CLF will release the following quarterly earnings report on July 22, 2021. Given that the steel price is at $1772 (as of July 09, 2021), we can expect more positive financial reporting as the steel price remains insanely high. 

On the first quarterly report of 2021, CLF revenue skyrocketed to $4,049,000,000, which is significantly larger than the numbers reported in 2020, 2019, and 2018. 

2020 Q1 revenue: $359,000,000

2019 Q1 revenue: $157,000,000

2018 Q1 revenue: $180,000,000

Although accounting can be bent in any manner, so I’ll take a look at the annual report. 

There’s no way revenue can sharply jump, therefore there has to be an acquisition. It turns out that CLF did “acquire substantially all of the operations of ArcelorMittal USA LLC and its subsidiaries for approximately $1.4 billion”. Along the way in acquisition, CLF has assumed more debt which balloons the overall debt from $7.36B to $13.76B. 

However, as long the steel price remains high and that earnings remains above 4.5 billion each quarter. I wouldn’t see difficulty in debt reduction efforts, which will lower the interest expenses. The demand for steel will remain high for a foreseeable future, however it’ll still take balls of steel to hold this stock. Anything wrong can happen that will plummet this stock, it’s riskier than usual.