Lourenco Goncalves, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Cleveland-Cliffs, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss the Stelco layoffs and the U.S. steel tariffs.
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What Lourenco Goncalves said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Lourenco Goncalves, CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs, defended the company's compliance with its 29 undertakings regarding Stelco employment levels, stating they report annually and are in compliance, with a temporary measure to save 2,150 jobs. He clarified that layoffs are below 200, not 500, and are due to a business decision to focus on hot rolled products amid galvanized steel dumping. He criticized the Canadian government's threats as bullying and harassment, asserting the agreement is a contract and they are prepared for legal defense. Goncalves expressed support for Section 232 tariffs but noted Canada's unique trade relationship, and highlighted the need for a market to sell steel, mentioning the company loses money at 50-55% capacity utilization. He reflected on the $3.4 billion Canadian acquisition and the change in treatment, suggesting a willingness to sell if a fair price is offered.
Key takeaways
Goncalves says Cleveland-Cliffs is in compliance with its undertakings and will report again in November, with 2,150 jobs 'super safe' at Stelco.
Layoffs are temporarily below 200, not 500, as part of a business decision to concentrate on hot rolled products.
Goncalves calls the government's threat of legal action and divestment 'bullying and harassment' before any lawsuit is filed.
He supports Section 232 steel tariffs but says Canada's case is different, needing a deal to sell galvanized steel into the U.S.
If the Canadian government pays a fair price, Goncalves would sell Stelco, citing a missed opportunity otherwise.
Numbers and commitments
Figure
What it refers to
Type
At
29
number of undertakings with the Canadian government
The industry minister is threatening to force Cleveland-Cliffs to sell off Canadian assets if that US company goes ahead with hundreds of layoffs at Stelco in Hamilton, Ontario. Let's get perspective now from C. Goncalves, chairman and chief executive officer of Cleveland-Cliffs. Thanks very much indeed for joining us.
Can we just get straight into it? Apparently, when Ottawa approved your takeover of Stelco, you did guarantee not to cut unionized workers. So, are you not going back on that?
We have 29 undertakings. One of them is that we need to keep the same levels of employment, both for union workers and non-union workers, and we report these levels of employment every year. So, the last time we reported it was on the one-year anniversary. We're in compliance. We will be in compliance when we report again in November, and we plan to be in compliance in all years ahead. This is a temporary measure, a good business measure to save 2,150 jobs that are super safe at Stelco.
First of all, we are not laying off 500 people. We informed, because we were in constant communication with the deputies of Minister Joly, and I said that we would have the risk of laying off up to 500 employees temporarily. At this point, we are below 200, but we had made a business decision to concentrate production in hot rolled products. That's the way we can keep Stelco as a profitable company. Stelco is having a great year. We are making money. The Canadian market continues to react positively to things that we're doing, and we are keeping employment. We will bring back these workers that are temporarily laid off, producing galvanized steel there.
But the government doesn't seem to accept that these are temporary layoffs. They're threatening legal action and maybe even forcing you to divest Stelco.
Well, that's bullying and harassment before you file a lawsuit to do that. They haven't filed anything yet. I heard that she just hired the lawyers. So, it's a good start. We know the agreement that we signed with the government of Canada. The agreement is a contract, and we know what's there. We negotiated the terms. We know we're in compliance. They should know as well. And we are not in Canada to lay off people. We believe in the workforce. We believe in the market. We believe that Canada is a country of laws.
You are shutting down though some of the operations. You announced this year you're going to idle your cold rolled steel and galvanizing operations in Hamilton. So, you're cutting back on operations.
We are cutting down because there's too much dumping of galvanized steel inside the Canadian market. We have been alerting the Carney administration, Minister Joly, Michael Sabia, the clerk of the Privy Council, and several other officials inside the cabinet of Mr. Carney that we cannot afford to continue operating in a market that continues to be flooded by foreigners, and Canadian workers are the victims of this dumping.
Actually, the government was on the right track. And the government was doing some very good things when they first implemented the first batch of TRQs. Some impact was expected and it didn't happen. They tightened down a little bit the TRQ use and the results came, and that's why we are doing much better than before. So, they were on the right track. And we were alerting Minister Joly that more needed to be done with galvanized steel, otherwise Canadian jobs would be on the line. They elected not to conclude the negotiation to create a way for us to sell galvanized steel, and that was a big problem. We cannot accommodate inside the Canadian market the production of Stelco, the production of ArcelorMittal Dofasco, and an avalanche of imports coming through the border.
The government says, excuse me, that business decisions and changes in business conditions aren't an adequate reason for cutting jobs. So, it sounds like you are going to end up in court here.
14 more exchanges in this transcript
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Goncalves, L. (2026, October 15). 'Stelco has been preserved, Stelco is doing very well': Cleveland-Cliffs CEO [Interview transcript]. CTV News. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3072431/
MLA
Lourenco Goncalves. "'Stelco has been preserved, Stelco is doing very well': Cleveland-Cliffs CEO." CTV News, 15 Oct. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3072431/.
BibTeX
@misc{goncalves2026_3072431,
author = {Lourenco Goncalves},
title = {'Stelco has been preserved, Stelco is doing very well': Cleveland-Cliffs CEO},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, CTV News. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {oct},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3072431/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
