We are party to labor agreements with various labor unions that represent employees at the majority of our operations. Such labor agreements are negotiated periodically, and, therefore, we are subject to the risk that these agreements may not be able to be renewed on reasonably satisfactory terms. It is difficult to predict what issues may arise as part of the collective bargaining process, and whether negotiations concerning these issues will be successful. Due to union activities or other employee actions, we could experience labor disputes, work stoppages or other disruptions in our production that could affect us adversely. While we successfully negotiated all of our labor agreements that expired in 2021, we have ten labor agreements that will expire in 2022 and three labor agreements that will expire in 2023, and the outcomes of those labor negotiations are uncertain. If we enter into a new labor agreement with any union that significantly increases our labor costs relative to our competitors or fail to come to an agreement upon expiry, our ability to compete or continuity of production may be materially and adversely affected.

We depend on our senior management team and other key employees, and the loss of these employees could adversely affect our businesses.

Our success depends in part on our ability to attract, retain, develop and motivate our senior management and key employees. Achieving this objective may be difficult due to a variety of factors, including fluctuations in the global economic and industry conditions, competitors’ hiring practices, cost reduction activities, and the effectiveness of our compensation programs. Competition for qualified personnel can be intense. We must continue to recruit, retain, develop and motivate our senior management and key personnel in order to maintain our businesses and support our projects. A loss of senior management and key personnel could prevent us from capitalizing on business opportunities, and our operating results could be adversely affected. We are also subject to the risk that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic may impact the health or effectiveness of members of our senior management team or other key employees.

Our expenditures for pension and OPEB obligations could be materially higher than we have predicted if our underlying assumptions differ from actual outcomes, there are regulatory changes or other contributors fail to perform their obligations that relate to employee pension plans.

We provide defined benefit pension plans and OPEB to certain eligible union and non-union employees. Our pension and OPEB expenses and our required contributions to our pension and OPEB plans are affected directly by the value of plan assets, the projected and actual rate of return on plan assets, and the actuarial assumptions we use to measure our defined benefit pension plan obligations, including the rate at which future obligations are discounted. We cannot predict whether changing market or economic conditions, regulatory changes or other factors will increase our pension and OPEB expenses or our funding obligations, diverting funds we would otherwise apply to other uses.

We have calculated our unfunded pension and OPEB obligations based on a number of assumptions. If our assumptions do not materialize as expected, cash expenditures and costs that we incur could be materially higher. Moreover, we cannot be certain that regulatory changes will not increase our obligations to provide these or additional benefits. These obligations also may increase substantially in the event of adverse medical cost trends or unexpected rates of early retirement, particularly for bargaining unit retirees. In addition, changes in the laws governing pensions could also materially adversely affect our costs and ability to meet our pension obligations.

We also contribute to certain multiemployer pension plans, including the Steelworkers’ Pension Trust, for which we are one of the largest contributing employers. If other contributors were to default on their obligations to contribute to any such plans, we could become liable for additional unfunded contributions to the plans.

In addition, some of the transactions in which we previously sold or otherwise disposed of our non-core assets included provisions transferring certain pension and other liabilities to the purchasers or acquirers of those assets. While we believe that all such transfers were completed properly and are legally binding, if the purchaser fails to fulfill its obligations, we may be at risk that a court, arbitrator or regulatory body could disagree and determine that we remain responsible for pension and other liabilities that we intended to and did transfer.


Item 1B.			Unresolved Staff Comments

We have no unresolved comments from the SEC.

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Item 2.			Properties

The following map shows the locations of our operations and offices as of December 31, 2021:

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Corporate Offices

We lease our corporate headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. We also have leased office space in West Chester, Ohio, Chicago, Illinois and Detroit, Michigan. We own our office space located in Burns Harbor, Indiana and our Research and Innovation Center located in Middletown, Ohio.

Steelmaking

Steelmaking and Finishing Facilities

Below is a listing and description of our principal steelmaking and finishing facilities:

Burns Harbor is a fully integrated steelmaking facility located on Lake Michigan in Northwest Indiana, 50 miles southeast of Chicago. The location allows for prime shipping access to the Port of Indiana, as well as excellent highway and railroad transport. Burns Harbor’s major production facilities include coke plant operations, iron producing, steel producing, hot rolling, pickling, cold rolling, annealing, galvanizing, finishing and plate rolling and heat treating. The plant operates two blast furnaces and is capable of producing hot-rolled sheet, cold-rolled sheet and hot dip galvanized sheet. Burns Harbor is capable of producing nearly 5 million net tons of raw steel annually. Burns Harbor serves key markets including the automotive, appliance, construction, converters, distribution and pipe and tube markets.

