Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

BASIS OF PRESENTATION AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (Policies)

BASIS OF PRESENTATION AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (Policies)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2017

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Basis of Consolidation

The unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include our accounts and the accounts of our wholly-owned and majority-owned subsidiaries, including the following operations as of March 31, 2017:



Name	Location	Ownership Interest	Operation	Status of Operations
Northshore	Minnesota	100.0%	Iron Ore	Active
United Taconite	Minnesota	100.0%	Iron Ore	Active
Tilden	Michigan	85.0%	Iron Ore	Active
Empire	Michigan	79.0%	Iron Ore	Indefinitely Idled
Koolyanobbing	Western Australia	100.0%	Iron Ore	Active

Intercompany transactions and balances are eliminated upon consolidation.

Equity Method Investments

Our 23% ownership interest in Hibbing is recorded as an equity method investment. As of March 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016, our investment in Hibbing was $6.2 million and $8.7 million, respectively, classified as Other liabilities in the Statements of Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Position.

Foreign Currency

Our financial statements are prepared with the U.S. dollar as the reporting currency. The functional currency of our Australian subsidiaries is the Australian dollar. The functional currency of all other international subsidiaries is the U.S. dollar. The financial statements of international subsidiaries are translated into U.S. dollars using the exchange rate at each balance sheet date for assets and liabilities and a weighted average exchange rate for each period for revenues, expenses, gains and losses. Where the local currency is the functional currency, translation adjustments are recorded as Accumulated other comprehensive loss. Income taxes generally are not provided for foreign currency translation adjustments. To the extent that monetary assets and liabilities, inclusive of short-term and certain long-term intercompany loans, are recorded in a currency other than the functional currency, these amounts are remeasured each reporting period, with the resulting gain or loss being recorded in the Statements of Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Operations. Transaction gains and losses resulting from remeasurement of short-term intercompany loans are included in Miscellaneous - net in the Statements of Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Operations.

The following represents the transaction gains and losses resulting from remeasurement for the three months ended March 31, 2017 and 2016:



	(In Millions)
	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2017			2016
Remeasurement of intercompany loans	$	15.1		$	0.4
Remeasurement of cash and cash equivalents	(1.2		)	0.8
Other remeasurement	(0.3		)	(2.4		)
Net impact of transaction gains and (losses) resulting from remeasurement	13.6			(1.2		)

Significant Accounting Policies

A detailed description of our significant accounting policies can be found in the audited financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016 included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC. There have been no material changes in our significant accounting policies and estimates from those disclosed therein.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

Issued and Not Effective

In March 2017, the FASB issued ASU No. 2017-07, Compensation - Retirement Benefits (Topic 715). The new standard requires the service cost component of pension and other postretirement benefit expenses to be included in the same line item as other compensation costs arising from services rendered by employees, with the other components of net benefit cost as defined by paragraphs 715-30-35-4 and 715-60-35-9 to be presented in the income statement separately from the service cost component and outside a subtotal of income from operations. The guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2017, and early adoption is permitted. The adoption of ASU 2017-07 will impact Statements of Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Operations by changing our classification of the components of pension cost; however, it will not impact our Net income (loss).

- Definition

Disclosure of accounting policy for the equity method of accounting for investments in common stock or other interests including unconsolidated subsidiaries, corporate joint ventures, noncontrolling interests in real estate ventures, limited partnerships, and limited liability companies. The accounting policy may include information such as: (1) initially recording an investment in the stock of an investee at cost; (2) adjusting the carrying amount of the investment to recognize the investor's share of the earnings or losses of the investee after the date of acquisition; and (3) adjustments to reflect the investor's share of changes in the investee's capital (dividends). This disclosure may also include a detailed description of the policy for determining the amount of equity method losses recognized after an investment has been reduced to zero as a result of previous losses, reasons for not using the equity method when the investor company owns 20 percent or more of the voting stock of the investee's company (including identification of the significant investee), reasons for using the equity method when the ownership percentage is less than 20 percent, and discussion of recognition of equity method losses when an investor's total investment in an investee includes, in addition to an investment in common stock, other investments such as preferred stock and loans to the investee. An entity also may describe how such investments are assessed for impairment.

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