LTV Posts Record $378.2-Million Loss in 1984

LTV Corp., a Dallas-based conglomerate and the nation’s second-largest steelmaker, lost a record $378.2 million in 1984--more than double its loss in 1983--primarily because of the continuing slump in its key steel and energy-equipment markets, company officials said Friday.

LTV also posted a record loss in the fourth quarter of $246.7 million, compared to a profit of $7.5 million during the same period of 1983.

The quarterly loss was inflated by LTV’s decision to take $132 million worth of write-offs resulting from the consolidation of its oil drilling equipment operations in Houston, as well as from cutbacks in its steel operations following the merger of LTV’s Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. subsidiary with Republic Steel Corp. last June.

LTV’s big losses came despite a 54% increase in its sales volume resulting from its merger with Republic.

Of its three major operating segments--steel, energy equipment and aerospace and defense--only aerospace and defense operations reported a profit last year.

In fact, LTV didn’t see any improvement in its steel business as a result of 1984’s economic recovery.

Including fourth-quarter steel write-offs of $74 million, LTV said its steel division lost $217.4 million last year, compared to a $200.2-million loss in 1983.

Raymond A. Hay, LTV’s chairman, blamed the operating losses in steel on the surge in steel imports last year, which he said cut short the domestic steel industry’s recovery.

Shipments of steel imports were up 53% in 1984, and imports took a record market share of 26.2% during the year, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute, a trade group in Washington.

“It was an abnormally difficult year for the U.S. steel industry and for LTV,” Hay said.

With imports eating away at the domestic market, LTV noted that its steel mills operated at an average rate of only 54% of their capacity in 1984, down from 1983’s already depressed rate of 57%.

Although industry leader U.S. Steel Corp. reported earlier in the week that it made a profit of $493 million in 1984, most of the steel industry remains mired in a deep slump.

Bethlehem Steel Corp., the nation’s third-largest steel company, has already reported that it lost $112.5 million during 1984, while Chicago-based Inland Steel Co. said it suffered a loss of $41.4 million during the year.

Besides U.S. Steel, the only other domestic steel firm that analysts expect to report profits for the fourth quarter and for all of 1984 is National Intergroup Inc., parent of National Steel.

An LTV spokeswoman said that the company expects to report a loss for the first quarter of 1985.

The spokeswoman said the firm’s results for the rest of the year hinge largely on the success of the Reagan Administration’s current efforts to restrict steel imports.

“Although we expect a loss in the first quarter of 1985, it should be substantially less than the 1984 fourth-quarter loss” because of the absence of additional write-offs, Hay said in a statement.

“In steel, we should begin to see improvement as President Reagan’s import plan becomes effective and as additional benefits of the merged steel operation are realized,” he added.