For months, West Virginians have been mourning the idling of the Cleveland-Cliffs tin plant in Weirton along with nearly a thousand jobs in the historic steel manufacturing community.
Now, though, state leaders are rejoicing over a $150 million investment to transform the Weirton property and produce electrical transformers. As many as 600 union workers who were laid off from the Weirton tin production plant will have the chance to work at the new facility.
Cleveland-Cliffs expects the new plant to come online in the first half of 2026.
“We shut down the plant, but we did not abandon the workforce,” Lourenco Goncalves, Cleveland-Cliffs’ chief, said during remarks in Weirton today. “And then, because of the workforce we started thinking how can we intelligently put that workforce back to do something that’s not only meaningful for Weirton and for the great state of West Virginia but also for the United States of America? Well, we had an opportunity right in front of our eyes.”
The answer is a new electrical distribution transformer production plant.
Transformers are the devices used to raise and lower the voltage of electricity as it moves on the grid — but these are different types of transformers. Distribution transformers are used to lower the voltage from the distribution grid before the electricity flows into households. They are most commonly seen as cylindrical boxes on distribution poles.
The vast majority, about 50 million, of the distribution transformers in the United States are made of a specialized type of steel called grain-oriented electrical steel, shortened to GOES in the industry. These transformers achieve energy efficiencies of about 99 percent. Cleveland-Cliffs makes that type of steel in the domestic transformer supply chain.
The other type of steel used for distribution transformers is amorphous steel. It achieves marginally higher efficiencies but transformers made of it cost more up front and also weigh more — meaning they are harder to install and often require reinforced utility poles.
The U.S. Department of Energy, at one point, had proposed a standard favoring amorphous steel. Earlier this year, U.S. Senator Manchin, I-W.Va., introduced bipartisan legislation to prevent the rule. The Department of Energy backed off and moved to a rule requiring improvements in efficiency using existing technologies while ensuring the grain-oriented electrical steel can compete across the market.
Cleveland-Cliffs is taking advantage of the federal regulatory decision to bring new life to the Weirton site. Officials say this project will position West Virginia to be a long-term leader in transformer manufacturing.
“Distribution transformers are absolutely critical components of our nation’s power grid and this project is a great opportunity to position our state as a global leader in their production while reemploying hardworking West Virginians who lost their jobs earlier this year,” Manchin stated.
Goncalves today described getting inspired during an event with U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and leaders of three unions. He noted that the United States is currently experiencing an unprecedented supply chain shortage of these transformers, threatening energy accessibility, reliability and affordability for households nationwide. It became clear that more production capacity would be necessary, Goncalves said.
West Virginia’s Economic Development Authority met today to authorize up to $50 million in the form of a forgivable loan.
The economic incentive package is associated with conditions the state calls a “High Impact Development Project.” State code specifies that means the governor has requested, in writing, that the project be approved by the authority for $50 million or more, that the enterprise undertaking the project will privately invest $50 million or more and that the project meets or exceeds a state loan-per-job ratio.
“Who knows where this could lead us,” Gov. Jim Justice said in remarks today in Weirton. “It could lead us to something bigger and better and on and on and on.”
That’s a big turnaround from just a few months ago. At that point, Cleveland-Cliffs said the tinplate production plant would have to shut down after getting caught up in the unforgiving churn of the international market economy. Cleveland-Cliffs and the United Steelworkers had accused other countries of dumping their own tin at unfair market value, undercutting domestic production. The International Trade Commission concluded, however, that the effect of lower prices from international producers was negligible.
Weirton has a historic reputation as a steel town, but that sector has fallen on hard times. Weirton Steel Corp. was, at one time, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of tin plate products. The steel company declared bankruptcy and then went through several changes of ownership and consolidations. By 2020, the plant was part of the Cleveland-Cliffs organization.
State Delegate Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock, praised Cleveland-Cliffs and the United Steelworkers during remarks at the Weirton event. “It’s a new future for West Virginia, really,” McGeehan said. “And I want to appreciate this future. To do that, we’ve got to recall our past. We have a long tradition of hard work and craftsmanship that was essential for the industry and prosperity of our whole nation, really.”
But McGeehan blasted “national politicians who, in the near past, sold off our future with trade deals that earned them wealth and prestige while leaving our families and friends in many cases jobless.”
Other West Virginia leaders chimed in to praise the Cleveland-Cliffs announcement.
State Treasurer Riley Moore, a Republican candidate for Congress, described joining legislative leaders on a trip to the company’s headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio, to make the case for repurposing the Weirton site.
“For too long, workers in the Ohio River Valley have seen their jobs shipped overseas as part of bad trade deals negotiated by globalist politicians. Now it’s time to bring those jobs home, and this demonstrates West Virginia is ready to lead the way in restoring American greatness,” Moore said today.
House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, praised the leaders who had a vision for pivoting the plant’s purpose.
“West Virginia has a history of rising up to solve the country’s problems, whether it was our salt furnaces and our coal mines or our extraordinary people. This new endeavor not only saves hundreds of West Virginia jobs, but it also positions us to step up and solve a global supply chain problem,” Hanshaw stated.
Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, said the announcement represents commitment and desire to keep manufacturing jobs in West Virginia.
“The Northern Panhandle was faced with a serious challenge with the loss of hundreds of jobs when Cleveland-Cliffs idled its Weirton operations earlier this year,” Blair said. “Fortunately, the ability to adapt and change direction presented the opportunity to reopen this location and save these jobs.”