Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 5, 1993 TAG: 9306050229
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
BLACKSBURG - The number of coal miners working in Virginia in 1992 was at its lowest level in nearly 80 years. The Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research at Virginia Tech said 9,009 miners were employed in the state last year, fewer than any year since 1915.
That compares with 9,755 miners in 1991 and is down from a peak of about 18,000 in the late 1940s, center Director John Randolph said.
Coal production in Virginia last year was static, increasing by half of 1 percent from a year earlier. Virginia miners dug 42.56 million tons last year, compared with 42.34 million tons in 1991, according to figures obtained by the center from the state Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy.
The total number of mines decreased from 483 to 424.
The average wage paid Virginia miners in 1992 was $16.60 an hour; it was $15.80 an hour a year earlier. - Staff report
ITT completes sale of loan portfolio
ITT Corp., New York operator of a night-vision products plant and a gallium arsenide technology center in Roanoke County, said Friday it has completed sale of its ITT Consumer Financial Corp.'s unsecured consumer small loan portfolio to a group of investors that includes an affiliate of Goldman Sachs & Co.
Under terms of the sale, ITT received about $1.7 billion in cash including loan payments of $392 million collected since Feb. 28. ITT contributed about $29 million for a 15 percent equity position in the new group. The company said about 85 percent of the proceeds have been used to retire commercial paper. - Staff report
Briefly . . .
\ A subsidiary of Richmond-based Tredegar Industries Inc. said Friday it will buy Polestar Plastics Inc. next month for an undisclosed price. Polestar, of State College, Pa., makes injected molded plastic products for the medical, electronic and business machine markets. The privately owned firm had sales of $8.8 million last year. The purchase will be complete by the end of July, the company said.
\ Circuit City Stores Inc., Richmond-based consumer electronics retailer, on Friday reported May sales of $288.7 million, up 24 percent from May 1992 sales of $232 million. Sales in stores operating for at least a year rose 9 percent.
\ Regal Communications Corp. of Fort Washington, Pa., one of the largest makers of 30-minute TV "infomercials," has agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle false advertising charges leveled by the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC said the infomercials made false claims that products would dissolve cellulite and cure baldness, and were disguised to look like ordinary TV programming. They were made by Synchronal Corp., which was bought by Regal after the commercials were made.
by CNB