Burns Harbor Plate and Gary Plate are located in Burns Harbor and Gary, Indiana, respectively, and are heat treating and finishing operations producing carbon steel plate, high-strength low alloy steel plate and ASTM grades steel plate. These operations serve the construction, distribution, energy, heavy equipment, infrastructure, military, pipe and tube, rail car and shipbuilding markets.

Butler Works is located in Butler, Pennsylvania, and produces stainless, electrical and carbon steel. Melting takes place in an EAF that feeds an argon-oxygen decarburization unit for the specialty steels. A ladle metallurgy furnace feeds two double-strand continuous casters, which are capable of producing 1 million net tons of raw steel annually. Butler Works also includes a hot rolling mill, annealing and pickling units and one tandem cold rolling mill. It also has various intermediate and finishing operations for both stainless and electrical steels. Butler Works primarily serves the power and distribution transformers and stainless and carbon converters markets.

The Cleveland facility is an integrated steelmaking facility strategically located on the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio, with access to the Port of Cleveland and Great Lakes shipping, as well as excellent highway and railroad transport. The Cleveland facility is supplied with coke from our cokemaking operations in Warren, Ohio. Cleveland's major production facilities include iron making, steel producing, hot rolling, pickle and cold rolling, and hot galvanizing. The plant is capable of producing more than 3 million net tons of raw steel annually. Products made at this location are hot-rolled, cold-rolled and hot-dipped galvanized sheet and semi-finished slabs. The Cleveland facility serves the automotive, construction, converters and distribution markets.

Coatesville is a steel plate production facility located in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, about 40 miles west of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and has access to highways and railroads. The facility produces steel from scrap in an EAF and is capable of producing 0.8 million net tons of raw steel annually. The facility also operates ingot teeming facilities, a slab caster, two plate mills, heat-treating facilities, quench and temper and flame-cut shape facilities. The Coatesville facility refines more than 450 different steel chemistries and, together with the Conshohocken facility, produces some of the widest, thickest and heaviest steel plates in the industry. Steel plate products made at this location include carbon, high-strength low-alloy, commercial alloy, military alloy and flame-cut steel. Coatesville serves the aircraft and aerospace, construction, distribution, energy, heavy equipment, military, mold and tool and shipbuilding markets.

Our Columbus operations include a hot-dip galvanizing facility in Columbus, Ohio, and a processing facility in nearby Obetz, Ohio. These operations were temporarily idled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and restarted during the second quarter of 2021. These central Ohio locations are able to utilize highway and rail transport shipping access. Two zinc pots enable the transition between coatings to be accomplished in a timely manner while allowing for longer exposed runs. The plant produces hot-dip galvanized sheet using cold-rolled coils supplied by other Cliffs facilities and is capable of coating 450,000 net tons annually. The Columbus operations serve the automotive and distribution markets.

Conshohocken is a plate finishing facility located on the Schuylkill River adjacent to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The area is surrounded by highway and railroad systems that provide shipping access. Coatesville and Burns Harbor supply steel plates to the Conshohocken plant, which operates heat treat, finishing and inspection

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facilities for steel plate finishing. The Conshohocken plant has a steckel mill that is currently idled, which is capable of producing coil and discrete plates. Conshohocken plate products are used in construction and military applications.

Coshocton Works is located in Coshocton, Ohio, and consists of a stainless steel finishing plant containing two Sendzimer mills and two Z-high mills for cold reduction, four annealing and pickling lines, bell annealing furnaces, two bright annealing lines, two temper mills, and other processing equipment, including temper rolling, slitting and a packaging line. Coshocton Works produces various flat-rolled stainless steel products including austenitic (chrome nickel) stainless steel grades, martensitic (chrome) stainless steel grades and ferritic (chrome) stainless steel grades, serving the automotive, appliance, distribution and medical markets among others.

