Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Jamie Sychak, and I'd like to welcome you to the Butler Works. I'm here today probably to present our CEO, Lourenco Goncalves. I'm honored to introduce him, you know. Five years ago, this plant, the Butler Works, we had 100 people laid off. It was the only time in my career that I'd ever seen that.
We were actually slated to close under our predecessor, AK Steel. Shortly thereafter, in March 2020, Lourenco and Cleveland-Cliffs bought AK Steel, and he himself came over to our union hall and assured us that was not going to happen. He secured our jobs here and secured the production of electrical steel for the security and electrical independence for the United States ever since.
He recognized the importance of electrical steel to our power grid, and the reason we were going to close was from unfair subsidized dumping from foreign entities, primarily Japan and China. And he worked closely with the Trump administration and got some of those loopholes where they were circumventing some of the trade rules and tariffs and stuff through Mexico and Canada and worked to get those things sealed up for us, thus saving our jobs at that time.
Last year, we had another victory where he again assured us we weren't going to close. And true to his word, here we are, and we are a thriving plant today. We have great plans for the future, and things have never looked better for us. So we went from nearly closed five years ago, and thankfully, we have the visionary in the leadership of Lourenco Goncalves here.
So please join me in welcoming our CEO, our leader, Lourenco. Thank you.
So, good afternoon, everyone. It's a great pleasure today to be here. I just noticed when I was in the waiting room that today is January 13, 2025. On January 13, 1998, I came to this country with my wife, three children, 13 bags, and $59,650 in my pocket. That's all I had, everything I had, my family and a few money that were my all savings of my lifetime in Brazil.
When I was a very successful executive, but I worked in an environment that was not conducive for honest people to making a living the right way. There was only one place in the world for me, and that was the United States. So coincidentally, today is January 13. So today is the 27th anniversary of my presence in the greatest country in the world, that's the United States.
I'm a proud American because when you write your articles, sometimes to, in a way, to make it look less impactful on what we have been doing here for a long time, you say, "The Brazilian-born Lourenco Goncalves, the foreign-born Lourenco Goncalves."
Let me remind you, particularly because I had which I saved from bankruptcy, then I listed in the NASDAQ, then I took it private, then I made a lot of acquisitions, and then I sold 10 years later. When I got there, the enterprise value was $30 million. When I sold, the enterprise value was $1.3 billion in 10 years. Made a lot of people do well, generate a lot of jobs. Out of my 25 locations at Metals USA, nine were located in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
So I know Philadelphia, I know Pittsburgh, Ambridge, and then I go down, Langhorne, and New York, and locations that only Pennsylvanians know the name and know how they are. You got to know your people. You got to work with your people. That's how we turned Metals USA into a big success. The company still exists inside Reliance Steel and Aluminum, the largest service center company in the country.
And we're very proud that they still have the identity of Metals USA inside the company. And right here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, history matters. History matters. A track record matters. And there's no better place for me to be here than here today in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in Butler. Sacred ground. Very, very recently, things very, very important happened here in Butler, Pennsylvania. Things happen for a reason, always.
And we're going to have a new time in this country, a time that workers will be center, manufacturing will bring middle class back, American-owned and operated companies like Cleveland-Cliffs will lead the charge. That's what we're going to have, and that's what we're about to bring. So anyway, today here. Oh, one more thing for people, particularly people in the press, and I appreciate you all coming.
It's a pleasure to have you here, particularly the guys that write about me not knowing me. So today you're going to know a little bit more about me. You can still write whatever you want, but at least you're going to be knowing that you're not writing the right things. You can still do it.
But good people, and there's a lot of good people in the press, the same way there are a lot of good people that go on politics not needing to go on politics. These people, at the end of the day, the good people always, always prevail. I want you to know that. Good people always prevail.
But anyway, being here today to celebrate five years of success of AK Steel and five years of success of Butler Works is super relevant to me, incredibly relevant to me. Five years ago, I was in the process of acquiring AK Steel. I approached previously. At Butler Works, this plant here was about to be shut down. They already had the plan in place to shut down Butler Works. AK Steel believed that there was no solution to save this plant.
This plant was the last man standing, the last plant in this country producing grain-oriented electrical steel. What's grain-oriented electrical steel? Grain-oriented electrical steel is the steel that goes in the production of transformers. What's a transformer? Look at a pole, up in a pole on the street, that's a transformer.
Look in front of your house, if you live in a neighborhood, that thing, pad mount on the front of your house, a transformer. It moves electricity, changes voltage from high voltage to low voltage and vice versa to move electricity around. Without transformers, you do not move electricity. So that's why it's national security.
You cannot have a country, particularly a country like the United States of America, not being able to produce the steels that go inside a transformer because transformers are literally everywhere, from in front of your house, on the pole in front of your house, on the mount pad transforming in the middle of your neighborhood, all the way to power plants, big refineries, everything.
You do not want to have these things produced abroad, and the United States of America, back in 2020, not too long ago, only five years ago, was about to shut down the last plant able to produce this type of steel, grain-oriented electrical steels, transformers. I'm not talking about non-oriented electrical steels. That's for equipment that rotates like motors in a car, particularly motors of an electric vehicle. That's a different product. We also produce that.
But I was particularly concerned about grain-oriented electrical steels, the grids, the electrical grids, national security. That's national security. This is rhetoric. It's national security. Well, we approached at that time Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross. And Wilbur Ross facilitated my contact with a great American that was the United States Trade Representative for President Trump in the first Trump 45, Trump 1.0, a guy named Robert Lighthizer.
As soon as I got to Bob Lighthizer, we saw light. And with Bob Lighthizer, we got the ear of President Trump. And the rest is history. We were able to explain why this plant was going down. It's not because we're incompetent. Actually, we produce grain-oriented electrical steels under a spec that's called the ARMCO spec because this company used to be ARMCO in the past. And then became AK.
The A is ARMCO, and the K was Kawasaki Steel from Japan. So we did not get technology from the Japanese. Actually, they took our technology from ARMCO and took it to Japan. And what did they do next? Well, I will give you the short version. The reason why this plant was going down was illegal imports, dumped grain-oriented electrical steels directly into the country and also indirectly, particularly through shipments from Mexico, from Japan, and China to a smaller extent.
But this large plant was saved during the first time in office of President Trump, and I will never, never forget the great contribution that Bob Lighthizer did in order for us to accomplish what we accomplished. We would not be able to accomplish that if I did not have the partnership that I have with the workers, with my team, with my people.
We are together in solidarity. That's a union. Yeah. Unions are good. Unions help good people to stay together. And when good people do things together, nobody can stop. And when good people do things together with people that represent the capital, we are the United States. We are not controlled by anyone outside. We are not controlled by the money. We are not controlled by subsidized things.
We are not controlled by free money that only comes to this country to suck the blood and wash the brain of the younger generations. We need to stop that. If you don't stop that, you're going to have the same problem over and over and over and over again. It's time to stop. That's what we did here. And that's what we're going to continue to do here. I know that everybody talks about China.
