NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF) stock is retreating 5.35% to $5.13 in afternoon trading on Thursday after the company announced it will restart operations of a mining facility in Minnesota ahead of schedule.
The Cleveland-based mining company will resume operations at the United Taconite mining facility in August, two months earlier than expected because of a new contract.
Cliffs Natural Resources gained a new contract with U.S. Steel Canada, a subsidiary of U.S. Steel (X), to supply iron ore pellets in the third and fourth quarters of this year.
The new iron ore order led the company to increase its sales volume guidance to 18 million long tons for the year, compared with the previous outlook of 17.5 million long tons.
"Cliffs' business continues to gain very positive momentum, with the improvement of the existing business with our long established clients and the addition of new ones," CEO Lourenco Goncalves said in a statement.
Many steel-related stocks tend to move with commodity prices, which are declining today, TheStreet's Jim Cramer, portfolio manager of the charitable trust Action Alerts PLUS, wrote in a post on Real Money. Cramer recommends investing in companies based on their fundamentals and other factors.
Separately, Cliffs Natural Resources has a "sell" rating and a letter grade of D at TheStreet Ratings because of the company's feeble earnings per share growth, poor profit margins and disappointing stock performance.
TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this article's author.