Dearborn Works is an integrated steelmaking facility located in Dearborn, Michigan. The facility is strategically located in close proximity to the automotive center of Michigan with access to highway, railroad and waterway transport. Dearborn's major production facilities include iron making, steel producing, a pickling line tandem cold mill and a hot-dipped galvanizing line. Dearborn Works is capable of producing 3 million net tons of raw steel annually. Products made at this location include carbon slabs, cold-rolled, and hot-dip galvanized and galvannealed sheet. Dearborn Works serves the automotive, HVAC, converters and distribution markets. During 2020, the Dearborn Works hot strip mill, anneal and temper operations were permanently idled as part of our cost reduction efforts.

Indiana Harbor is one of the largest integrated steelmaking facilities in North America and is located in East Chicago, Indiana, just 20 miles southeast of Chicago, Illinois. The major production facilities include iron making, a recycle plant, steel producing, hot rolling, cold rolling, annealing, and hot dip galvanizing lines. Indiana Harbor is currently capable of producing 5.5 million net tons of raw steel annually. Indiana Harbor is a leader in North American development of new automotive products and is a primary supplier of coils to Kote and Tek. Indiana Harbor serves the automotive, appliance, contractor applications, distribution, steel producers, strip converters and tubular markets.

The Kote and Tek operations are located in New Carlisle, Indiana, and receive substantially all of their feedstock from Indiana Harbor via daily unit trains. Kote has separate lines producing 0.5 million net tons of hot-dip galvanized and galvannealed and 0.5 million net tons of electrogalvanized sheet annually. Tek is a continuous cold-rolling plant that is capable of producing 1.7 million net tons of sheet steel annually through a continuous descale cold mill and 1.0 million net tons of sheet steel annually through a continuous annealing processing line. The principal customers of Kote and Tek are in the automotive and appliance markets.

Mansfield Works is located in Mansfield, Ohio, and produces high chrome ferritics and martensitic stainless steels and semi-finished hot bands. The major production facilities include a melt shop with two EAFs, an argon oxygen decarburization unit, a ladle metallurgy facility, a thin slab continuous caster, a walking beam slab furnace and a hot rolling mill. The thin slab caster uses an advanced technology production system to meet customer specifications. Mansfield Works is capable of producing 0.6 million net tons of raw steel annually. Mansfield Works serves the automotive and appliance for stainless products markets.

Middletown Works is an integrated steel operation located in Middletown, Ohio, just 30 miles north of Cincinnati, Ohio with access to railroad and highway transport. The major production facilities include a coke facility, iron making and steel producing, which is capable of producing nearly 3 million net tons of raw steel annually. Middletown Works facilities also include hot rolling, pickling, cold rolling, electrogalvanizing, hot dip carbon and stainless aluminizing, hot dip galvanizing, annealing, and finishing facilities. We temporarily idled the coke facility during the third quarter of 2021, as a result of our HBI use in our blast furnaces. Products made at this location include hot-rolled and cold-rolled carbon steels, electrogalvanized steels, hot-dip galvanized products and aluminized carbon and stainless steel sheets. Middletown Works serves the automotive, appliance, HVAC, culvert and distribution markets.

Piedmont is a finishing facility located in Newton, North Carolina, 50 miles northwest of Charlotte. The facility specializes in plasma cutting plate steel products into blanks for machinery and automotive manufacturers and primarily serves the truck axle blank business. Additionally, it provides services such as part leveling and just-in-time deliveries.

Riverdale is a compact strip mill that produces hot-rolled sheet located in Illinois, 14 miles west of our Indiana Harbor facility. The location allows for close shipping access to Lake Michigan and is surrounded by highway and railroad systems. The Riverdale facility operates two BOFs, a ladle metallurgy facility, continuous thin slab caster, tunnel furnace and hot strip mill, which are capable of producing 1 million net tons of thin-slab casting and rolling annually. The light gauge capabilities and tight gauge tolerances are desired characteristics for line pipe and structural and mechanical tubing producers. Principal products made at this plant include hot-rolled black bands in a

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full range of grades, including high carbon and alloy. The Riverdale facility primarily serves cold-rolled strip producers who supply the automotive, saw blade and strapping markets.

