Cleveland Cliffs announced a new electrical distribution transformer production plant in Weirton, West Virginia.
Cleveland Cliffs said the downstream direct investment will address the critical shortage of distribution transformers that is stifling economic growth across the United States.
The announcement means Cleveland Cliffs will repurpose its Half Moon Warehouse in Weirton to commence production of three-phase distribution transformers used in electric power distribution systems.
The total capital investment is $150 million, of which $50 million (or one third) will be granted by the state of West Virginia to Cliffs through a forgivable loan.
Cliffs expects the new plant to come online in the first half of 2026.
This investment is expected to result in reemployment opportunities for 600 USW-represented workers from the indefinitely idled Weirton tinplate mill.
The new electrical transformer plant will also generate additional demand for American-made Grain Oriented Electrical Steel (GOES), exclusively produced in the United States by Cleveland-Cliffs, at its Butler Works steel mill in Butler, Pennsylvania. Additional demand for GOES will ultimately result in additional production of GOES at Butler Works, generating the opportunity of employment expansion for the UAW-represented workforce in Butler, Pennsylvania. In addition to Cliffs’ GOES, the new transformer plant in West Virginia will also consume stainless and carbon steel produced by Cliffs in several other of its steel plants in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana.
Lourenco Goncalves, Cleveland-Cliffs’ Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer stated, “Distribution transformers are critical to the maintenance and expansion of America’s electric grid. These transformers are in short supply, and that shortage stifles economic growth across the country. The shortage will continue to be exacerbated by the widespread adoption of Artificial Intelligence in virtually all sectors of the economy, which will exponentially increase the consumption of electricity, in the United States and worldwide. Said another way, there will be no AI without electricity, and there will be no electricity without transformers. Our vision for Weirton is to develop a first-of-a-kind center of excellence for transformer manufacturing that will provide good paying, middle class jobs to skilled workers, and will service our country’s electrical infrastructure needs.”
Goncalves concluded: “The former Weirton site offers significant growth opportunity, with the needed infrastructure in place and a world class highly-trained workforce ready to be deployed. Very importantly, Weirton is located in West Virginia, a state where the legislative and the executive branches prove every day that things can happen really fast and efficiently. We thank Governor Justice for helping to advance this critical project and the Governor’s West Virginia Department of Economic Development for extending a forgivable loan of $50 million in support of our investment. I would also like to express appreciation to our Weirton host community and numerous elected officials from the region for their ongoing support of Cleveland-Cliffs.”
United Steelworkers Local 2911 President, Mark Glyptis, stated, “This investment by Cleveland-Cliffs will provide employment opportunity for the hard working, skilled Steelworkers of USW Local 2911. The new plant builds on Weirton’s proud legacy of steelmaking, and will establish our region as a hub for manufacturing of transformers needed to support the economic and national security of the United States. I thank Lourenco Goncalves for remaining dedicated to this community and Governor Justice for the strong support by the State of West Virginia. Finally, I reaffirm the commitment of USW Local 2911 to the success and future growth of transformer production in Weirton.”
U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) celebrated Cleveland-Cliffs’ announcement, “Because of our work to correct the Department of Energy’s misguided transformer rule, we are bringing new industry and new jobs to the Ohio Valley,” said Brown. “Our government let down these skilled, dedicated Steelworkers by failing to enforce our trade laws – but we never gave up working to bring steel jobs back to this mill. I’ll always fight for Ohio workers and the Ohio Valley, and I’ll always stand up to any administration’s misguided policy that hurts workers and manufacturers.”
Today’s announcement is incredible news for Cleveland-Cliffs, the United Steelworkers, the people of Weirton, and all of West Virginia,” said Senator Manchin. “Distribution transformers are absolutely critical components of our nation’s power grid and 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. I’m grateful to everyone who worked tirelessly to find a solution for this site and I am excited to see West Virginia continue to play an essential role in our energy and manufacturing industries.”
