Creating Innovative Steel Solutions
Through our Research and Innovation Center in Middletown, Ohio, Cleveland-Cliffs is collaborating with customers to create innovative steel solutions that meet society’s needs today and into the future. Steel has unique, sustainable applications in the automotive, energy, construction, packaging, and infrastructure sectors. We are leveraging the combined strengths and capabilities of our steelmaking facilities to support our customers’ evolving sustainability goals alongside our own.
One area of focus is providing advanced high-strength steels (AHSS) to automakers, including third-generation (Gen 3) steel grades. With increased strength and better formability, these new specialized grades of steel can be used to make thinner, lighter parts that reduce vehicle weight, increase fuel efficiency, and lower tailpipe emissions while maintaining superior strength and safety performance. For our customers, Gen 3 and other AHSS products are more cost-effective and more environmentally friendly than alternative materials such as aluminum, magnesium, and carbon fiber.
Additionally, with the move to electric vehicles (EV) in the automotive industry, we are well-positioned as a leader in producing specialty electrical steels for more efficient and higher-performing hybrid and battery-electric vehicles. We are working with several automotive companies to use our high-grade, non-oriented electrical steel (NOES) to produce electric motors for the EV market. Our experience and know-how position us to be the only major North American supplier of NOES in a rapidly developing market.
Steel is also critical to the development of clean energy infrastructure and further reduction of the United States’ GHG footprint. We supply AHSS and electrical steel grades to support renewable energy and grid greening applications such as solar power racks and wind turbine components, as well as energy-efficient transformers, generators, and motors.