Rockport Works is located near the Ohio River in southwest Indiana near Rockport, Indiana. Rockport Works consists of a carbon and stainless steel finishing plant containing a continuous cold rolling mill, a continuous hot-dip galvanizing and galvannealing line, a continuous carbon and stainless steel pickling line, a continuous stainless steel annealing and pickling line, hydrogen annealing facilities and a temper mill. Utilizing innovative manufacturing technologies, the plant incorporates automated guidance vehicles and automated cranes to move the steel through the various finishing operations. Steel produced at Rockport Works includes a full range of cold-rolled carbon, coated and stainless steels in either the annealed and pickled or temper rolled surface condition. Product offerings include a wide variety of AHSS. The Rockport Works hot-dip galvanizing and galvannealing line incorporates revolutionary proprietary technologies, including induction transition heating, which provides rapid, accurate annealing temperature control. In addition, the Rockport Works line produces 80-inch sheet steel. Rockport Works serves the automotive, appliance, HVAC and distribution for carbon and stainless markets.

Steelton is one of only three rail producers in North and South America and is located in Steelton, Pennsylvania, about 100 miles west of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Steelton consists of a 150 net ton direct current EAF with ladle refining and vacuum degassing, a three-strand continuous jumbo bloom caster and an ingot teeming facility. Steelton has an annual steelmaking capacity of 1 million net tons. Steelton produces railroad rails, specialty blooms, cast ingots and flat bars for use in railroad and forging markets.

Our Weirton facility is a tinplate facility located on the northern panhandle of West Virginia along the Ohio River in the city of Weirton, West Virginia. The location provides shipping access along the Ohio River, as well as highway and railroad shipping. Products made at this location include cold-rolled and tinplate products serving the distribution and packaging markets.

Zanesville Works is located on the Muskingum River in Zanesville, Ohio. The finishing facility's products include regular GOES and cold-rolled NOES. These specialty flat-rolled steels enable customers to create a variety of products, including generators, transformers and a host of other electrical devices. Zanesville Works primarily serves the power and distribution transformers markets.

In the aggregate, we have annual production capacity of approximately 23 million net tons of raw steel. Our steelmaking facilities produced a total of 18 million net tons of raw steel during the year ended December 31, 2021. Due to the timing of the 2020 Acquisitions and the idling of facilities in response to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, our steelmaking facilities produced a total of 4 million net tons of raw steel during the year ended December 31, 2020.

Scrap Processing Facilities

Our scrap business consists of our subsidiary FPT, which has 22 locations in Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Florida and Ontario. These facilities are primarily located in Michigan and Ohio, which are in close proximity to our scrap consuming steel facilities. FPT processes approximately 3 million net tons of scrap metal annually, of which approximately 50% of total output is prime grade.

Direct Reduction Plant

Our direct reduction plant is located in Toledo, Ohio, and is near an existing dock, has rail access and heavy haul roads for operation logistics. We are leasing the property on which the plant is located. Our Toledo direct reduction plant, which began production in the fourth quarter of 2020, produces a specialized high quality iron alternative to scrap and pig iron. The Toledo direct reduction plant has annual capacity of 1.9 million metric tons of HBI per year, and we reached full nameplate capacity in 2021.

Iron Ore Mines and Pellet Plants

The following information concerning our mining properties has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of subpart 1300 of Regulation S-K, which first became applicable to us for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021. These requirements differ significantly from the previously applicable disclosure requirements of SEC Industry Guide 7. Among other differences, subpart 1300 of Regulation S-K requires us to disclose our mineral resources, in addition to our mineral reserves, as of the end of our most recently completed fiscal year both in the aggregate and for each of our individually material mining properties.

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As used in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, the terms “mineral resource,” “measured mineral resource,” “indicated mineral resource,” “inferred mineral resource,” “mineral reserve,” “proven mineral reserve” and “probable mineral reserve” are defined and used in accordance with subpart 1300 of Regulation S-K. Under subpart 1300 of Regulation S-K, mineral resources may not be classified as “mineral reserves” unless the determination has been made by a QP that the mineral resources can be the basis of an economically viable project. You are specifically cautioned not to assume that any part or all of the mineral deposits (including any mineral resources) in these categories will ever be converted into mineral reserves, as defined by the SEC.

You are cautioned that, except for that portion of mineral resources classified as mineral reserves, mineral resources do not have demonstrated economic value. Estimates of inferred mineral resources have too high of a degree of uncertainty as to their existence and may not be converted to a mineral reserve. Therefore, you are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource exists, that it can be the basis of an economically viable project, or that it will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Likewise, you are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of measured or indicated mineral resources will ever be converted to mineral reserves.