I talk badly about China as well. China is bad. China is evil. China is horrible. But Japan is worse. Japan is a lot worse because everything, everything. Are you crying? Are you laughing? No. What are you doing? Oh, you're thinking. You shake your head when you think. What's your name? Antonio. I'm sorry? Antonio. Antonio. Sounds American. Yeah. Like Lourenco. Yeah. That's the country we are in. People from everywhere.
By the way, do you know where Andrew Carnegie was from? Scotland. You're not American either. United States, Antonio. But pay attention to what I'm saying because you're young enough to learn and put to good use. Okay? I'm watching you. But anyway, back to where I was. Japan is evil. Japan taught China a lot of things, including making steel. Baosteel was built by Nippon Steel. Without Baosteel, we will not have China.
Without Nippon Steel, we will not have U.S. Steel. Also, Japan taught China how to dump, how to have overcapacity, how to overproduce. What is overcapacity? It's simple to understand. Everybody knows that Japan is aging. Everybody knows that Japan is shrinking. What people don't know is that Japan used to produce 100 million tons a year and consume 100 million tons a year, which was okay.
Even when Japan was producing 110 million tons and consuming 100 million tons, it was still kind of okay. Right now, Japan produces 80 million tons and consumes 45. So they have 35 million tons to export. And they'll have to place somewhere. Guess where they are going to put their steel? Not in markets that are enemy countries. They'll put this in countries that are friends because friends tend to help friends, particularly when the friend at the receiving end is naive.
Openly embracing people that don't deserve. Of course, we need to continue to do that for everybody that deserves, but not with people that do not deserve. So anyway, Japan taught China how to export. Overcapacity was invented in Japan, not in China. China just made it a lot worse. It's like, well, if they are going away with crime and the United States still believes they are friends, we can do this too.
We're not even friends. That's how overcapacity became a world problem. The victims, mainly in Europe. All the big names that you imagined are gone in Europe. British Steel, now owned by China and India. It's Jingye and Tata. Kawasaki Steel tried to come to the United States, failed miserably, now shrinking. Voestalpine, same thing. Can you remember the traditional names of steel companies one by one.
Here in the United States, the same thing. Where's Bethlehem? Gone. Where's LTV? Gone. Where's Inland? Gone. Where's Wheeling-Pittsburgh? Gone. Keep going. Republic, J&L, all the names, Lukens, all the names. Guess what? The difference here in the United States, they are all inside Cleveland-Cliffs. They're all inside the umbrella of Cleveland-Cliffs. And his grandpa working for us is Cleveland-Cliffs.
Here was Armco and then AK in Butler, Cleveland-Cliffs. That's what consolidation is. What we have in all these plants that are nominated here, they all survived under Cleveland-Cliffs. With Cleveland-Cliffs, we acquired AK Steel. We grew AK Steel. We hired people. We increased employment. We did the same thing with ArcelorMittal when they offered themselves to us. I didn't go after them. They offered themselves to us.
ArcelorMittal USA, ArcelorMittal USA, that was the next one after we acquired AK, was offered to me by father and son, Lakshmi Mittal and Aditya Mittal, and we bought during the pandemic. To become a company that made $23 billion in revenues. Check the numbers. $2 billion in revenues 2019, $23 billion in revenues two years later. 11 and a half times. How can you do that?
Yeah, we did. So go ahead, do your homework. You'll see. It's possible when you have management and workers working together, and it's unions in general. There's no just USW talk. By the way, here I have my dear friend Jamie Sychak here, president of the UAW Local 3303. And I also have Eric Spiker. Spiker? Yeah. Donovan Mitchell is the spider. Cleveland Cavaliers. Eric is the president of the UAW in Zanesville, Ohio. It's a sister location of Butler.
They finish the stuff that we do here. 1,200 jobs saved here, another 200 in Zanesville. Total 1,400 jobs saved. It's not just saved. It's not just we saved the jobs. We transformed a plant that was about to shut down. That's what we're celebrating here today. While saving national security and saving our ability to produce steel to the grid, we are able to do all that and growing the company, growing the facility.
We're still doing that because this country needs transformers so badly. I'm going downstream with a brand new plant to produce transformers ourselves in Weirton, West Virginia. Another victim of dumping at that time was tinplate. We could not afford competing, particularly because in the last anti-dumping fight against the Japanese with tinplate, U.S. Steel mysteriously decided not to join.
So it was basically Cleveland-Cliffs and the USW fighting without U.S. Steel. It's like fighting with the hand behind the back. So we did not get what we need. And, unfortunately, transformers over there that will generate another shift here at Butler to produce more grain-oriented electrical steels. We're going to be high and growing, and we are going to produce more transformers.
By the way, the lead time for a transformer today in this country is nine months. And this is for just maintenance. I can only imagine what's going to be needed in California right now because we're not prepared for hurricanes or wildfires or anything like that. But we are catching up.
This plant in Weirton, West Virginia, that I'm putting together with a lot of support from the local USW, with my friend Mark Glyptis and the local president, and my dear friend, former governor, now senator, Jim Justice, we are going to produce state-of-the-art transformers over there with our people, unionize the workforce, generating a lot of jobs, and it will be a beautiful, brand new state-of-the-art plant to produce transformers that this country needs. That's national security.
So back to the track on Butler here. There's no better way to explain why steel is related to national security than being here in Butler. So I think you guys got the picture. You can't afford relying on imported steels or imported transformers to keep your lights on. They can control the grid through transformers. They can control if you get or not get electricity inside your house.
As simple as that. Butler is the best example that American ownership of steel plants can support existing jobs, generate new jobs, generate profits. This is the most. Our national security. Then I'd like to pivot your attention to the attempted sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel, a deal that was recently blocked by President Biden on national security concerns. Let me repeat one more time.
The U.S. Steel attempted sale to Nippon Steel has been blocked on national security concerns by the President of the United States. It doesn't matter if you like him or you don't like him. If you are an American, until January 20th, 2025, he's the President of the United States. And in exercising his powers as President of the United States, he blocked that deal. And that deal was supposed to be abandoned, that's the legal term, by the parties until February 2nd.
And now it's June 18th. Big deal. Doesn't matter. The deal is blocked, continued to be blocked, and they have a little more time to unwind their partnership and to abandon the deal. That's the term, abandon the deal. Biden blocked the deal. That's a fact. But President Trump was the first to say, "I will block it." There's a part of me that believes that because Trump said that, and by the way, repeated several times, "I will block it."
Can't happen. Will not happen. If I were president of the United States, I would have already blocked it. And more recently, he said clearly, sending a message to Nippon Steel, "I'm coming, buyer, beware." Said that. You heard. I heard. The press heard. Trump heard. I'm sorry, Biden heard. Everybody heard.
