HBI Plant Suspending Operations

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. announced that the owners of Cliffs and Associates Ltd. have decided to suspend operations at CAL's hot briquetted iron plant in Trinidad and Tobago for an extended period due to the weak market for ferrous metals.

The company expects to restart the mill when market conditions improve. The facility is 82 percent owned by Cleveland-Cliffs.

The operational improvements that were made to the CAL facility last year and earlier this year have been successfully demonstrated, and the ramp-up of the plant since the restart in mid-March has been steady. The year,, CAL produced and sold about 130,000 tons of briquettes with acceptance of the product favorable.