It’s incredibly good news for Weirton, West Virginia, allowing 600 people to return to a union job. It also will help address a national transformer shortage.
Steel manufacturer Cleveland-Cliffs announced on Monday that it plans to turn its closed tin mill in West Virginia into a new, state-of-the-art facility to make electrical distribution transformers, addressing a critical infrastructure shortage and creating hundreds of union jobs.
Cleveland-Cliffs idled its tin mill in Weirton earlier this year after the International Trade Commission (ITC) rejected tariffs on imports from four countries despite a finding from the Commerce Department that those countries were dumping and subsidizing their products. The ITC decision was “a travesty for America, middle-class jobs, and our critical food supply chains,” Cleveland-Cliffs Chairman, President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves said at the time.
But now that same mill is getting new life.
“We shut down the plant, but we did not abandon the workforce,” Goncalves said at a press conference announcing the new facility. “Because of the workforce, we started thinking, ‘How can we intelligently put that workforce back to work, to do something that’s not only meaningful for Weirton, and for the great state of West Virginia, and also for the United States of America?’ Well, we had an opportunity right in front of our very eyes.”
There’s currently a massive shortage of electrical distribution transformers, which are an essential part of our energy infrastructure. Transformers manage the flow of electricity by changing high-voltage electricity from transmission lines into low-voltage electricity to power homes and businesses. But utility companies are having trouble getting transformers, with lead times of up to two years — a fourfold increase since 2022 — and steep price increases.
“You can’t get transformers today. In all honesty, the backlog is years, and we’re all dependent upon the Chinas, and whoever it may be. It’s crazy, it’s crazy in America,” said West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice during Monday’s press conference. “But really and truly, your build-out and what you are going to do is not only great for Weirton and not only great for 600 people, and all that business, but it’s unbelievable for this nation.”
Cleveland-Cliffs will invest $150 million to repurpose the facility to make transformers, allowing 600 employees, represented by the United Steelworkers (USW) and formerly employed at the tin mill, to return to work. The company expects the new factory will come online by early 2026.
In his remarks, Goncalves praised USW leadership for their work to help reopen the plant, noting that it “would not be possible without my partnership in West Virginia” with USW Local 2911 President Mark Glyptis, who was unable to attend the press conference due to an illness.
“The failure of our government to protect our ability to continue to produce tin in Weirton resulted in the idling of [the] Weirton plant and lost us close to a thousand good-paying jobs with benefits. Cleveland-Cliffs and Lourenco never gave up on the workers, their families, or the Weirton community,” said Glyptis in a statement.
“I am excited for this new opportunity to produce much-needed transformers, which are vital to our national economy and energy efficiency to our country,” the statement continued. “It is gratifying that we are producing transformers Made in America [by] American workers… I am looking forward to the challenge to make this new venture successful.”
Justice recalled that after the tin mill’s closure, Goncalves worked hard with West Virginia officials and others to find a way to repurpose the facility and get folks back to work — a commitment to employees that is rare in corporate America.
“Too many American companies just move on, that’s all there is to it,” he said. “I can’t tell you the conversations we’ve had together, and it was really, genuinely bothering this man.”
Justice wasn’t the only lawmaker offering remarks on Monday. West Virginia Sens. Joe Manchin (I) and Shelley Moore Capito (R) sent representatives to the press conference, as did Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown (D). Several state lawmakers and officials also attended.
In a written statement, Manchin called Monday’s announcement “incredible news.”
“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,” Manchin said. “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.”
Brown noted in a press release that he worked with the U.S. Department of Energy to stop a proposed regulation that would have required transformers to shift from industry standard grain oriented electrical steel (GOES) to amorphous cores, which would have “made investment in American production of transformers, using American-made steel, infeasible.”
“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,” Brown said. “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.”
Indeed, Cleveland-Cliffs noted that the new transformer plant in Weirton will likely increase demand for GOES, which the company makes at a facility in nearby Butler, Pa. Cleveland-Cliffs also will make stainless and carbon steel for the transformers at its plants in states like Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana.
Demand for transformers is likely to increase in the coming years, Goncalves predicted, pointing to emerging sectors like artificial intelligence that require high electricity use. And Cleveland-Cliffs plans to continue to meet market demand.
“This will be our first plant, not our last one,” he said.
Cleveland-Cliffs isn’t the only American steel company opening new facilities. U.S. Steel recently announced a $150 million investment of its own in Minnesota, where it will make direct reduced (DR)-grade pellets.
You can watch Monday’s Cleveland-Cliffs press conference on YouTube or below.