So Biden finally did what JD Vance, Senator JD Vance, now Vice President-elect JD Vance, and Senator Marco Rubio, soon to be Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and great Senator from Missouri, Josh Hawley, said in a letter to him on May 9, to him, Biden, "Hey, President Biden, you are president of the United States. You have the authority to undo this deal now. By the way, in case you don't know the article yada yada yada of the code or the article yada yada yada of the code, you can use it. Go ahead and do it."
But he didn't do it because there's so much division inside the cabinet, so many people coming, you know, so diverse, so much diversity on that cabinet, including people that I don't know if they really have the United States in their hearts.
Good thing is that we have some people over there that are really good. Some cabinet members, particularly the women, they're so good. They're so strong. They're so above politics. They resist the pressure. But you also have guys that after President Biden was finally, finally, he did what he had to do.
The very first thing that Secretary of State Tony Blinken did was to go to Japan to eat sushi with the Japanese. What happened next? Recently, the Prime Minister of Japan, at least, was reported in the press. So if it's in the press is true. You are the press, so you know what I'm talking about. So I assume it's true because I read it that Prime Minister Kishida demanded President Biden to explain why he blocked the deal on national security concerns. National security.
I just would like this Prime Minister to wait seven more days and repeat the same demand to Donald J. Trump. That would be a fun day in life for me because it's the president of the United States. It doesn't matter if the name is Jimmy Carter or Barack Obama or George Washington or Abraham Lincoln or Donald Trump or Joseph Biden. It's the president of the United States.
The United States of America, Japan, beware. You don't understand who you are. You did not learn anything since 1945. You did not learn how good we are, how gracious we are, how magnanimous we are, how forgiving we are. If you want to learn what we think about Japan, what we have for you, Japan, go to YouTube and check an interview of a very young Donald Trump in 1987 talking to Larry King about Japan.
Just put Trump, Larry King, CNN, 1987. We are tired of being taken advantage of. We need to change this narrative. Come to the Midwest. Come to see places like Gary, Indiana. Come to see places like Braddock, Pennsylvania. Come to see places like Butler, Pennsylvania. Come to Toledo, Ohio. Come to where we live. It's tough out here. It's great in Japan. It's great in China. It's great everywhere.
Stop sucking our blood. We are Americans. We love Americans. We love the United States of America. We don't have any ill intent or ill feelings about you. But we like us first. It's America first, and we are not ashamed of that. We don't feel bad about that. We feel good because if you do good, the world will do good. The world will be peaceful. But the very first thing, we need to feed our families.
We need to have our needs taken care of. We need to have democracy. We need to have stability. We need to have the well-being of Americans. If we have that, the world can be peaceful. Other than that, stop sucking our blood. Enough is enough. That's why we need America first. That's why we need to defend national security. That's why we need to stop. That was not. That was my original bid.
$7.3 billion was my original bid. Then an auction started. And the price kept going up. And I played. My last offer was $54 per share. And the Nippon Steel offer was $55 per share. My number before the previous bid was $47.50. I went from $47.50 to $54. I don't know what number was theirs, but I know it was lower than mine. And they miraculously went to $55. Do you guys smell a rat?
I do. I was born at night, but not last night. I put at $54 because I was in the firm belief that nobody would get there. But Nippon Steel did. And by the way, the press leaked a lot during the bidding process, names of companies. I knew each one of them. And because we're good in what we do, myself and my team, we knew exactly how much each one of these companies could bid.
But one name was never leaked to the press, Nippon Steel. Very well-informed people like you guys. You knew a lot of names. I promise you, you never heard Nippon Steel. Because if CNBC, Bloomberg, and Reuters did not know, nobody knew. Did not know Nippon Steel, nobody knew. So he called me. I said, "No, you did not hear right. It's not Nippon Steel." "No, no, no. It's Nippon Steel."
And then 10 minutes later, the press release hit. And it was Nippon Steel. I said, "How come? Never leaked. Not even a tiny bit." Oh, anyway, they sued me. And they sued the government. I love being sued. Because then we're going to play in the legal system of the United States. And welcome to the legal system of the United States.
There are a few things that are great and some things that are very real. The ones that are great is that the presumption of innocence is paramount. Different from Japan. And even though it's in the constitution that there is a presumption of innocence, that's not how it happens in real life over there. It's different. I'm not going to elaborate on that. Go do your homework. But here, the presumption of innocence is real.
And here, when the CEO of Nippon Steel, Eiji Hashimoto, calls me a thug and a mafia boss, I'm sure that he will be able to prove that in court. Because I already initiated my investigation on how to import dogs from Japan. Because if he can't prove that, I'm going to go after him personally. And I'll take his last penny, his house, his car, and his dog. And I'm going to bring his dog to the United States.
So, Eiji Hashimoto, you're going to be deposed. No Zoom. It will be in person. You selected the Western District of Pennsylvania. Welcome to the United States. I'm going to depose you there. And I'll be in the room. You're going to sit across me. You're going to have to call me a thug and a mafia boss to my face. And then I'm going to have to prove it.
As simple as that. Well, you chose that, not me. My lawyers will dismiss this lawsuit because it's so baseless, so crazy, so tinfoil hat type of things that my lawyers will have to dismiss that. I'll try to convince them not to because I want that day. That day will be a good day. I think there are only two people that like to be in this situation. That is me and President Trump.
We have a thick skin. We know what we're doing. And we can handle. So that should be okay. Anyway, President Trump already said that the United States should not be stolen, should not be sold to Japan. I know that there are a lot of people that are waiting for him to change his mind. That's why I recommended you to look at this video from 1987.
So someone that said that in 1987, then said it again in the 1990s, again in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and all the way to last week, or maybe last weekend when he met with Senator John Fetterman from Pennsylvania. Doesn't change his mind that often, especially about this. Anyway, we also know how to work with the local officials, the mayor, the sheriff. By the way, the sheriff is here.
Thank you so much for being here. The sheriff, woman of the Butler County Board of Commissioners, all the members of the Butler County Board of Commissioners. The governor, Governor Shapiro, is a Democrat. He's a man of the people. He wants what's right for the people. And I appreciate my friendship with Josh Shapiro. I believe that he's navigating a fine line. He should have come here to Butler more often.
I was with him here in this room. But you know, he's a busy guy. He probably forgot what we showed him last time he was here. Lieutenant Davis, Lieutenant Governor Davis, he was here with him. They don't show up in the same room very often. For us here, they both came, Josh and Davis, and I was very happy that they're both here. Anyway, I feel good about what we have going.
He could have helped them more to educate the mayors of the small towns in Western Pennsylvania that were never treated properly by U.S. Steel. I have no ill intent against these mayors. They're good people. They're like my people here in Butler. They just didn't have the opportunity to work with us, but they will, and I am sure, 100% sure that they will all support me.
