Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Celso Goncalves : Yes. It should be about $100 million of cash expense and plus call it $140 million of credits in 2023.

Philip Gibbs : Okay. Perfect.

Celso Goncalves : A little less than 2022.

Operator: Our next question comes from Andreas Bokkenheuser with UBS.

Andreas Bokkenheuser : Just two quick questions for me. Obviously, there’s been a lot of talk about some capacity being restarted among some of your peers, which I think was a little bit surprising given that industry utilization on average is just about 70%. Can you give us a little bit of clarity where your utilization is sitting versus the sector at the moment in terms of production? And secondly, obviously, you’ve seen the headlines about further price hikes on HRC. Are you fully getting 850 now? I know it differs between producers. But are you fully getting 850 HRC now giving you comfort to obviously push it towards 900? Those are my two questions.

Lourenco Goncalves : Our utilization, we are running all of our assets, and we are not idling anything. So that’s what I can tell you. The number, I don’t have it, I don’t follow, that’s not relevant to what we do. We deliver automotive on time. We take care of our clients. We run our assets for maximum profitability. And these are the guidelines. We don’t have to run 24/7 to mitigate costs and the fight on the last ton. We have a different approach to business. So we are not in the commodity business. I hope this message came across loud and clear because that’s what we are, that’s what we do, and that’s why we invest money and take care of the equipment instead of just running to exhaustion. So that’s what I saw from part of the assets that are acquired two years ago, no more. The assets are in good shape, and we are producing for maximum quality and maximum profitability. And that’s what we’re going to deliver in 2023. What was the second question, Andreas?

Andreas Bokkenheuser : Just on pricing, we saw it obviously headlines on pricing, going to 850. You guys — I think you raised another 50 to 900. Just wanted to get a sense of whether you’re fully getting the 850 now giving you good comfort that you can push to 900?

Lourenco Goncalves : Well, when we start the first price increase, hot band was 640. So now we’re announcing 900. So what do you think? What is your take? Is it sticky or not?

Andreas Bokkenheuser : Yes. I guess it just comes back to the utilization point. I guess, with 70% utilization for the industry, I can appreciate you’re not thinking about in terms of utilization, but just the strength of the market to push it on to 900, I guess that’s kind of where I’m coming from. But I guess you have the comfort for 900.

Lourenco Goncalves : Well, we are at 850, and we believe 900 is achievable. That’s our take.

Operator: Our next question comes from Karl Blunden with Goldman Sachs.

Karl Blunden : You’d outlined here in terms of free cash flow, a plan to deploy that towards share buybacks and then also debt reduction. As we think about ’23 and beyond, is there also a potential for M&A? Or is the — should we think about the footprint is pretty much where you want it to be right now?