The Weirton Daily Times
WEIRTON, W.Va. — Cleveland-Cliffs will transform its assets in Weirton into a electrical transformer production plant, jump-starting the region’s economy and providing a charge to an area that has been one of the world’s largest steel producers for generations.
The company made the announcement early Monday morning; a press conference in Weirton is scheduled for 2 p.m. today with company officials, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and other state and local officials.
The investment by Cleveland-Cliffs will, according to the company, address the critical shortage of distribution transformers that is stifling economic growth across the United States.
“Distribution transformers are critical to the maintenance and expansion of America’s electric grid. These transformers are in short supply, and that shortage stifles economic growth across the country,” said Lourenco Goncalves, Cleveland-Cliffs’ chairman, president and CEO. “The shortage will continue to be exacerbated by the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence in virtually all sectors of the economy, which will exponentially increase the consumption of electricity, in the United States and worldwide. Said another way, there will be no AI without electricity, and there will be no electricity without transformers.