And we're going to together make United States Steel great as it was before. And we're going to make this thing to happen. The problem is we can't make anything happen until the current management and the current board of U.S. Steel make the decision to abandon. That's a term. It's harsh. Abandon the merger agreement with Nippon Steel. Until they do that, we can't do anything. We have our hands tied.
If I present an offer today, they can't take it. So the very first thing that needs to happen, the merger agreement needs to be abandoned. If it's not going to be February 2nd, and they are trying legal tricks to make CFIUS to be extended because they would like to change the mind of President Trump, I do not believe that President Donald J. Trump will change his mind.
What I do believe is that the new CFIUS have the same power of the old CFIUS. If the old CFIUS are still in place, extended to June 18th, the new CFIUS can come in and push back to February 2nd because they have the same power of moving the date that they have to abandon the merger agreement. I haven't done anything to have that happen before they start accusing me that I'm now manipulating the new CFIUS. It's just an American.
Giving my opinion. I am of the opinion that the new CFIUS should think if they need more time to continue to brainwash the mayors and the population. U.S. Steel, the company that U.S. Steel should be, stop crying wolf and believing that U.S. Steel is poor. It's not.
It's a great company with great people in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and in Indiana and in Michigan and in the middle of the country, in Illinois, down in Granite City, and in Alabama, and in California. Why do we have support from John Garamendi of California? Why do we have support from Ro Khanna of California? Why do we have support from Marcy Kaptur in Lorain? Why do we have support from Frank Mrvan in Indiana?
Why do we have support from the new senator of Pennsylvania, Dave McCormick, who is showing to be a real deal, real senator? We have support everywhere. So please, members of the press, pay attention to this type of support that we have everywhere. Don't repeat the same thing. Please don't say anymore that my offer was $7.3 billion. My offer was $257 million lower than the offer that they took. Why?
Because it was $55 per share against $54 per share that was my offer. One dollar times the float of 257 million shares makes for $257 million. No matter what number you use, use 14.9 minus 257, you have the number. If you use 15 minus 257, that's my number. It's $1 per share times $257 million. So why did they not take my offer and they took Nippon Steel's offer?
They said that's because between me and Dave McCormick, we manipulate Biden, all the cabinet secretaries that voted for us, and now we're doing the same with the Trump administration. That's a lot of power, no doubt about it. If Vladimir Putin recognized how much power I have, they would recruit me. Or Xi Jinping. My goodness, how crazy is that? So that's pretty much it. God sends strange messages. One was sent here in Butler, PA.
I was talking to the sheriff a few moments ago. A man that doesn't like to look at data or charts looks to the side to look at a chart, and that's when the bullet, instead of going through his head, went just through his ear. Anyway, it happened here, so I'm here with my people to show the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that we can do good working with people, working with the workers, and we still can make money.
This place makes money. This place is not a nonprofit. It's not a charity. We have technology. Our technology to produce electrical steels is better than the Japanese who copied us, but we continue to improve. Our technology in reduction, the use of hydrogen, was not tested inside a small pilot blast furnace in a lab like Nippon Steel is bragging about.
They say that they tested that in a 12 cubic meter blast furnace. What's a 12 cubic meter pilot blast furnace? 12 cubic is four times three. So let's do two times two times three, giving 12. Two meters, two meters, and three meters makes for 12 cubic feet. So two meters is a Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, and Jarrett Allen. That's the size.
You understand? Point guard, another point guard in the center. That's the size. And they're bragging. We have the technology. Well, we tested. With hydrogen. We also spent $1 billion to build our plant, our direct reduction plant in Toledo, Ohio. And that's where Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, the longest-serving Congresswoman in Congress, got to know me.
Because she couldn't believe that I would transform an empty field at the port of Toledo into the most beautiful, most modern, state-of-the-art direct reduction plant in the world. That's what we have there. So we understand technology. Do you know why? Because we're the United States. We have the resources. We have the brains. We have the people. And we have the willpower to get it done.
Talking about technology doesn't fly. We supply all the car manufacturers. We are the forgotten people trying to be seen just because we deserve, just because we have been doing the right things for so long, and nobody wants to listen. So I'm happy that you're here. I appreciate the press coming. I'll be more than happy to answer your questions. And I'll answer as much as I can.
I hope that you ask questions because I'm ready and prepared to answer you. Yes, ma'am.
Do you have the blessing from Governor Josh Shapiro on this?
Sorry, one second. Can you introduce yourself real quick?
Amy Hudak with WPXI News. We're the NBC affiliate in Pittsburgh. Do you have the blessing from Governor Josh Shapiro on this potential bid?
I don't know what to mean what a blessing is.
Has he supported this potential bid?
What is reported?
Can you tell me what does Josh Shapiro? Governor Josh Shapiro, is he in favor of this potential deal?
Yes. I spoke with Josh Shapiro this morning. He called me on my cell phone. We had a very good conversation. And the answer is yes. And I also told him, "Governor, please don't do anything with the mayors." I'll get to the mayors when I get the company.
And you and I and President Trump, we work together to make sure that the mayors are in good shape. With Josh Shapiro, Donald Trump, Senator Fetterman, and Senator McCormick, we're in good shape. And I was forgetting one guy that has been with me all the way, Congressman Deluzio. Great guy. Yes, sir. Remember when I was 2010? Yeah. Yeah. So it's been a little while. Yeah.
That was down in Palm Beach. Yes, sir. Yeah. In the event that - why I'm here? My daughter asked that question today. "Dad, you got to stop doing this. Why don't you go to follow this?" Stop.
Yeah, go ahead.
Is there a strategy for Big River in the event of the acquisition going through? There were some reports out this morning about a potential carve-out. Is that still in the works, or is it being discussed? How does Big River fit into the overall plan?
Yeah, look, I would love to give you what's in my mind. But it's not timely yet because, first and foremost, the existing deal needs to be abandoned. Until the deal is abandoned, anything that we try to execute is a speculation. The important thing is what I told Governor Shapiro this morning on the phone. We have an all-American solution. Don't try to squeeze me on the details because I'm not going to give you any details. I'm not talking to you. I told Josh.
We have an all-American solution, an American to save United States Steel Corporation. In my mind, the name of the surviving entity will be United States Steel Corporation. Cliffs will be part of United States Steel Corporation, not very different than when NationsBank acquired Bank of America. So look at that. It's so iconic.
The company buying was NationsBank. NationsBank, a lot of nations. And the company that was being acquired was Bank of America. NationsBank decided to keep the name Bank of America because they believed that Bank of America was more powerful than NationsBank. Well, I confess, the name United States Steel Corporation must survive because that's the corporation.
That's United States Steel Corporation. And it's not like, "Oh, the headquarters of Nippon Steel North America, all two employees that we have in Houston will be relocated to Pittsburgh." No, I will relocate to Pittsburgh. And U.S. Steel will finally have a CEO residing in Pittsburgh because the existing one resides in Peoria, Illinois, and the CFO resides in Connecticut, and the general counsel resides in Florida. Guess what? The CEO will move to Pittsburgh. The CFO, where are you going to live, Celso?
