The Iron Range is getting another economic hit with Minnesota Twist Drill shutting down its operations in Chisholm and Hibbing.
And it’s complicated, because one reason the company had financial problems is tariffs on foreign steel that help the iron ore industry, including Cleveland-Cliffs, the biggest player on the Range. The steel tariffs are not part of President Donald Trump’s across-the-board levies that were ruled illegal by the Supreme Court in February, those country-by-country tariffs also played a part.
The steel tariffs are under a different part of trade law regarding national security, which includes economic impact on key industries.
Minnesota Twist Drill officials did not return calls for comment, but informed the state Department of Employment and Economic Development last week that the company’s 77 workers would be laid off between June and August as part of a permanent closure.
Chisholm Mayor Adam Lantz called the closure “devastating.” The company is the city’s second-largest employer.
“It’s a foundry. It’s a plant. It has 77 jobs, and the majority of them are in the manufacturing side here in Chisholm,” he said. “It’s terrible news.” The company, which imports steel blanks from China to make drill bits, was considered a hard-fought win in attempts to diversify the Iron Range economy.
The closure also comes at a down cycle for the mining industry and about a year after
more than 600 workers at Cliffs’ Minorca Mine and Hibbing Taconite lost their jobs.
With the miners still out of work, the area economy is already strained.
Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation (IRRR), an area economic development board, said in a statement that Minnesota Twist Drill’s closure “is another difficult development for the region.”
“While the circumstances differ from what we’ve seen in the mining sector, the impact is the same: more individuals and families facing job loss and uncertainty at a time when the region is already navigating significant workforce challenges,” IRRR said.
The news caught Hibbing Mayor Pete Hyduke off guard. “I was really surprised when I got the notice because I was just sort of hoping for them that they would find a way,
" he said. A year ago, David Wedge, who managed the company for parent Walter Surface Technologies at the time, said the Trump administration’s tariff policies created “utter havoc” for the operations.
The 74-year-old company, with Minnesota Twist Drill operations in Chisholm and Triumph Twist Drill in Hibbing, employed 135 workers in 2019 and was still adding people. It had planned a factory expansion. Walter Surface bought the company in 2021.
The company had made a key decision in 2024, before Trump increased most steel tariffs from 25% to 50%, to terminate a key heat-treating operation and import all of its steel blanks from China. Trump’s country-by-country tariffs that fell under the Supreme Court decision also played a role, as levies on Chinese goods at times last year were 150%, the company has said.
On top of the import duties from China, Twist Drill had to contend with retaliatory tariffs from Canada after the administration imposed new duties on goods from there. The company exports almost all its products to Canada.
Twist Drill boosted prices multiple times, halted all hiring, and tried to find new customers.
The 77 workers still at the company will lose their jobs in phases from June 14 to Aug. 13, the company said in its state filing.
All four of these companies are at the same address.
I think Lee Valley must use Triumph bits to make their brad point bits.