Iron Monger

摘要

It wasn't surprise-we could see it coming," says John S. Brinzo, chief executive of Cleveland-Cliffs, which has been supplying iron ore to the steel industry since 1847. Still, he recalls, the Dec. 29, 2000 demise of LTV Corp.-the nation's third-largest steelmaker and Brinzo's largest customer-was a disaster for Brinzo's company. The bankruptcy left Cleveland with 600,000 worthless LTV shares and an equally worthless ten-year contract to sell iron ore to LTV. It was also on the hook for managing LTV's high-fixed-cost iron ore mine in northern Minnesota, but left with virtually no takers for its ore pellets, what with the shrinking population of blast furnaces in the U.S. "We had ore piling up on our docks, but no one to ship to," sighs Brinzo, a 35-year veteran who had been at the top for less than a year. "It seemed there might be no other option but to start closing our own mines."