See Part I – Item 1A, Risk Factors – V. Sustainability and Development Risks - We rely on estimates of our recoverable mineral reserves, which estimation is complex due to geological characteristics of the properties and the number of assumptions made.

The information that follows relating to the Hibbing, Minorca, Northshore, Tilden and United Taconite iron ore mines is derived, for the most part, from, and in some instances is an extract from, the Technical Report Summaries relating to such properties prepared in compliance with Item 601(b)(96) and subpart 1300 of Regulation S-K. Portions of the following information are based on assumptions, qualifications and procedures that are not fully described herein. Reference should be made to the full text of the Technical Report Summaries, which are filed as Exhibits 96.1 through 96.5 to this Annual Report on Form 10-K and are incorporated by reference herein.

All of our iron ore mining operations are open-pit mines. Additional development is underway as required by long-range mine plans. Drilling programs are conducted periodically to collect geologic modeling data and for refining ongoing operations.

Geologic models are developed for all mines to define the major ore and waste rock types. Computerized block models for iron ore are constructed that include all relevant geologic and metallurgical data. These are used to generate grade and tonnage estimates, followed by detailed mine design and LoM operating schedules.

We currently own or co-own and operate five production-stage iron ore mines in Michigan and Minnesota, as well as one indefinitely idled mine in Michigan. Following the AM USA Transaction, we now have an aggregate annual production capacity of approximately 28 million long tons of iron ore pellets, including our 85.3% share of the Hibbing mine production. Historically, our share of production capacity was approximately 21 million long tons of iron ore pellets annually. Our iron ore mines produce from deposits located within the Biwabik and Negaunee Iron Formation, which are classified as Lake Superior type iron formations that formed under similar sedimentary conditions in shallow marine basins approximately two billion years ago. Magnetite and hematite are the predominant iron oxide ore minerals present, with lesser amounts of goethite and limonite. Quartz is the predominant waste mineral present, with lesser amounts of other chiefly iron bearing silicate and carbonate minerals. The ore minerals liberate from the waste minerals upon fine grinding.

The following represents iron ore production for the last three fiscal years:


Iron Ore Production
(In Millions of Long Tons)
	2021	2020	2019
Hibbing1	7	2	2
Minorca1	3	—	—
Northshore2	5	4	5
Tilden	7	6	8
United Taconite	5	5	5
Total	27	17	20
1Tonnage shown is reflective of ownership percentage during respective periods.
2As announced in February 2022, it is anticipated that the Northshore mine will be temporarily idled for approximately four months during 2022.

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The following provides an overview of our iron ore properties:

All the infrastructure necessary to mine and process significant commercial quantities of iron ore is currently in place at all of our mine locations. Infrastructure items include high voltage electrical supplies, natural gas pipelines that connect to the North American distribution system, water sources, paved roads and highways, railroads for transporting crude ore and finished products, port facilities that connect to the Great Lakes, and accommodations for employees. Local and state infrastructure also includes hospitals, schools, airports, equipment suppliers, fuel suppliers, commercial laboratories, and communication systems. Labor is readily available with major population centers within 25 miles of all of our properties.

All of our iron ore mining operations grant leases, licenses, and easements for various purposes, including miscellaneous community land uses, utility infrastructure, and other third-party uses, that encumber our properties but do not materially inhibit operations. Certain assets also serve as collateral securing obligations under our ABL Facility and our senior secured notes. We maintain the requisite state and federal permits and are in material compliance with all material permits.

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Property (Cliffs Ownership)

Location

Surface Rights & Mineral Leases

Facilities & Condition

History

Book Value of Long- Lived Assets (In Millions)

Hibbing
(85.3%)

The property is located immediately north of the city of Hibbing, MN in the center of Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range. The mining and processing operation is located between latitude 47°25’48” N and 47°31’48” N and longitude 93°04’54” W and 92°54’36” W.

Hibbing holds 30,670 acres of surface rights, of which 1,150 acres are associated with mineral leases.The majority of the mineral rights are leased. The property is comprised of 6,640 acres of mineral leases expiring between 2022 and 2056. Leases are maintained by making minimum prepaid royalty payments. Mining leases routinely are renegotiated and renewed as they approach their respective expiration dates.

