Middletown’s century-old steel mill just had its big makeover yanked away. Cleveland-Cliffs has walked from a high-profile “green steel” overhaul at Middletown Works, leaving the 120-year-old plant, and roughly 2,500 jobs tied to it, in a holding pattern while local leaders and union reps scramble to figure out what comes next.
How the DOE Award Was Supposed to Remake the Mill
In March 2024 the Department of Energy selected the Middletown Works project for award negotiations, offering up to $500 million to swap out a blast furnace for a hydrogen-ready direct reduced iron plant and electric melting furnaces, according to the Department of Energy. Cleveland-Cliffs pitched the plan as a more than $1.3 billion transformation that would cut roughly 1…..