TacticScaleWhat Cleveland-Cliffs Does & How It Makes Money (CLF)
Updated October 2026 · reflects Cleveland-Cliffs's latest reported financials
Integrated North American steelmaker, from iron ore mining to finished steel. It earns revenue mainly by selling flat-rolled, coated, stainless, electrical, and plate steel to automotive, infrastructure, manufacturing, and distributor customers.
How Cleveland-Cliffs makes money
It earns revenue mainly by selling flat-rolled, coated, stainless, electrical, and plate steel to automotive, infrastructure, manufacturing, and distributor customers. It also sells non-steel products and byproducts such as stamped components, tooling, tubing, scrap, iron ore, HBI, coal, and coke.
What Cleveland-Cliffs does
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. is a vertically integrated steel producer operating in the United States and Canada. Its operations run from iron ore mining and pellet and direct reduced iron production through primary steelmaking to downstream finishing, stamping, tooling, and tubing. Its product range includes hot-rolled, cold-rolled, and coated sheet steel; stainless and electrical steels such as GOES and NOES; plate; slab; and tubular products including carbon, stainless, and electric resistance welded tubing. The company sells directly to automotive customers, as well as to infrastructure and manufacturing customers, distributors and converters, and other steel producers. It also sells scrap, iron ore, HBI, coal, and coke. Founded in 1847 and headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, it was known as Cliffs Natural Resources until it took its current name in August 2017.
Products & services
- Hot-rolled and cold-rolled steel
- Coated steel (galvanized, galvanneal, galvalume, aluminized)
- Electrical steel (GOES and NOES)
- Stainless steel and plate products
- Iron ore pellets and HBI
- Stamped components, tool and die, and tubing
What is Cleveland-Cliffs worth?
On an owner-earnings DCF, Cleveland-Cliffs's most-likely value is about $2 versus a recent price near $13 (87% above fair value). But TacticScale only calls a stock undervalued when the price sits below its conservative no-growth floor (~$1) with a margin of safety — so the honest verdict here is “Stretched — richly priced.” Fair value earns its keep only at the extremes, not in the wide middle.
Today's $13 is above even the optimistic Bull case ($2) — the market expects faster, longer growth than modeled here. Expensive unless that extra growth actually shows up.
⚠ High leverage — net debt is 103.5× annual cash flow. Net debt is subtracted from this fair value, but refinancing at higher rates, principal timing, and share dilution aren’t modeled — the equity can be worth far less if cash flow weakens.
Analysis, not advice. Fair value is a margin-of-safety estimate from a deterministic owner-earnings DCF, not a price target or recommendation. See the full breakdown →
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