Open pit truck and shovel mine, a concentrator that utilizes single stage crushing, AG mills and magnetic separation to produce a magnetite concentrate, which is then delivered to an on-site pellet plant. From the site, pellets are transported by BNSF rail to a ship loading port at Superior, Wisconsin, operated by BNSF.

Mining began in 1976 as a joint venture between Bethlehem Steel Corporation and Steel Company of Canada. Cliffs first became involved in the joint venture when it purchased Pickands Mather's 15% share in 1986. Prior to the AM USA Transaction, we owned 23% of Hibbing, ArcelorMittal USA had a 62.3% interest and U.S. Steel had a 14.7% interest. On December 9, 2020, as a result of the AM USA Transaction, we acquired an additional 62.3% ownership stake in the Hibbing mine and became the majority owner and mine manager.

$199

For more information, see Exhibit 96.1, the Technical Report Summary on the Hibbing Taconite Property, Minnesota, USA, prepared for the Company by the QP, SLR with an effective date of December 31, 2021.

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Property (Cliffs Ownership)

Location

Surface Rights & Mineral Leases

Facilities & Condition

History

Book Value of Long- Lived Assets (In Millions)

Minorca
(100.0%)

The property is located in the center of Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range. The Laurentian Pit is located near the City of Gilbert, MN at latitude 47°30'0"N and longitude 92°26’30"W, East 1 Pit is located at latitude 47°31'30"N and longitude 92°23’30"W, and East 2 Pit is located just west of the City of Biwabik at latitude 47°32'0"N and longitude 92°22’30"W. The Minorca plant is located approximately seven miles to the northeast, near the town of Virginia, MN at latitude 47°33'30"N and longitude 92°31.5'30"W.

Minorca holds 13,690 acres of surface rights, of which 282 acres are associated with mineral leases.100% of the mineral rights are leased. The property is comprised of 3,135 acres of mineral leases expiring between 2035 and 2056. Leases are maintained by making minimum prepaid royalty payments. Mining leases routinely are renegotiated and renewed as they approach their respective expiration dates.

This operation includes a concentrating and pelletizing facility, along with two open pit iron ore mines located approximately seven miles from the processing facilities. The processing operations consist of a crushing facility, a three-line concentration facility and a single-line straight grate pelletizing plant. Pellets are transported by CN rail to ports on Lake Superior.

Commenced operations in 1976 as an asset of Inland Steel Company. In 1998, Ispat International purchased Inland Steel and, in 2004, merged with LNM Holdings and International Steel Group to form Mittal Steel, which in 2007 merged with Arcelor to form ArcelorMittal. Minorca has been wholly owned by Cliffs since 2020 with the AM USA Transaction.

$231

For more information, see Exhibit 96.2, Technical Report Summary on the Minorca Property, Minnesota, USA, prepared for the Company by the QP, SLR with an effective date of December 31, 2021.

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Property (Cliffs Ownership)

Location

Surface Rights & Mineral Leases

Facilities & Condition

History

Book Value of Long- Lived Assets (In Millions)

Northshore
(100.0%)

The mine is located on the northeastern edge of the Mesabi Iron Range in northeastern Minnesota, approximately four miles southeast of Babbitt, MN at latitude 47°40'12.15"N and longitude 91°53'1.28"W. The processing facility is approximately forty one miles to the southeast and immediately adjacent to the city of Silver Bay in Lake County, MN at latitude 47°17'38.95"N and longitude 91°15'23.38"W.

Northshore holds 28,041 acres of surface rights, of which 8,966 acres are associated with mineral leases. 100% of the mineral rights are leased. The property is comprised of 10,356 acres of mineral leases. Some leases do not expire until the mineral reserves are exhausted while others expire between 2034 and 2075. Leases are maintained by making minimum prepaid royalty payments. Mining leases routinely are renegotiated and renewed as they approach their respective expiration dates.

Open pit truck and shovel mine where two stages of crushing occur before the ore is transported along a wholly owned 47-mile rail line to the plant site in Silver Bay. At the plant site, two additional stages of crushing occur before the ore is sent to the concentrator. The concentrator utilizes rod mills and magnetic separation to produce a magnetite concentrate, which is delivered to the pellet plant located on-site. The plant can produce both standard and DR-grade pellets. The plant site has its own ship loading port located on Lake Superior.

