Region news digest: RTI signs pact with Tronox

REGION

RTI signs pact with Tronox

NILES — RTI International Metals, with headquarters in Niles, said it has signed a long-term supply agreement with Tronox that will provide RTI with titanium tetrachloride from Tronox’s Hamilton, Miss., titanium dioxide plant. The Tronox plant is located contiguous to RTI’s new titanium sponge facility being built to support long-term agreements with Lockheed Martin and Airbus. The new RTI plant is expected to begin operations in 2010, said Dawne S. Hickton, RTI vice chairman and chief executive officer.

Titanium tetrachloride and titanium sponge are products needed in the manufacture of titanium metal. RTI produces titanium mill products and fabricated metal components, and through its various subsidiaries, manufactures and distributes products for the aerospace, industrial, defense, energy, and chemical industries.

Average gas price drops

BRECKSVILLE — Northeast Ohio’s average price of a gallon of regular, unleaded, self-serve gasoline dropped 10.3 cents this week to $3.211 from $3.314 during the week beginning March 18, according to the AAA East Central Fuel Gauge.

The average price of a gallon of unleaded, self-serve during the week of March 27, 2007, was $2.518.

AAA East Central said the decline in prices at the pump was fueled by the broad-based decline in commodity prices, particularly the falling price of oil. Oil went from a record $111.80 per barrel to below $100 last Thursday, rallied somewhat on Friday and Monday, but fell below $100 again Tuesday.

The drop in oil prices seems to reflect a growing realization by traders that consumers in the United States have cut their fuel consumption in response to high prices and a weakening economy, and are likely to continue to do so, AAA East Central reported in its weekly analysis.

Here are some area prices: Alliance, $3.221; Cleveland, $3.107; Lorain, $3.342; Niles, $3.222; and Ravenna, $3.288.

NATION

Prices for oil soaring

NEW YORK — Oil prices soared more than $4 a barrel Wednesday as two big market drivers — lower-than-expected fuel inventories and another slide in the dollar — had traders buying in force for the first time in a week.

Prices rose across the energy spectrum, marking a reversal in sentiment from last week when falling demand for oil, gasoline and other fuels and a strengthening dollar pulled oil down nearly 10 percent from a record near $112.

The Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration said Wednesday that gasoline and distillate supplies, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, dropped much more than forecast last week, while crude oil inventories were unchanged. Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected crude supplies to rise by 1.7 million barrels.

The inventory report stoked worries that supplies of gasoline in particular are falling at a time when analysts would like to see them rising in advance of peak summer driving season. Gasoline inventories slid by 3.3 million barrels last week, more than four times the decline analysts had expected.

At the pump, gas prices rose 0.6 cent overnight to a national average of $3.261 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Prices have slid recently from a record of $3.285 a gallon set last week, largely because of oil’s decline last week.