Fiat's steel division also lost hundreds of millions of dollars.

The expenses, he said, reduced operating profit in the steel division by about $60 million.

He was named assistant to the president of the steel division in 1981.

The steel division would continue to make a loss in 1994, but the losses would be smaller than they had been last year.

CAP's steel division claims to be among the most efficient producers in the world.

He took a job in Ford's steel division as a trainee in 1951.

In three years, he made his steel division a success while the rest of the company headed for bankruptcy.

Without the restructuring charges, the company said the steel division would have had an operating loss of $180 million.

In March, 1982 it emerged from bankruptcy, having shed all its operations with the exception of the steel division.

But earnings from the company's steel division dropped by more than a third.