LTV Steel

LTV Steel's 2000 bankruptcy and subsequent liquidation was the third chapter for a company that had already filed bankruptcy twice (1986, 2000). The steel company's repeated failures demonstrated that reorganization can extend life without solving underlying problems—and that some business models cannot be fixed. The mechanism failure was structural nonviability. LTV operated high-cost integrated mills competing against low-cost mini-mills domestically and subsidized foreign producers internationally. No amount of restructuring could overcome fundamental cost disadvantages. The company emerged from 1986 bankruptcy, briefly returned to profitability, then filed again in 2000 when steel prices collapsed. The 2000 bankruptcy was declared a 'liquidating reorganization'—acknowledging that LTV couldn't survive as an ongoing business. The company's assets were sold to International Steel Group and WL Ross & Co., which used them as a platform for industry consolidation. LTV's workers and pensioners bore the costs: 17,000 lost jobs, pension obligations shifted to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation with reduced benefits. LTV became a case study in how industries can require consolidation—sometimes through bankruptcy—before survivors can become viable.