Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) Q3 2022 Earnings Conference Call October 25, 2022 10:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Celso Goncalves - CFO
Lourenco Goncalves - CEO
Conference Call Participants
Lucas Pipes - B. Riley Securities
Emily Chieng - Goldman Sachs
Tristan Gresser - BNP Paribas
Curt Woodworth - Credit Suisse
Alex Hacking - Citi
Carlos De Alba - Morgan Stanley
Timna Tanners - Wolfe Research
Operator
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Maria and I'm your conference facilitator today. I'd like to welcome everyone to Cleveland-Cliffs Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers remarks, there'll be a question-and-answer session.
That company reminds you that certain comments made on today's call will include predictive statements that are intended to be made as forward-looking within the safe harbors protections of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although the company believes that its forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Important factors that could cause results to differ materially are set forth in reports on Form 10-K and 10-Q and news releases filed with SEC which are available on the company's website.
Today's conference call is also available and being broadcast at clevelandcliffs.com. At the conclusion of the call, it will be archived on the website and available for replay. The company will also discuss the results excluding certain special items. Reconciliation for Regulation G purposes can be found in the earnings release, which was published this morning.
At this time, I would like to introduce Celso Goncalves, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
Celso Goncalves
Thank you, Maria. And thanks to everyone for joining us this morning. Before going through our Q3 results, let me start by highlighting the $1.8 billion improvement to our balance sheet that was outlined in our earnings released this morning. During the quarter, we signed two new labor agreements covering approximately 14,000 USW-represented employees, encompassing more than half of our workforce. These agreements also cover benefits for over 22,000 retirees.
The ratification of these labor agreements triggered a remeasurement for the associated pension and OPEB plans, essentially requiring a refresh to all assumptions that go into calculating the value of those liabilities, including primarily interest rates, asset returns, and most importantly, the premiums that we pay for retiree healthcare expenses.