Cleveland-Cliffs swings to profit and guides 2027 EBITDA above $4 billion

Cleveland-Cliffs swung back to profit in the third quarter and handed Wall Street a bullish 2027 outlook, sending its shares 14 per cent higher in premarket trading on Monday.

The Cleveland-based steelmaker reported adjusted earnings of 28 cents a share, ahead of the 21-cent FactSet consensus, on revenue of $5.612 billion — up 18.5 per cent from a year earlier, though shy of the $5.695 billion forecast, according to Investor’s Business Daily. It was the company’s first profitable quarter after eight straight quarterly losses and its strongest since the first quarter of 2022.

Cliffs guided fourth-quarter adjusted EBITDA to about $715 million, up from $612 million in the third quarter, as higher prices offset maintenance outages and input costs — topping the roughly $688 million FactSet consensus. For 2027, it expects adjusted EBITDA of more than $4 billion, based “on the new contracts we have already signed with our clients and prevailing index price forecasts”, versus the $2.66 billion consensus.

Chief executive Lourenco Goncalves said “amplified free cash flow in Q4 and property sale proceeds” should deliver a “major debt reduction” this quarter, keeping Cliffs on track for net debt below 2.5 times EBITDA by mid-2027. The Canadian Stelco acquisition, whose debt had left Cliffs trailing rivals amid the US–Canada steel trade war, has begun adding to earnings after Cliffs shut its galvanised steel lines. IBD said CLF stock cleared a buy point in early trading, the Wall Street Journal putting the premarket gain at 14 per cent to $13.76.