The COO, Cliff Smith, is not here. So because he's not here, I will fill in for him. He'll live, move to Pittsburgh. The general counsel, James Graham, is going to move to Pittsburgh. The headquarters will be in Pittsburgh. By the way, whoever is in the building, that name on top of the building, whatever name they have, prepare to take it down because I'm going to put U.S. Steel Corporation at the top. I hope I answered you.
You did. You did. While I have the microphone, can I pass it to my compadre, Amy Hinton, for another?
Sure, please.
Hi, Lourenco. Nice to meet you. Thanks for having us. I work with Dan on the scrap side at Fastmarkets. After I knew you-
And your accent? You are from Japan?
Yes, how can I say?
No, you're from the UK.
I am, yes, for my sins. But I live in Butler now, so this is a cause close to my heart.
It's like me. I live in Cleveland. So that's the reason of my accent.
Honorary American. My fiancé is American. My son is American. After Cliff's momentous purchase of Stelco last year, we covered it. It really puts Cliff in a unique position with pig iron, scrap control, and also potential to control HRC tons coming over the Canadian border.
I wondered if the merger gets tabled with Nippon and the proposed plan with Nucor goes ahead, how does that factor into your raw material strategy moving forward? Because, I mean, consolidation is such a key to the industry now. Is that something that you're actively considering as part of this bid to take at least part of what you carve out of U.S. Steel?
No. No. If you read the plan for my original proposal, the plan was to use the facilities that are available at U.S. Steel to supply my own plant. I'll give you an example. The coke plant in Cleveland can be expanded to supply Indiana Harbor, Burns Harbor, Middletown, Dearborn, Cleveland. That's the strategy. That's not about control. It's about real integration synergies.
That's why I buy companies and I grow employment because I grow the size of the—Passed with flying colors in three months. Three months in and out. And they gave us a total—Gonna, do you have a bottle of water for me, please? Thank you. We went through a real investigation of the DOJ because of what was ongoing with U.S. Steel and all the things, all the noise in the press, and he's going to create a—he's going to control this, control that. I don't control anything.
I don't control my wife, and you are married 38 years. 38? How old are you? 37. Yeah, 38. And I don't control her. How can I control the market? There's Stelco, and there's Algoma, and there's ArcelorMittal Dofasco, and several others, smaller ones. There's no such a thing as control, but the more assets you have, the more people pulling together, the more you can do.
One plus one is not two. It's three. Three plus another one is six. You know what I'm saying? That's called synergies. That's not about control. It's about doing what's right.
Thank you. I appreciate your answer.
I appreciate the question.
Yes, sir. Yes, Pat. I'll have these two here that are from local press, and then I'll give it to you for the remote. Go ahead.
Thank you. Paul Gough from the Pittsburgh Business Times.
How are you doing, Paul?
Good. How are you?
I'm dandy.
Walk me through sort of how you are planning. You just bought Stelco. Obviously, the difference between what's happened in the steel industry in August 2023 and even December 2023, it's a lot more challenging for you, for U.S. Steel, even for Nippon Steel. And you bought Stelco as well. How are you going to finance this? Is it true that you're working with Nucor on this bid?
Well, I know that's a fair question. But first of all, I'm not going to show the strategy on these things here. I'm not going to negotiate through the press, with all due respect. The only thing I can tell you is that when I- I spent $1 billion on that plant. Not profits. Revenues. And we did. And we financed that at an average cost of capital of 504% with no support from government.
We did it on our own, so we know how to do these things. When I bought AK Steel, it was a mining company buying a steel company, so it was like a dog buying a horse, and then when we're a bigger horse, ArcelorMittal USA came to me and said, "Look, I think you are a better owner of my assets. Would you consider buying us?" I said, "Yeah. It's like a big horse buying a big lion, but I'll try to make it happen."
We made it happen, so of course, I have an answer. But of course, I don't want to negotiate through the press, and I know you appreciate that, but the resume works. Go check. Everything I told you is true.
One other question. You talk about moving Cleveland-Cliffs to U.S. Steel, calling it U.S. Steel, the whole company. And what with the Mon Valley Works, how would that fit into this?
Mon Valley Works would be U.S. Steel. All the steel business would be U.S. Steel.
And would remain intact the way it is?
Absolutely. 100%. By the way, the Mon Valley needs a lot more than the numbers that they are floating. Of course, you talk with all due respect to the mayors and the local officials. You talk to these folks, you say, "$2 billion. $1.5 billion."
Wow. Look, Paul, we spend at Cleveland-Cliffs just in coal every year. Just in coal, just in expense, $2.4 billion. In refractories, $1.1 billion. Steel is a high-cost proposition. Numbers are enormous. It's not for people that are unprepared, people that don't understand the size. Experience matters. This industry is for the ones that have a proven track record. That's us. Cleveland-Cliffs is a great company.
The mining side will be Cleveland-Cliffs. The steel side will be United States Steel Corporation. The same way Andrew Carnegie, JP Morgan, Elbert Gary, and the Mather, father and son, Samuel and William Mather, did in the past. We're just going on with history and this will happen during the second term of Donald J. Trump. That's the goal.
Thank you.
One more here from the room, and then I need to go to the internet and then back to the room, okay?
Yes, sir.
Thank you, Lourenco. Evan Robinson-Johnson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Why are you against me? You only write stuff that's against me. Nice to meet you. Nice. So that's the real Lourenco. Unfiltered.
You've mentioned Andrew Carnegie several points today. Some of the original antitrust laws in the United States were created because of his monopolization of the steel sector. How do you convince the U.S. Steel Board, members of Trump's administration, that your purchase of U.S. Steel won't create a monopoly?
If you paid attention to what I said, I have already gone through a thorough review by the DOJ when I acquired Stelco, and they scrutinized us. They came in and they did a thorough investigation, thorough investigation, so I believe, first of all, that the antitrust investigation will be a lot simpler because a lot of the work has already been done. That said, let me correct you in one thing.
You said that the antitrust laws were put in place because of Andrew Carnegie, for what Andrew Carnegie did. Do you know how many days Andrew Carnegie worked for United States Steel? Zero. Andrew Carnegie was the guy that owned Carnegie Steel. He sold to JPMorgan.
JPMorgan and Elbert Gary, sorry, Elbert Gary, the chairman and the owner. JPMorgan and Elbert Gary put together Carnegie Steel, consolidated, and a few other smaller companies they consolidated. Andrew Carnegie, at the age of 35 years old, he was already giving his money back, building libraries in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
So some people forget the reality because they read the paper and it's wrong, and then another one writes something that's wrong and wrong again. Carnegie gave his money away. Carnegie was the guy that put the Carnegie Hall. He's one of the best benefactors of the United States ever. Okay, what was your question now that we know that Carnegie did not do anything wrong?
