LTV Coke plant in Warren on hot idle

THE VINDICATOR/YOUNGSTOWN
Only 17 of the plant's 180 hourly workers will be needed as it idles.
WARREN -- The hunt for a buyer is the only activity remaining at the LTV Corp. coke plant in Warren.
Production ended Saturday as the plant was placed on hot idle until Jan. 31.
Bob Thompson, unit secretary with United Steelworkers of America Local 1375, said the union continues to aid in the search for a buyer to keep the plant operating past that date.
LTV officials have said they have contacted all likely buyers, given tours of the plant and are waiting for an offer.
Seeking more time: LTV intended to shut down the plant last Friday if a buyer wasn't found, but it agreed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Youngstown to keep the plant open longer. The union and creditors asked for more time to find buyers for the company's coke plants in Chicago and Warren.
Instead of fueling the coke plants with coal so that they can produce coke, however, they will be kept warm with natural gas. Keeping the plants' furnaces warm prevents them from incurring the severe damage that would occur from a cold shutdown.
Thompson said only 17 of the Warren plant's 180 hourly workers will remain on the job during the hot idle.
LTV is trying to find buyers for all of its steel-making operations, including its large steel mills in Cleveland and Indiana. Officials have said in court that the company doesn't have any orders and is nearly out of money.
More than 7,000 workers are laid off from LTV Steel, but about 3,500 remain on the job at LTV Copperweld and LTV's tubular division, including about 100 in Youngstown. LTV intends to continue operating those profitable divisions until buyers are found.