Cleveland-Cliffs To Turn Steel Facility Into Manufacturing Plant, Creating 600 Jobs – West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Roughly 600 new jobs are headed for Hancock County after steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs announced Monday it would repurpose a former steel manufacturer into a manufacturing plant for distribution transformers.

The Cleveland-based company closed its steel facility in April, causing the layoff of about 900 employees and prompting swift criticism from the local community and elected officials.

Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves said Monday that supply chain issues causing an “acute shortage” of distribution transformers domestically spurred the decision to redevelop the facility.

Distribution transformers support power grids by managing the flow of electricity. Goncalves said that the shortage is already “hampering economic development and threatening energy security.”

Redeveloping the steel facility will cost a total of $150 million, but $50 million will be granted by the state in a forgivable loan to the company.

State officials expressed support for the redevelopment plan, and said it offers an opportunity for economic growth in the Northern Panhandle.

“Distribution transformers are absolutely critical components of our nation’s power grid,” Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., said in a press release Monday. “This project is a great opportunity to position our state as a global leader in their production while reemploying hardworking West Virginians who lost their jobs earlier this year.”

“We were never going to sit on the sidelines and watch these jobs disappear,” Gov. Jim Justice said in a Monday press release. “Now, just a few months later, we’ve forged a new deal that positions West Virginia at the forefront of strengthening our nation’s grid.”

Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, said the plans mark a “real commitment” to keeping manufacturing jobs “right here in West Virginia.”

Likewise, United Steelworkers Local 2911 President Mark Glyptis said Monday he was “elated” by the company’s announcement, and its impact on local workers.

“Today we have reason to celebrate,” he said. “I look forward to developing one of the most efficient factories in the country, with United Steelworkers helping to grow this opportunity even beyond the jobs announced today right here in Weirton.”

House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, said the redevelopment plan reflects West Virginia’s “history of rising up to solve the country’s problems, whether it was our salt furnaces or our coal mines or our extraordinary people.”

“The big news out of Hancock County today is frankly even bigger than most of us can grasp just yet,” he said. “But all the folks who had that big vision for how to keep manufacturing in Weirton and put in the work to make today’s announcement possible deserve our deep appreciation.”