Just one other question about the rhetoric from this past year. I mean, you mentioned in the press conference today that you don't harbor any ill will towards other countries. You also described Japan as evil.
No, no, I did not say that. I said that I don't harbor any evil feelings against the miners of Western Pennsylvania. Against other countries, I do harbor a lot of bad feelings. I'm a good Catholic, but you know what? Every Sunday, I have to repent because I have a lot of hatred about countries that take advantage of the United States, particularly to Japan and China. But what was the question?
Just some of the threats directly towards members of Nippon Steel and Japanese officials, obviously, speech protected under the First Amendment, but just questions and remarks that have come out through the calls with investors where specifically at one point you're suggesting that Japanese officials might kill themselves as a result of this transaction. Do you stand by those remarks? What do you have to say in response to those Japanese?
Look, it's my opinion. And there are several ways of Japanese people to convey their repentance when they do something bad. And seppuku happened in the past. Now it's more like bowing down in front of the TV.
For Alper from Reuters, I'm going to open up her line. Alexandra, you can go ahead and unmute your line.
Hello, can you hear me?
Yes, we can hear you.
Thank you guys so much for doing this briefing, and I'm so sorry not to be able to be there in person. I've heard the line's been cutting in and out a little bit, and I know a lot of the questions sort of take as a baseline assumption that there is going to be a bid. But I was wondering if you could just state really explicitly, does Cleveland-Cliffs plan to make a bid for U.S. Steel with or without Nippon after June 18th if the parties are indeed forced to abandon the transaction?
Alex, I don't work on supposition. Once the deal, not if, because there's an outstanding order signed by the President of the United States for United States Steel Corporation and Nippon Steel Corporation to abandon the merger agreement. And the date was February 2nd. With the new cabinet members, and the date changed.
But once the order is implemented and the deal is abandoned, we're going to work. But right now, it's supposition. I'm not going to work on supposition. And I'm just, Alex, did you hear me?
Yes, thank you so much. You cut out a bit, but I think I got the gist of it. And then I think somebody had asked you about antitrust, but I just wanted to follow up. My understanding is that one of the reasons why U.S. Steel rejected the primary bid was out of concern that certain steel markets, such as electrical steel, there would now be over a 90% monopoly in that market if the two companies were to combine. And I wondered how, in a theoretical world where there is another bid from Cleveland-Cliffs for U.S. Steel, how would you aim to sort of overcome those concerns?
Okay. First of all, let me explain what we're talking about here on electrical steels, and I'll do it as simply as much as I can. There are two main types of electrical steels: grain-oriented electrical steels for the grid and non-oriented electrical steels for motors, rotating machines. The one that we're talking about is non-oriented electrical steels.
Grain-oriented electrical steels, we are the sole producer, and so far, nobody else has showed any interest or real investment to build capacity to produce grain-oriented electrical steels in the United States. By the way, if someone does, it's a very open market. The demand is incredible.
There are opportunities for us to accommodate another supplier or even two suppliers of grain-oriented electrical steels. There's a waiting period of more than nine months of waiting time to get a transformer these days, so the market's wide open for grain-oriented electrical steels.
As far as non-oriented electrical steels that we produce here in Butler and we finish in Zanesville, Ohio, we already have competition from U.S. Steel. It's open. And anyone that wants to produce non-oriented electrical steels is also able to do so. Actually, President Trump, based on what I saw and read and have been following, he has been welcoming new investment that will put new plants and will create new jobs for people that want to put capital here.
What he doesn't like is what Vice President-elect J.D. Vance very properly calls tariff jumping. What's tariff jumping? First, you dump, dump, dump, dump, dump. Prices are low. You took advantage. Now you buy assets that are distressed, cents on the dollar, and then you are in. You are a beneficiary of the protection that you forced the country to put in place. That's a different story.
But new investment, new capacity to generate new jobs, that's exactly what we're about. Democracy and economic freedom is an open door for investment in new things. That's what we want. That's what we support. We compete well in a level playing field. Let's have a level playing field.
Lourenco, we have another-
specifically about Nippon Steel and their incredible arrogance in the way they approach this deal. We have, and myself, have the ultimate respect for the Japanese people. They're good people. They're great people. The Japanese people are good at heart. But the Japanese corporations, they have a different relationship with their government. Here, in the United States, when we have the elected officials working with us, and I do well with both sides of the aisle, as people know.
I have my personal preferences, but I work well with both sides of the aisle is because we basically work with the people, and the elected officials do the bidding of the people. In Japan, the big corporations like Nippon Steel, the elected officials, they work for the corporations. It's a different relationship. So I am sure that the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Evan will write another hit piece on me.
Go ahead. Do the hit piece only on Nippon Steel, not on the Japanese people. I like the Japanese people. I spent time in Japan in 1984 in Keihin Kawasaki. It was an NKK plant in 1987 at Oita Works, a Nippon Steel plant. So I dealt with the working-class people there in Japan. They're great people. Great people. But the higher-ups, no. I was talking about these guys.
These guys that demanded that the President of the United States explain national security. This is insulting. If it were France or the U.K., we'd be up in arms. If it was Xi Jinping, people would be asking for bad things. If it were Vladimir Putin, oh my gosh. It was Japan. Japan is a friend. The Japanese people are friendly. The Japanese government, not really. That's my point. I hope I clarified the point.
Bob Tita, go ahead, my friend.
Hi, Ed. I hope this question hasn't been answered because you've been dropping in and off on the recording. But how would you handle the ore assets of U.S. Steel if you acquired U.S. Steel? Cliffs would have a—
When, Bob? When, Bob? Don't believe in what you read in the editorial of the Wall Street Journal. They're wrong and right. Go ahead. Now that I fixed that, that's not if. When?
Cliffs would have the whole control of the U.S. supply of iron ore, would it not?
What's the iron ore for? Where do you use iron ore? Where? Spell it with me. B-L-A-S-T, blast. The other word is furnace. If I'm going to have blast furnaces, I need iron ore. So Nippon Steel, in their original proposal, they would like to buy two things: Big River, that's a mini mill that does not use iron ore, and Minntac.
Minntac is a mining and pelletizing operation. I'm sorry, Keetac. Keetac is a mining and pelletizing operation in Minnesota. Electric furnace don't use iron ore. So that iron ore from Keetac would go to Japan. So our reserves in our homeland in Minnesota would be feeding blast furnaces in Japan. So my point is, I will have the blast furnaces.
I need the iron ore to feed the blast furnaces. If I don't have the iron ore to feed the blast furnaces, I cannot operate the blast furnaces. I cannot employ the people. Even the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal can understand that part. So Bob, your bosses will understand, I promise you.
Well, what about DRI?
Yeah, I have a plant. I have a plant in Toledo, Ohio. State of the art. State of the art. Most modern in the world. Yeah, I also need DR-grade pellets there. Yeah, I need the ore. I will consume the ore here to produce steel, to generate jobs, to make sure that we're taking care of national security.
