Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Ferrous Processing and Trading Company (FPT) for a total enterprise value of approximately $775 million. Based in Detroit, FPT is among the largest processors and distributors of prime ferrous scrap in the United States, representing approximately 15% of the domestic merchant prime scrap market. The company currently processes approximately 3 million tons of scrap per year, approximately half of which is prime grade. FPT operates 22 scrap processing facilities, with approximately 90% of revenues originating from its Midwest locations, primarily in Michigan and Ohio.

The acquisition will allow Cleveland-Cliffs to optimize productivity at its existing EAFs and BOFs and expand its portfolio of high-quality ferrous raw materials to include iron-ore pellets, direct-reduced iron and now prime scrap.

Lourenco Goncalves, Cleveland-Cliffs’ chairman, president and CEO said, “FPT has a very meaningful presence in prime scrap. With all the new flat-rolled EAF capacity coming online in our market over the next four years, prime scrap will only become more and more scarce. As the largest supplier of flat-rolled steel in North America, Cleveland-Cliffs is the main source of the steel that generates prime scrap in manufacturing facilities. Furthermore, throughout our entire footprint, Cleveland-Cliffs also consumes a very significant amount of scrap in our EAFs and BOFs. The acquisition of FPT will enhance our ability to buy back prime scrap directly from our clients.”