USX Has Loss of $183 Million in 3rd Quarter
USX Corp., the Pittsburgh-based oil and steel giant, Tuesday said it lost $183 million on revenue of $3.3 billion in the third quarter.
The results were a sharp decline from the net profit of $144 million it reported on revenue of $5.3 billion a year ago. Revenue was down about 38% in the quarter.
New York investor Carl C. Icahn, who purchased 29 million shares, or 11.4%, of USX’s stock, is pressuring the company to increase stock values by restructuring its businesses.
“We are evaluating a wide variety of restructuring alternatives,” Chairman David Roderick said.
The troubles in the third quarter “reflect lower selling prices and volumes for oil and gas, as well as curtailed steel operations resulting from the strike which began on Aug. 1,” Roderick said in a statement.
About 22,000 members of the United Steelworkers union have been off the job for 89 days in a dispute over demands for wage, benefit and work rule concessions at the steelmaking unit, U.S. Steel.
USX’s oil and gas subsidiaries, Marathon Oil and Texas Oil & Gas, reported operating losses, before foreign taxes, totaling $16 million, compared to operating income of $423 million a year before.
Steel and related operations had a $127-million operating loss on sales of $930 million for the quarter, compared to a $4-million operating loss on sales of $1.7 billion a year earlier.