What else can I tell you that will convince you that I need the assets? I'll never convince you, right? But you've got to try better questions. Otherwise, it's not going to work. So I'll move to someone else. Bob, keep thinking about the question that you get me, please.
We're going to move back to questions in the room. Jared, is there?
Hi, Bill Steinbach, WTOV9. We're based in Steubenville in Weirton, and you talked a little bit earlier about the new electric transformer facility there. Can you look at a timeline with that project and how the success of the operation here has led to that being able to happen there?
Great question. First point is that why we are doing this in Weirton, West Virginia? We are doing it there because when we filed anti-dumping lawsuits against a few countries, particularly Japan, on tin plate, we did not convince the other producer of tin plate to join us. That was U.S. Steel. And we had to do it alone.
Thankfully, the USW was able to join us in representing the workforce, be in front of the ITC, and we were able at least to have a case. The case won. The Department of Commerce attributed anti-dumping tariffs on tinplate. But for some reason that I still don't understand, the ITC decided that even though there are dumping margins, the implementation of tariffs would not be necessary because there will be no harm for the industry.
But at that point, I could not keep the plant open, so I shut it down because it was completely non-competitive. We could not survive over there with the type of losses that we're generating in that operation. But I could not sleep knowing that 600 families lost their ability to survive over there, and I kept thinking, what can I do? What can I do? What can I do?
Ended up with a solution. Look, I keep asking my clients to produce more transformers because I have idle capacity here in Butler. Right, guys? Do I have idle capacity here? Can we produce more? So if I can convince my clients to produce more transformers, we can employ more people. But nobody really stood up. So I decided to do it myself. That's what we're doing.
So the timeline is we're buying equipment right now. And because it's a place that already exists, we have the utilities, we have the walls, we have the floor, we have everything. And we have the people. And they are super motivated, super excited. And the union workforce is ready to go. And we are going to start building equipment very soon. It will be a big success story for the next couple of years.
Hi, Antonio Pelullo of Butler Radio here. You mentioned one of the big selling points was that Nippon Steel would be making large investments to rebuild some plants and update some plants. You recently have just received a ton of money to redo this plant and upgrade it. Is that something that are you going to put business money forward to? Are you going to continue to ask the government for more money to upgrade plants if you were to acquire?
There's a lot to unpack in your question. First of all, I haven't received any money yet. The money's pledged, but not received yet. That's number one. Number two, everything that I mentioned here regarding investment, we did with our own money. We haven't received the money to even for the furnace here, that's not a huge amount of money. It's significant, $75 million, but the money's not here yet.
We need to go through a lot of stages to receive that money. And it's not like they give you money and then you go away with the money and do whatever you want. No, you need to be executing the project to get the money. The other big money is in Middletown. It's even more complicated. And I have in Toledo feeding two electric melting furnaces that will produce the equivalent to pig iron.
We will not call pig iron anymore. We'll call liquid sponge iron that will feed the BOF with no CO2 involved because no carbon involved, no CO2 involved. That money, we haven't even seen anything yet. But all the investments we did in the last 10 years at Cleveland-Cliffs, including the $1 billion to build Toledo, was all with our own cash flow generated. 100%. No government money.
Don't believe that I'm doing this to get government money. No. Not at all. We don't need that. What we need is a government that understands that we need to make a decent return on capital because we need to reinvest, because we need to pay people decent wages. That's it. So don't get the idea that I'm here to suck on the teats of the sacred cow because that's not how I work. I hope you understand my point. Are we good? Good? Okay.
Yes, sir. Hey, Lourenco. Joe Deaux, Bloomberg News.
How are you doing, Joe?
Good to see you.
Nice to see you as well.
Switching to tariffs, have you had any conversations with the Trump transition team about steel tariffs?
Look, he is very clear that tariffs are front and center of his policies. That's the way to protect and to guarantee that we're going to be able to invest in America, and we are not going to be exposed to predatory practices from the outside. That's clear, and they haven't started in office yet. I will wait until they are in office, and we are going to work together the same way I have worked together with the Obama administrat ion, then with the Trump administration, then with the Biden administration. I'll work with them.
You're now the final owner of some assets in Canada. If there are tariffs, will you have an issue with the fact that he might put tariffs on Canadian steel coming into the United States?
Look, President Trump will do what President Trump wants to do. He has a plan, and I will play accordingly, and I will work with him. And I will work with the Canadian authorities as well. I'm not a guy that likes exceptions. Exceptions are bad. It's a lot better to understand where you are. Canada is an extension of the United States, completely different from Mexico, completely different from Japan, total opposite from China.
But at the end of the day, President Trump needs to do what President Trump needs to do to make sure that his agenda is properly implemented. I'm a big boy. I bought Stelco knowing that Stelco is in Canada. And you know what? America first.
Okay, we will go online to a question. Jonathan Guilford from Breakingviews. Jonathan, I'm going to open up the line, and you can ask your question.
Thanks so much, and thanks for taking the time, Lourenco. I just wondered, do you have a message specifically for automakers like Ford and General Motors, members of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, who opposed any potential deal between U.S. Steel and Cleveland-Cliffs?
Yeah, look, the only message, it's not a message, the only concern that I have is that when you open an avenue, other people will follow that avenue. When you create a shortcut, others will take advantage of that shortcut. What do I mean?
It's clear that when Japan invented overcapacity in Japan, they did not know that one day they would be outplayed by China. At that time, China was so much smaller than Japan that they believed that they could, you know, at the same time, do overcapacity production in Japan and still teach China how to produce steel, and everybody would be okay.
China would be friends, and they will sell Japanese steel in China, and life would be good. Guess what? Very quickly, the Chinese good students learned how to produce steel and also learned how to overproduce steel. They said, "If Japan is doing this and going away with the practice, we can do too." They did, and they did it on a much bigger scale.
I'm saying all that because the automotive industry has been taking advantage of imported steel and depressed prices of steel inside the United States for a long, long time. It's a good practice for them because they can buy great steel cheaper and cheaper and cheaper. The problem is that the avenue that creates that backdoor for cheaper steel is also creating a backdoor for cheaper cars.
The same Mexico that has been killing the Midwest by not allowing us to survive here because it's a lot cheaper to use much, much cheaper labor in much worse conditions in Mexico than here in the United States, they're now producing car parts and very soon producing entire cars, and that's where the problem is. I believe that if I have to send a message, I don't need to send a message, but you asked me to send a message.
The message is, "I am you tomorrow." It's better if we work together. That's called supply chain. If we work together and if we block this backdoor, you are going to have a lot more peace in Detroit. You're going to have a lot more stable labor relations in Detroit. You are going to produce much better cars.
At the end of the day, it's one ton of steel per car. Please, members of the press, get that. One ton of steel per car. If one ton of steel per car is the paradigm and one ton of steel is $700 today, even if I give a 50% price increase to steel, what's not going to happen? Nobody's planning a 50% increase on steel, but 50% of $700 per ton.
