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Longview Aluminum Seeks Chapter 11 Protection by Week in Review Puget Sound Business Journal, March 7, 2003

Longview Aluminum LLC, which owns an aluminum smelter in Longview, Wash., has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the latest development of a dispute with the Bonneville Power Administration over power contracts. The smelter, which employed 900, has been idle since March 2001, when it was purchased by a group of investors from Alcoa Inc. Longview Aluminum recently won an injunction barring BPA from terminating the aluminum smelter's power and transmission contracts. The company said it has been exploring its options since the injunction was granted, and decided bankruptcy protection is the "best path."

Keith Brown closes lumberyards

Keith Brown Building Materials of Salem this week completed a push to increase profitability by consolidating operations and closing 30 percent of its lumberyards. In recent weeks, its Ashland and Grants Pass facilities were closed, and contractors from that area are now being served by Keith Brown's Medford plant. Yards in Oregon City and Enumclaw, Wash., also ceased operation, as well as one in Newman, Calif. The privately held company will now operate seven lumberyards in California and six in Oregon. It previously operated 19 in all. Its discount building material outlets in Salem and Eugene remain open.

IDT cuts 35 Hillsboro jobs

Riding out the long, painful chip industry downturn, Integrated Device Technology of Santa Clara, Calif., laid off 35 of the 405 workers at its Hillsboro facility. The Oregon layoffs were part of a package of cost-cutting measures that included a reduction in work force of approximately 150 positions worldwide. IDT plans to close its design center in Dallas and five sales offices worldwide. IDT makes integrated circuits for communications applications. During the first quarter of fiscal 2003, the company completed the transfer of manufacturing processes from its Salinas, Calif., wafer fab to Hillsboro.

Rolls Royce contract has $400M potential for PCC Structurals

PCC Structurals, a subsidiary of Portland-based Precision Castparts Corp., has reached agreement with Rolls-Royce on a five-year production contract with a potential value of $400 million. The contract extends and amends an existing contract that has been in place since 1994 involving PCC Structurals' supply of large titanium and steel castings that Rolls Royce uses to make jet engines. The contract gives PCC Structurals the opportunity to break into new markets, such as cast compressor stators for Rolls Royce's Trent 500 engine, and benefits Precision Castparts' Forged Products segment with new ring rolling business through a joint venture with Frisa in Mexico.

Unemployment rate rises

January saw Oregon's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rise to 7.5 percent from a revised 7.3 percent in December. Newly revised figures for last year show that in the first part of 2002, Oregon's unemployment rate trended downward from a high of 8.4 percent in January. From May through December, Oregon's unemployment rate stayed between 7.2 and 7.4 percent. Many industries experienced net job losses in the 12-month period ending January 2003. Nonresidential building construction cut its employment by 1,500 jobs or 16 percent during that time.