Cleveland-Cliffs Net FY 2025 Loss of $1.4B

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. announced its financial year 2025 results on February 9, disclosing the company lost a total of $1.4 billion, a drop of $686 million from its full-year 2024 results, when the company lost $714 million, after 2025 revenue fell by $600,000. The full-year results followed a fourth quarter in which the company lost $235 million.

In remarks accompanying the financial report, Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalvez blamed low auto production in 2025 and signaled confidence that conditions would improve.

“Our performance in 2025 was negatively affected by persistently weak production levels from the automotive sector throughout the entire year, an expiring five-year slab contract becoming value-destructive during its last year, and a newly adverse dynamic in the Canadian market,” Goncalvez stated. “Fortunately, as we started 2026, these negative situations have all improved. At the same time, the trade environment in the United States continues to move in a very constructive direction, setting the stage for dramatically improved results this year.” He went on to add that Cliffs, in anticipation of future conditions, shed “non-core assets,” reduced costs, and signed multi-year contracts with major automakers, and noted the company’s safety record in 2025 was a record, with a rate of 0.8 Total Recordable Incidents per 200,000 hours worked.

Despite the loss, Cliffs sold more tons of steel in the year ending December 31, 2025 than it had in 2024: The Cleveland, Ohio-based steelmaker reported it sold 16,229 net tons of steel in 2025 compared to 15,596 in 2024. However, it was sold at lower average prices of $1,005 per net ton compared to 2024’s $1,081 per ton figure.

According to Goncalvez, the Cliffs’ strategic partnership with POSCO is yielding results. In his remarks, Goncalvez said the Korean steelmaker is doing its due diligence in anticipation of signing a definitive agreement in the first half of the year: In October 2025, Cliffs announced it would sell a 10% stake of itself to POSCO in exchange for $700 million and assistance with getting POSCO a foothold in the United States steel market.

The earnings report closed with expectations for financial year 2026 that Cliffs will sell between 16.5-17 million net tons of steel and spend about $700 million on capital expenditures.