MITTAL STEEL USA - The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

MITTAL STEEL USA is the American subsidiary of Mittal Steel Company N.V., headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, which as of 2005 was the world's largest steel producer. Mittal Steel was formed from the merger of Ispat International and the International Steel Group, Incorporated (ISG) in 2004. With the merger, Mittal acquired ISG's Cleveland Works, formerly part of LTV Corporation, a major national manufacturing company headquartered in Cleveland from 1993 to 2002.

LTV Corporation began as the Ling Electric Company, a firm organized in Dallas, Texas, in 1958. Acquisition of the Temco Aircraft Corporation and the Chance Vought Aircraft Corporation led to the adoption of the designation LTV Corporation in 1972. In an acquisition binge, LTV entered the steel business with the purchase of the JONES AND LAUGHLIN STEEL CORP. (CLEVELAND WORKS) (CLEVELAND WORKS) in 1968. The addition of Cleveland's REPUBLIC STEEL CORP. in 1984 led to the creation of the conglomerate's LTV Steel division, headquartered in the LTV Steel Building (formerly the Republic Building) in Cleveland's Landmark Office Towers. Although the new LTV Steel was the nation's second largest steelmaker, its formation during a deteriorating steel market created cash-flow problems for the parent LTV Corporation. Despite wage and benefits concessions by members of the UNITED STEEL WORKERS OF AMERICA, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 1986. As part of its reorganization, LTV streamlined the LTV Steel division and divested itself of its aerospace and defense division. It moved its headquarters from Dallas to Cleveland on January 1, 1993 and emerged from Chapter 11 later that year. During the 1990s, LTV Corporation consisted of two operating subsidiaries, LTV Steel and LTV Energy Products, a manufacturer of oil and gas drilling equipment headquartered in Garland, Texas.

The corporation remained profitable throughout the mid to late 1990s, but competition from foreign steel companies and mounting debt again led LTV Corporation to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on December 29, 2000. LTV ceased operations in December 2001 and sold its Cleveland and East Chicago plants in February 2002 to ISG, a conglomerate formed from the acquisition of several American steel companies, including LTV, Bethlehem Steel, and Weirton Steel. ISG, based in Richfield, Ohio, reopened two of LTV's former properties: part of the Cleveland Works complex (the East Side mills) and the Indiana Harbor Works. ISG remained in existence from 2002 to 2004, when it merged with Ispat International to form Mittal Steel. The Cleveland Works continues to operate under Mittal Steel USA, and as of August 2005 had 1,460 employees.

LTV Corporation Records, WRHS.

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