Operations commenced in 1952 as an asset of the Reserve Mining Company and continued production until 1986 when Reserve Mining declared bankruptcy. Cyprus Minerals Company purchased the facilities in 1989. Cyprus subsequently sold the facilities to Cliffs in 1994.

$246

For more information, see Exhibit 96.3, Technical Report Summary on the Northshore Property, Minnesota, USA, prepared for the Company by the QP, SLR with an effective date of December 31, 2021.

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Property (Cliffs Ownership)

Location

Surface Rights & Mineral Leases

Facilities & Condition

History

Book Value of Long- Lived Assets (In Millions)

Tilden
(100.0%)

The property is located in Marquette County in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, on the Marquette Iron Range, approximately five miles south of the city of Ishpeming, MI at latitude 46° 29' N and longitude 87° 40' W.

Tilden holds 21,100 acres of surface rights and leases 2,470 acres of mineral rights expiring between 2061 and 2070. Leases are maintained by making minimum prepaid royalty payments. Mining leases routinely are renegotiated and renewed as they approach their respective expiration dates.

Open pit truck and shovel mine, a concentrator that utilizes single stage crushing, AG mills, and floatation to produce hematite concentrates that are then supplied to the on-site pellet plant. From the site, pellets are transported by our LS&I rail to a ship loading port at Marquette, Michigan, operated by LS&I.

The property commenced operations in 1974 under a partnership of Algoma Steel, Stelco, J&L Steel, Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, Sharon Steel, and Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company. The property has since been at least partially in the possession of a subsidiary of Cliffs. In 2001, Cliffs acquired Algoma Steel's 45% interest in Tilden. In 2017, Cliffs became the sole owner of Tilden.

$219

For more information, see Exhibit 96.5, Technical Report Summary on the Tilden Property, Michigan, USA, prepared for the Company by the QP, SLR with an effective date of December 31, 2021.

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Property (Cliffs Ownership)

Location

Surface Rights & Mineral Leases

Facilities & Condition

History

Book Value of Long- Lived Assets (In Millions)

United Taconite
(100%)

The mine and offices are located on Minnesota's Mesabi Iron Range just north of Eveleth, MN at latitude 47°29'1.62" N, longitude 92°32'23.69" W. The processing facilities are located approximately eight miles to the southeast.

United Taconite owns 14,199 acres of surface rights, of which 703 acres are associated with mineral leases. An additional 145 acres of surface rights are leased from the State of Minnesota., We lease 100% of the mineral rights comprising of 4,908 acres expiring between 2037 and 2066, with the exception of the State of Minnesota mineral lease, which expires in 2027. Leases are maintained by making minimum prepaid royalty payments. Mining leases routinely are renegotiated and renewed as they approach their respective expiration dates.

Open pit truck and shovel mine where two stages of crushing occur before the ore is transported by rail, operated by CN, to the plant site. At the plant site an additional stage of crushing occurs before the ore is sent to the concentrator. The concentrator utilizes rod mills and magnetic separation to produce a magnetite concentrate, which is delivered to the on-site pellet plant. From the plant site, pellets are transported by CN rail to a ship loading port at Duluth, MN, operated by CN.

The property commenced operations as an asset of Eveleth Taconite Company in 1965 before it was purchased by United Taconite (70% Cliffs and 30% Laiwu Steel) in December 2003. The Property has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Cliffs since 2008.

$567

For more information, see Exhibit 96.4, Technical Report Summary on the United Taconite Property, Minnesota, USA, prepared for the Company by the QP, SLR with an effective date of December 31, 2021.

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Mineral Resources

Mineral resources are defined under Item 1300 of Regulation S-K as a concentration or occurrence of material of economic interest in or on the Earth’s crust in such form, grade or quality, and quantity that there are reasonable prospects for economic extraction. A mineral resource is a reasonable estimate of mineralization, taking into account relevant factors such as cut-off grade, likely mining dimensions, location or continuity, that, with the assumed justifiable technical and economic conditions, is likely to, in whole or part, become economically extractable.

