Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (CLF) SEC Filings & Earnings Calls

High Debt Levels

“Long-term debt $7,645 million as of September 30, 2026, with interest expense of $148 million per quarter”

Retained Deficit

“Retained deficit ($759) million as of September 30, 2026, indicating cumulative losses”

Low Cash Balance

“Cash and cash equivalents only $77 million as of September 30, 2026, though ABL facility provides $3.169B in borrowing capacity”

Steel Price Volatility

“Revenue and profitability are highly dependent on steel pricing, which can be volatile”

Union Labor Exposure

“More than 90% of approximately 20,000 hourly workforce is represented by three prominent unions”

Stelco galvanizing lines idled indefinitely due to Canadian market oversupply; potential ongoing operational drag.

“we made the difficult but necessary decision to indefinitely idle our galvanizing lines at Stelco.” · word for word

Leverage target dependency on debt reduction and property sale proceeds; execution risk.

“we remain on track to reach our leverage target of under 2.5x net debt to EBITDA by the middle of next year.” · word for word

Negative operating cash flow

“Net cash used by operating activities ($95M) for H1 2026”

High debt level

“Long-term debt $7,703M as of June 30, 2026”

Retained deficit

“Retained deficit ($911M) as of June 30, 2026”

Extended maintenance outages impacted Q2 production

“Even with extended maintenance outages in April and May, our second quarter adjusted EBITDA tripled” · word for word

GAAP net loss persists

“GAAP net loss of $134 million” · word for word

Continued net loss

“Net loss attributable to Cliffs shareholders $(237) million” · word for word

Negative operating cash flow

“Net cash used by operating activities $(325) million”

High debt levels

“Long-term debt $7,763 million”

Energy cost spike from extreme cold weather impacted margins by $80M in Q1

“Adjusted EBITDA of $95 million, which included an $80 million negative one-time impact due to a cold-weather driven energy price spike”

Potential POSCO deal timeline uncertain due to Middle East disruption

“While the current situation has not helped the timeline of a potential deal with POSCO, we continue to negotiate in good faith” · word for word

Cyclical steel pricing risk

“Our executive compensation programs are structured to align with the cyclical nature of the steel industry.” · word for word

Adjusted EBITDA volatility

“We reported actual 2025 Adjusted EBITDA of $37 million. Performance was below threshold resulting in a 0% payout for this metric.” · word for word

Net loss risk

“Net income (loss) $(1,428) million for 2025.”

Relative TSR underperformance

“our 2023 performance awards (2023 – 2025 Long-Term Incentive Grant – Performance Cash and Shares) paid out at zero.” · word for word

Accounting restatement risk

“the Company identified an immaterial error related to its accrual for certain employment costs, resulting in an understatement of cost of goods sold in prior periods.” · word for word

Board transition risk minimal; resignation due to policy, not disagreement.

“resignation was not because of any disagreement with the Company”

High Debt and Interest Rate Sensitivity

“As of December 31, 2025, we had $6.9 billion aggregate principal amount of senior notes and $452 million aggregate borrowings under our ABL Facility outstanding.” · word for word

Cyclical Demand and Recession Risk

“Steel market conditions in 2025 were driven by higher-than-historical HRC pricing and lower import levels, but subdued demand remained, driven by inconsistent buying behavior as our largest end markets experienced recession-like conditions.” · word for word

Integration and Partnership Risks

“We continue to face ongoing risks arising out of the Stelco Acquisition and may be unable to realize the anticipated financial and other benefits from proposed strategic partnerships and asset divestitures.” · word for word

Persistent automotive sector weakness and expiring slab contract create demand risk

“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” · word for word

Significant margin compression with Adjusted EBITDA declining 95% year-over-year

“Full-year 2025 Adjusted EBITDA was $37 million, compared to $773 million in 2024”

Canadian market adverse dynamic adds geographic risk

“a newly adverse dynamic in the Canadian market” · word for word

Potential equity dilution from shelf registration

“Registration Statement on Form S-3 (Registration No. 333-291146)” · word for word