Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. announced today that it will be restarting operations in August at its United Taconite mining facility (UTAC) in Minnesota. This restart will occur two months earlier than the anticipated October 2016 start date previously reported last week following the announcement of the Company's 10-year supply agreement with a major steel client. The August restart of UTAC was made possible due to additional business recently contracted with US Steel Canada to supply the majority of their iron ore pellet requirements for the third and the fourth quarters of 2016.
The new iron ore pellet tonnage ordered by US Steel Canada brings Cliffs' sales volume expectations for the year to a higher level than anticipated in the Company's previous forecast. Accordingly, Cliffs is revising its 2016 sales volume guidance to 18 million long tons from its previous guidance of 17.5 million long tons. In addition, 2016 production volume guidance has been increased by 500,000 long tons to 16.5 million long tons.