Business

<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Mike Benbow, Business Editor benbow@heraldnet.com   Published: Saturday, October 31, 2009 Business briefs: 60 in state get layoff notices from Boeing Boeing handed out 60-day layoff notices Friday to about 60 people in Washington state and a total of 500 companywide, officials said. The company had planned to cut some 10,000 positions, but so far this year has cut only about half that number. Consumer spending remains weak Flat incomes suggest more weakness ahead in consumer spending, reinforcing concerns about a ho-hum holiday shopping season and a sluggish economic recovery. “This recovery is going to be very weak. Consumers are in no position or mood to spend. Their wages are down and they can’t get credit,” said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University’s Smith School of Business. Concerns about the economy sparked by disappointing government data on spending and incomes sent stocks down Friday, erasing the previous day’s big gains. South Carolina OKs Boeing incentive South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford signed an incentive package Friday that had been passed as part of a successful bid to lure airline maker Boeing to build an assembly plant in the state. The package is worth $170 million in low-interest loans, plus sales and income tax incentives, if Boeing spends at least $750 million and creates at least 3,800 jobs within seven years. Lawmakers passed the package Wednesday just before the Chicago-based airline maker tapped North Charleston over Everett for the second assembly line for the 787. Weyerhaeuser loss dodged by sales For the second time in two years, lumber and wood products producer Weyerhaeuser Co. dodged a quarterly loss by selling valuable properties. The company said Friday it broke even in the third quarter, partly on after-tax proceeds of $98 million from the sale of 143,000 acres of Oregon timberland. The last time it posted a quarterly profit was a year ago when it sold a packaging business worth $6 billion. The last time Weyerhaeuser posted a profit without a major asset sale was the third quarter of 2007. “It’s been a mess,” said Deutsche Bank analyst Mark Wilde. “They can’t make any money without selling assets. The issue here is that most of what they do is tied to the residential housing market.” Nearly half of last year’s revenue came from selling wood products like two-by-fours to residential home builders, among other customers. And residential housing has been battered for the last two years. Weyerhaeuser’s break-even results in the third quarter, which were also helped by a $74 million federal tax credit, compared with net income of $280 million, or $1.33 per share, in the third quarter of 2008. That $280 million profit rested on another sale — the company’s former packaging business. Excluding special items, Weyerhaeuser lost 26 cents per share, easily beating Wall Street expectations of a 45-cents-a-share loss. From Herald news services READER COMMENTS Be the first to comment. You must be a registered user and verify your e-mail address to post comments to blogs or articles on HeraldNet. To register, click here. To read other terms and conditions, click here. Log out

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