Full Transcript: Cleveland-Cliffs Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE: CLF ) held its second-quarter earnings conference call on Thursday.

Below is the complete transcript from the call.

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View the webcast at Summary Cleveland-Cliffs returned to positive free cash flow and tripled adjusted EBITDA from Q1; Q2 adjusted EBITDA was $286 million, with a strong outlook for Q3 ($575 million expected).

Key strategic initiatives included the expiration of an uneconomic slab supply contract, improvements in automotive demand, and footprint optimization.

The company is focusing on higher pricing and cost reductions.

Cleveland-Cliffs highlighted the positive impact of U.S. trade policies, particularly Section 232, on domestic steel utilization and reshoring of manufacturing.

The company emphasized its strong position in the automotive sector, being a top supplier to major clients like Toyota and General Motors, and an increase in steel shipments to automotive clients.

Cleveland-Cliffs is negotiating to renew its collective bargaining agreement with the United Steelworkers union and has appointed Celso as President and CFO.

Stelco's Canadian operations showed improvements due to trade policy changes, but challenges remain in the galvanized market.

Future growth is expected from fixed-price contract resets, Stelco improvements, and AI-based cost reductions.

The company anticipates hitting a leverage target of sub 2.5x by next year.

The company has begun discussions with Posco, but no immediate transactions are planned unless valuation and structure are favorable.

Full Transcript Darrell, Operator Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

My name is Darrell, and I am your conference facilitator.

Today I would like to welcome everyone to Cleveland-Cliffs' second quarter 2026 earnings conference call.

All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise.

After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session.

The Company reminds you that certain comments made on today's call will include predictive statements that are intended to be made as forward-looking within the safe harbor protections of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Although the Company believes that its forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially.

Important factors that can cause results to differ materially are set forth in reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q and news releases filed with the SEC, which are available on the Company's website.

Today's conference call is also available and being broadcast at clevelandcliffs.com.

At the conclusion of the call, it will be archived on the website and available for replay.

The Company will also discuss results excluding certain special items.

Reconciliation for Regulation G purposes can be found in the earnings release which was published this morning.

At this time I would like to introduce Lourenco Goncalves, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Lourenco Goncalves — Chief Executive Officer Thank you, Gary, and good morning to everyone.

After several quarters of talking about the future earnings power of this Company, we can finally point to tangible evidence that the progression we have been forecasting is now reality.

During the second quarter, we returned to positive free cash flow and tripled our adjusted EBITDA from the first quarter.

While the second quarter represents meaningful progress, it still understates where this Company is headed over the coming quarters.

Q2 maintenance outages and our lagged contracts still did not allow us to demonstrate the full capability of our asset base.

That will be more visible in Q3, in which we are expecting to more than double our Q2 EBITDA due to our healthy backlog and improved pricing.

The second half of 2026 will look substantially better than the first half of the year.

With our third quarter adjusted EBITDA guidance of $575 million, we have a situation where higher prices, lower costs, and higher shipping volumes will all be converging at once.

Weather-related impacts are behind us, finishing lines are full, and pricing remains strong.