A detailed breakdown of the mineral resources exclusive of mineral reserves is presented in the table below. Mineral resources were defined and constrained within open-pit shells, prepared by Cliffs, and based on a US$90.00/WLT pellet price, while meeting defined cut-off grade criteria and existing pellet specifications. All mineral resource estimates were reviewed and validated by the QP, SLR.

The following represents iron ore mineral resources, exclusive of mineral reserves, as of December 31, 2021:


Iron Ore Mineral Resources
as of December 31, 2021
(In Millions of Long Tons)
	Measured		Indicated		Measured + Indicated		Process	Inferred
	Tonnage	% Grade	Tonnage	% Grade	Tonnage	% Grade	Recovery	Tonnage	% Grade
Total Iron Ore	1,351	22.5	1,483	23.6	2,834	23.1	31%	420	32.4

Michigan	—	—	135	35.5	135	35.5	36%	350	34.7
Minnesota	1,351	22.5	1,348	22.4	2,699	22.4	31%	70	21.0

Hibbing1	8	19.2	1	18.7	9	19.2	25%	—	—
Minorca	484	22.9	317	22.9	801	22.9	33%	30	21.1
Northshore	767	22.1	391	22.4	1,158	22.2	26%	14	19.8
Tilden	—	—	135	35.5	135	35.5	36%	350	34.7
United Taconite	92	23.6	639	22.2	731	22.4	32%	26	21.5

1Hibbing is reported at 85.3% based on our ownership level.
Reference point selected is the saleable tons based on the process recovery.
Process recovery may change based on the required saleable product mix and is reported as wet product percentage.
Mineral resources are estimated using the following cut-off grades: 25% FeT for Tilden hematite; 15% magnetic Fe for Northshore; 16% magnetic Fe for Minorca; 17% magnetic Fe for United Taconite; and 13% magnetic Fe for Hibbing.
Tonnage is reported in long tons equivalent to 2,240 pounds and has been rounded to the nearest 100,000.
Mineral resources are reported at a $90.00/LT wet standard pellet price freight-on-board (FOB) Lake Superior, which is based on the mine planning model's three-year trailing average of the realized product revenue rate.

Our mineral resource estimates have not been previously disclosed. The material assumptions and criteria used for the mineral resource estimates, including but not limited to leases, permits and geotechnical pit design, are covered in more detail in Sections 11 through 13 of the respective Technical Report Summaries filed as Exhibits 96.1 through 96.5 to this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Mineral Reserves

Mineral reserves are defined under Item 1300 of Regulation S-K as an estimate of tonnage and grade or quality of indicated and measured mineral resources that, in the opinion of the QP, can be the basis of an economically viable project. More specifically, it is the economically mineable part of a measured or indicated mineral resource, which includes diluting materials and allowances for losses that may occur when the material is mined or extracted.

Proven mineral reserves are defined under Item 1300 of Regulation S-K as the economically mineable part of a measured mineral resource and can only result from conversion of a measured mineral resource. Probable mineral reserves are defined under Item 1300 of Regulation S-K as the economically mineable part of an indicated and, in some cases, a measured mineral resource. All mineral reserves are classified as proven or probable and are supported by LoM plans.

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Mineral reserves are based on pricing that does not exceed the three-year trailing average index price of iron pellets adjusted to realized price. We evaluate and analyze, and engage QPs to review and verify mineral reserves in accordance with our mineral policy and SEC requirements and then complete updated LoM plans. The table below identifies the year in which the latest updated LoM plan was completed.

Mineral reserves estimates for our iron mines are constrained by fully designed open pits developed using three-dimensional modeling techniques. These open pits incorporate design slopes, practical mining shapes and access ramps to assure the accuracy of our mineral reserve estimates. All operations' mineral reserves have been adjusted net of production through year-end 2021. All mineral reserve estimates as of December 31, 2021 were reviewed and validated by the QP, SLR.

The following represents iron ore mineral reserves as of December 31, 2021:


Iron Ore Mineral Reserves
as of December 31, 2021
(In Millions of Long Tons)
	Last LoM Plan	Proven		Probable		Proven & Probable		Process
	Reserve Analysis	Tonnage	% Grade	Tonnage	% Grade	Tonnage	% Grade	Recovery
Total Iron Ore		638	23.6	1,682	26.6	2,320	25.8	33%

Michigan		4	35.3	516	34.7	520	34.7	37%
Minnesota		634	23.5	1,166