Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. CLF, 2.55% surged 9.4% in premarket trading Monday, after the steel maker provided an upbeat preliminary fourth-quarter outlook. The company said it expects to report revenue of $2.2 billion to $2.3 billion, up about 320% from a year ago, and well above the FactSet consensus of $1.97 billion.
Steel sales volume for the quarter is expected to be 1.9 million net tons. The company expects to report full fourth-quarter results on Feb. 25. “We ended 2020 on a particularly high note,” said Chief Executive Lourenco Goncalves. “With the backdrop of a resilient steel pricing environment and the growing number of steel companies competing for an increasingly scarce scrap supply in 2021 and beyond, Cleveland-Cliffs will continue to benefit from our differentiated business model with self-sufficiency in pellets and HBI. The stock has run up 89.2% over the past three months through Friday, while the S&P 500 SPX, 0.38% has gained 10.9%.