THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 11, 1996 TAG: 9604090380
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
Ethyl Corp. unit will settle U.S. fraud claim
Ethyl Corp. will pay $4.75 million to settle U.S. charges that a subsidiary falsely sold the Pentagon lubricants and petroleum additives that didn't meet military specifications, the Justice Department said. The payment resolves a lawsuit charging that Ethyl Petroleum Additives Inc. submitted false documents and information to an industry standards group, saying its products met military specifications and had passed certain tests. The Lubricants Research Institute maintains a list for the federal government of products qualified for use in military vehicles, the department said. The accusations were first made by a former Ethyl Petroleum Additives employee, Charles Duchek, the government said. After he complained to the company, Ethyl did an internal investigation and notified the government in March 1991. (Bloomberg Business News)
Building supplier finds itself in the dumps
Home Quarters and its owner, Hechinger Co., have recently turned their rescue efforts to close-to-home targets: themselves. Losses have ballooned. Sales are off. The company, which has three area Home Quarters stores, has stopped paying a dividend. And Hechinger stock is in the dumps, losing 65 percent of its value over the past year. The company suffered a symbolic blow Monday when it fell off the Fortune magazine's Fortune 500 list. It had been ranked No. 458. Hechinger lost $32 million on operations and a whopping $82 million when some one-time charges were added for the fourth quarter of its fiscal year, which ended Feb. 4. Its sales for the period were $502 million.
Cargo ships restricted by James River shoaling
In what has become a depressingly familiar scenario for shippers on the upper James River, the Virginia Pilot Association has restricted the depth of cargo ships because of sediment buildups on the narrow, winding river. The restrictions limit ships to a maximum draft of 21 feet, down from 22 feet. Port of Richmond officials said a single container ship can lose as much as $100,000 in revenue because of cargo that must be left on the docks. The sediment buildup, known as shoaling, has recurred several times in recent years at notorious trouble spots on the river, despite repeated dredging by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to maintain the required 25-foot channel depth. The timing of the restrictions imposed Monday was appropriate, considering that the Port of Richmond and its users yesterday were hosts to a long-scheduled meeting with U.S. Reps. Thomas J. Bliley Jr., R-7th, and Robert C. Scott, D-3rd, to ask for up to $3 million a year in Corps funding for dredging the river. (Knight-Ridder News)
Japanese glass company to call Charlotte home
The U.S. division of the Japanese firm Asahi Glass Co. Ltd. will make Charlotte its corporate home. Asahi Glass America plans to lease 10,000 square feet of office space at Lake Pointe business park near Charlotte Coliseum. The office will house Asahi's 20-person corporate staff, including legal, financial, capital-acquisition and public-relations departments. The Charlotte office will serve as headquarters from the firm's 11 North American units. Those units manufacture a variety of chemical and glass products including television bulbs, automotive safety glass, fiberglass and soda ash. Joseph Cafaro, Asahi Glass America's chairman, said the company received no financial incentives, but chose Charlotte over Atlanta and Cincinnati because of the city's proximity to its major plants and Charlotte's airport and quality of life. (AP)
Gas prices expected to climb briefly
Consumers can expect to pay a bit more for gasoline as summer travel begins, but prices could then begin falling. The current average price of gasoline is $1.29 a gallon, averaged across all grades. This could climb as high as $1.35 before beginning to fall, the Energy Department said in its annual summer gasoline forecast. But, analysts said, world oil productivity is rising and they expect that prices could begin to fall by middle or late summer. The average price could drop as low as $1.23 by August, the department said. The current high price is a result of the cold winter, which resulted in low inventories of oil, officials said. That should ease as an increased flow of imports comes into the country. (AP) by CNB