LTV Begins Restructuring; Announces Intention to Close Hot Rolled Steel Facility
CLEVELAND, Apr 11, 2001 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The LTV Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: LTVCQ chart, msgs) today began to implement a restructuring plan to restore its integrated steel operations to viability and preserve high quality manufacturing jobs within its communities.
"When fully implemented, the restructuring plan is designed to enable LTV Steel to operate successfully in the real economic world of both low-cost domestic and unfair foreign competition. The future of our company, employees, retirees and communities demands that we make the changes necessary to break out of the exhausting cycle of crisis and failure which nearly caused the permanent closure of our company less than four months ago," said William H. Bricker, chairman and chief executive officer of The LTV Corporation.
As an initial step, LTV today informed officials of the United Steelworkers of America that it intends to permanently close the Direct Hot Charge Complex (DHCC) and the associated C-1 blast furnace, located on the West Side of the Cleveland Works. The DHCC, which has an annual raw steel capacity of about 2 million tons, consists of a basic oxygen furnace steelmaking shop, a continuous slab caster and hot strip mill. The facilities employ about 800 hourly and 100 salaried people. Approximately half of the affected employees will be eligible to retire.
Closure of these facilities will result in cost savings of $700 million over the next five years.
"The hot rolled steel produced by the DHCC carries our lowest selling prices and cannot compete in the marketplace," said John D. Turner, executive vice president and chief operating officer. Mr. Turner said that LTV couldn't justify investments in facilities that do not generate a positive return on the investment.
LTV said that it is prepared to meet with the USWA concerning the effects of the intended shutdown. The company also said that affected employees would be eligible for job opportunities at other LTV Steel facilities.
LTV also announced that it has closed its $700 million debtor-in- possession financing which will supplement current cash and finance the company during the initial phases of the restructuring.
"LTV has come a long way since December 27 when we faced the shutdown of an entire company and economic devastation for over 100,000 people. As a result of the heroic efforts of our employees, our communities, the Steelworkers and our elected representatives, we now have the financial means to restructure LTV Steel and create a stable, profitable and successful company. Our goal is to continue to serve as a meaningful part of our communities by providing high quality jobs and benefits for our people and opportunities for the future," Mr. Bricker said.
The LTV Corporation is a manufacturing company with interests in steel and metal fabrication. LTV's Integrated Steel segment is a leading producer of high-quality, value-added flat rolled steel, and a major supplier to the transportation, appliance, electrical equipment and service center industries. LTV's Metal Fabrication segment consists of LTV Copperweld, the largest producer of tubular and bimetallic products in North America and VP Buildings, a leading producer of pre-engineered metal buildings for low-rise commercial applications.
This press release includes forward-looking statements. Our uses of the words "outlook", "anticipates," "believes," "estimate," "expect" and similar words are intended to identify these statements as forward looking. These statements represent our current judgement on what the future holds. While the Company believes them to be reasonable, a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These factors include relatively small changes in market price or market demand; changes in domestic capacity; changes in raw material costs; increased operating costs; loss of business from major customers, especially for high value-added product; availability of post petition financing; negative market and credit impact from the Chapter 11 filing; unanticipated expenses; substantial changes in financial markets; labor unrest; unfair foreign competition; major equipment failure; unanticipated results in pending legal proceedings; difficulties in implementing information technology; and other factors.
Source: LTV Corporation |
