REGION

REGION
WCI Steel reports lossesof $13.4M in 2nd quarter
WARREN -- WCI Steel released more details on its second-quarter performance in a report filed today with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission. The Warren steel producer lost $13.4 million in the three months ending April 30 on sales of $127.4 million and shipped 320,233 tons, a slight decrease in net sales and a 10 percent decrease in tons shipped compared with the same period a year ago. It lost $17.5 million in the first half of fiscal 2003, compared with a $37.4 loss in the same six-month period in 2002.
The company announced a restructuring plan earlier this month aimed at reversing its losses. WCI's report to the SEC says officials expect to lose money again in the third quarter and may be forced to seek bankruptcy protection unless the company's lenders agree to changes in its borrowing arrangements. A WCI spokesman was not available to comment this morning.
NATION
1st Nissan vehicle rolls offMississippi assembly line
CANTON, Miss. -- Less than three years after Nissan announced it was coming to Mississippi, a gold Quest minivan rolled off the assembly line Tuesday to officially open the first phase of a $1.4 billion plant.
The Quest burst through a paper barrier -- the first tangible product of more than two years of construction on the 3.5 million-square-foot plant. Nissan's other U.S. plant was opened in 1983 in Smyrna, Tenn.
When it reaches its full production capacity in 2004 of 400,000 vehicles a year, the plant will have as many as 5,300 workers. It has 1,950 employees so far.
From Vindicator staff and wire reports