And the guy said, "Look, the price used to be for this car, this beautiful SUV that you want, the price used to be $79,660. But because Lourenco increased prices 50%, now it's $80,000." And then he said, "Damn, this Lourenco guy, he killed me." And you walk out of the dealership. That's the problem we're trying to resolve here, guys.
So by squeezing the last cent, by killing all the suppliers, by implementing globalization, just because it's a lot cheaper to produce in China, in Vietnam, in Indonesia than in places like Pennsylvania or Ohio or Michigan or Wisconsin, they killed the Midwest and they continue to bleed money because they're not doing great. If they're doing great, Tesla would never happen.
They're not doing great. Actually, just revisiting the past is a good thing. Not too long ago, General Motors was in bankruptcy, and the government had to rescue. Cleveland-Cliffs was never rescued by the government. That's FYI. We never went close to bankruptcy, not even when I went to the company, and in my first year, I had to write off $8 billion of bad stuff, and we got out of that without bankruptcy, without help from the government, on our own capacity.
So here's the message to the car manufacturers. Pay attention. You're not doing great by doing what you're doing. January 20 is a good day for you to reset your mind. It's America first. Tariffs are coming to protect you, but you need to deserve to be protected. You need to deserve to be helped.
Cleveland-Cliffs, in this capacity, or very soon under the new capacity, under the name United States Steel Corporation, is happy and willing to work together with you to protect the supply chain, to protect national security. Message sent. What's the next question?
Okay. We have two.
Are we going to be here forever? No, I know. Just asking.
Yeah, we have two more. I think that'll be it, right? We'll wrap it up. Let's go over to Rye over at Argus Media. Rye, I'm going to open up your line, and I'm going to let you ask your question.
Okay. Thanks, Pat. And really good to talk to you, Lorenzo. Thank you so much for this call. I am just curious, when you look at the landscape and you look at U.S. Steel, if the sale is not allowed to go forward, what exactly do you think about U.S. Steel if they stay as their own company? So still remain independent. Do you foresee that as being a possibility, or are you concerned about that at all? Can you just give some color on what you think the competitive landscape would be there in the US market?
I want to buy. I want to buy. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Thanks. I want to buy. I have a plan. I have an all-American solution in place. The all-American solution centers on people, on workers, exactly like we did here in Butler, and we did here in Middletown. We did here in Zanesville. We did here in Mansfield and Coshocton, AK Steel. I'm proud of the five years of AK Steel that we have here.
Same thing, same playbook. But I don't control the wishes of the board of U.S. Steel. They can do whatever they want. I want that to happen. I can make it happen. I know that we can make American steel great again. We can make, we can build. Score is number 16.
Cleveland-Cliffs is number 22. Steel Dynamics, another great company, is in the 40s. I don't even know. U.S. Steel is number 24. That's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. We have to have size in this business. It's a cost synergy thing, as simple as that.
I'm proving that by amalgamating together what was Bethlehem, what was LTV and Inland and Armco and AK and J&L and Republic and Wheeling-Pittsburgh and Wharton, and I'm forgetting a few names. I want to call this entire thing United States Steel Corporation, and then we can, then we'll be talking in equal footing with Nippon Steel and POSCO and ArcelorMittal and Baosteel and HBIS, and they will respect us the way they used to respect us in the '70s, in the '80s, and before.
That's the plan. Simple as that, but you can only do that if we have everybody together. What I promise you is that I have the workforce with me. I have my team with me. They're good people, and they want to do the work. Let us do it.
Lour enco, if I may, just one last. If you do buy the assets of U.S. Steel, I know you'll buy them. I'm saying if the deal.
I know.
So assuming that that happens, are you committing? Are you?
I'm saying you buy. Go ahead.
Yes. Are you committing to not shut down any of U.S. Steel's existing assets?
How many assets I shut down of AK Steel and ArcelorMittal USA other than the one that I shut down under duress because of anti-dumping? Zero. So of course, we're going to keep them open. We're going to make them bigger. We'll make them better. We're going to produce more. Clairton is the best coke plant in the United States, for sure. Edgar Thomson's a great plant. I know those assets. Gary, we have an operation, a plate quenching and tempering operation inside Gary. We know that plant.
The first time I visited that plant was in 1991 as a visitor from Brazil. I admire that plant. I know the work ethics of the people there because they are the same people as Burns Harbor and Indiana Harbor. They're next door. So of course, we're not going to shut down anything. I don't buy stuff to shut down. I buy stuff to make it better and bigger and more important, like here in Butler.
You guys need to come more to Butler. I actually said that to Governor Shapiro today on the phone. Come here more often. This is a great place to be. It's a good example. If you don't want to come here, go to Middletown, Ohio, or go to Burns Harbor. There's a lot of places that you can go.
Yes, Pat. Okay. Our last question is from David Shepardson from Reuters. David, I'm going to open up your line, and you can ask your question.
Hey, thanks, Jules. I know it's been a long press conference, so I'll try to keep it short and I know you don't want to talk in great detail about your plans for a bit until the middle of June and the current U.S. Steel Nippon deal expires. But would you anticipate an offer being somewhere in sort of the high $30 per share range if you had gotten to that point?
And what do you think? And kind of following up on that last question, what do you think a standalone U.S. Steel, would that company be able to survive, do you think, in its existing footprint, or do you think they would follow through other plans to potentially move their headquarters, shut down plants, and so forth?
There's a lot to unpack in your short question. So yeah, you answered your first portion of your question when you said you don't want to talk about this. But yeah, so you're right. I don't want to talk about the price at this point. As far as if U.S. Steel can survive standing alone, my personal opinion is yes. My personal opinion is yes, and apparently their board and their CEO believe on that as well because their motto was best of all, best of all, best of everything.
We are saving the planet, stuff like that. So that's what they have been saying all along until they start to say, "We're poor. We can survive without Nippon Steel. They are the only one that can save us." That's all BS. Of course, they can survive. Of course, they can do it on their own.
If I were running that company, I would not know that Cleveland-Cliffs would even be able to exist, to be honest with you. If I had started from a position of strength, I started with a company that I had to write off $8 billion just to be here today. And that was less than 10 years ago. And here we are. So of course, they can survive. But that's just my opinion. So I'm glad that their opinion is that they need to be sold.
And I'm glad that the President of the United States made an executive order for them to unravel that thing, terminate the merger agreement. And I'm happy that I'm in a position to make an offer that will execute on the wishes of the board and the management. They sell, they go away. We take over. We do good. America will be better.
America will be stronger. National security will be taken care of. We'll be making the bidding of the American people, American investors, real investors, not money suckers. And you'll get everything done the American way. As simple as that. Thank you very much for coming. I hope that you started to understand a little bit more on what's going on behind all this campaign. The fight's not over yet, but we fight. That's what we do. We fight, and we'll continue to fight. Thanks a lot.