Cleveland-Cliffs has returned to quarterly profit for the first time in more than two years. Third quarter net income was 165 million dollars, or 26 cents a share, against a loss of 234 million dollars a year earlier, on revenue up 18.5 percent to 5.61 billion dollars. Adjusted EBITDA reached 612 million dollars, up from 143 million dollars a year earlier and 286 million dollars in the second quarter, beating the company’s own guidance of 575 million dollars. Adjusted earnings were 28 cents a diluted share. Chairman and chief executive Lourenco Goncalves called it the company’s strongest quarter in three years.
Volumes and prices both helped. Steel shipments were about 4.2 million net tons, and the average realised price rose to 1,177 dollars a net ton from 1,032 dollars a year earlier. Goncalves credited a supportive trade environment, with imports well below historical levels, longer customer lead times and buyers prioritising reliable North American supply. The shares rose sharply on the report, with gains reported between about 10 percent pre market and 16.9 percent on the day across market coverage.
The outlook is the story. Cliffs guided fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA to about 715 million dollars despite seasonal weakness, maintenance outages and higher input costs, and said that on contracts already signed and current price forecasts it expects 2027 adjusted EBITDA to exceed 4 billion dollars, above its previous 3.3 billion dollar target and well above the roughly 2.6 billion dollar consensus reported by analysts. The company remains on track, it said, to reach a leverage target of under 2.5 times net debt to EBITDA by the middle of 2027, helped by expected fourth quarter free cash flow and asset sale proceeds.
One operation moves the other way. The galvanizing lines at Stelco, the company’s Canadian unit, will stay indefinitely idled on oversupply in that market, shifting output toward hot rolled products, a decision that has drawn warnings from Ottawa in a continuing jobs dispute. For the mining side of the business, the result underlines how much of Cliffs’ earnings leverage sits in steel pricing rather than in its iron ore volumes: the same ore base produces a loss or a four billion dollar outlook year depending on the price its own mills can realise.