DALLAS -- LTV Corp., having divested its aerospace and missile units as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, announced Wednesday it will move its corporate headquarters to Cleveland, where its steel operations are located.
Chairman David H. Hoag said the relocation from Dallas, where LTV began in 1947 and grew into a multibillion dollar conglomerate before filing for bankruptcy in 1986, is logical in light of the company's current businesses.
Hoag said the company will emerge from Chapter 11 as the third- largest domestic steel producer, with principal operations in Cleveland and a major oil field supply operation in the Dallas suburb of Garland.
The Dallas headquarters will close at the end of year.
Currently, less than 100 people work at the headquarters. It is not known how many many of them will move to Cleveland and how many will lose their jobs.
'Job offers are being extended to a limited number of these people. It also is expected that some additional employees may be hired from outside the company,' the company said.
'It is likely that some transitional activities will continue to be performed in Dallas after that date,' the company added.
Hoag said by combining corporate-management functions with those of LTV Steel in Cleveland, the company will be able to further streamline operations.
LTV last month completed the sale of its aerospace and missile divisions to Loral Corp. of New York, the Carlyle Group of Washington, D.C., and Northrop Corp. for $475 million.
'Our world has changed with the sale of LTV Aerospace and Defense,' Hoag said. 'While LTV Energy Products Company, our oilfield supply business, will remain headquartered in the Dallas suburb of Garland, the majority of our operations will be outside of Texas. Cleveland is the home of our steel company, its (Cleveland's) largest facility, and 7,300 employees.'
Hoag said LTV has deep roots in Ohio.
'Our steel industry heritage can be traced to the early days of Republic Steel, Jones & Laughlin Steel and Youngstown Sheet and Tube,' he said. 'Cleveland is a dynamic city, blessed with strong leadership and a skilled work force, and is strategically located near our principal customers. It is the ideal location for the LTV of the future. '
Hoag said all of the 14,000 aerospace, defense and energy products employees will continue to work in Texas.
LTV started as Ling Electric Co. Following mergers with Temco Aircraft in 1960 and Chance Vought Aircraft in 1961, the company became known as Ling-Temco-Vought Inc.
Through a series of acquisitions in the 1960s, Ling-Temco-Vought grew to 14th-largest among the Fortune 500 industrial firms. Its major holdings included Wilson & Co., Braniff International, National Car Rental, The Okonite Company and a majority interest in Jones & Laughlin Steel.
The company's name was changed to The LTV Corp. in 1972, and two years later Jones & Laughlin became a wholly owned subsidiary of LTV.
In 1978, LTV merged with Lykes Corp., acquiring the steel operations of Youngstown Sheet & Tube, along with Lykes Steamship Co. and Continental Emsco oil field supply company.
Expansion continued during the early 1980s, with the acquisitions of Oil States Industries, Sierra Research Corp. and AM General Corp.
As part of LTV's 1984 merger with Republic Steel Corp., the Jones & Laughlin and Republic Steel operations were consolidated to form LTV Steel as a wholly owned LTV subsidiary.
But later in the 1980s, LTV was hard hit by cheaper imported steel and the collapse of the energy industry. Burdened by huge steel pension liabilities and other problems, the company sought protection under Chatper 11 of the federal bankruptcy code in July 1986.
LTV's Chapter 11 reorganization has become one of the longest and most complex in U.S. corporate history.
