LTV Closing Part of Cleveland Complex

LTV Corp. and the Steelworkers agreed to close the company's idled West Side mill in Cleveland. The worsening economy had extinguished the union's hopes for a revival anytime soon.

The vast majority of the mill's 800 hourly workers were laid off in mid-June, when LTV stopped making steel at the sprawling complex. Only a small crew remained. The jobs of 100 salaried workers also were eliminated.

About 300 hourly workers remain on the West Side at separate finishing, spare parts and railroad departments that serve LTV's East Side mill across the river. Those operations were unaffected by the decision.

LTV announced its aim to close the steel mill in April, part of a plan to return to profitability and emerge from the Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection it sought in late December.

The union negotiated more time to consider options.

With the decision to close, United Steelworkers of America officials said all but about 90 of the affected hourly workers are eligible to retire because LTV agreed to provide a full range of early-retirement options immediately. Workers can take pensions between now and Dec. 1.

Few transfers will be available. Overall, LTV's steelmaking has not been operating at capacity, and reductions were already planned as part of a new labor contract.

LTV agreed to consider maintaining or enhancing steel-making in Cleveland if market conditions and the company's financial health improve enough.

The union said the agreement also would maintain West Side equipment for future use. The blast furnace will likely never start again, but union officials said the caster, for example, which makes slabs from molten steel, could be revived. That would require a big improvement in market conditions and a major investment.

The West Side, which has structures dating to 1912, was considered vulnerable because of its size and its products. Home to the smallest of the company's five blast furnaces, where basic ingredients such as iron ore are combined to make molten iron, the mill produced 1.8 million tons of steel a year for auto frames, caskets, washers, dryers and industrial parts. Such steel now sells for as little as $215 per ton, according to Purchasing magazine.

That compares with $300 per ton fetched by cold-rolled steel made by LTV mills on the East Side in Cleveland and in East Chicago, Ind., and Hennepin, Ill.

LTV had consistently said that closing the West Side mill was a necessity. It expects the move to save about $200 million over five years. The Cleveland Plain Dealer.