Business Digest

Cruze engine to use cartridge-style filter

detroit

The engine of the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze will use a cartridge-style oil filter designed to make disposal and recycling easier, General Motors announced in a press release Monday.

Both engines available for the 2011 Cruze models will use the cartridge filter, which is easier to recycle and service compared with conventional steel canister-style oil filters, the company said. The Cruze will be built in Lordstown.

The housing for the cartridge filter has a replaceable cap that eliminates the conventional canister-to-engine surface that is a potential source of leaks, the release said.

Rattner: Chrysler, GM exceed expectations

detroit

Former U.S. auto task- force head Steven Rattner said Monday that General Motors Co., and Chrysler Group have performed better than he expected they would a year ago.

Rattner said that both companies have exceeded the federal government’s metrics in sales and restructuring. Rattner said that GM has a good possibility of making a quarterly profit when it announces first-quarter earnings later this month. He said that based on the trading price of old GM’s bonds last week, the government is likely to recover around $40 billion of its $50 billion investment in GM.

The government owns 61 percent of GM and will get some of its money back when the stock is sold. GM repaid $6.7 billion of the government loans last month.

Chesapeake plans to boost oil investment

oklahoma city

Chesapeake Energy Corp., announced plans to raise about $5 billion over the next two years to expand its investment in oil and reduce its debt Monday. The strategic plan include the sale of 20 percent equity interest in its Chesapeake Appalachia subsidiary within the next three to 12 months. Chesapeake is a key driller in the Appalachian Basin.

New coverage to raise premiums

WASHINGTON

Letting young adults stay on their parents’ health insurance until they turn 26 will nudge premiums nearly 1 percent higher for employer plans, the government said in an estimate released Monday.

The coverage requirement, effective starting later this year, is one of the most anticipated early benefits of President Barack Obama’s new health-care law. Many insurers already have started offering extended coverage to families who purchase their coverage directly. And employers say parents have flooded their benefits departments with questions.

The Health and Human Services Department released estimates of the costs and benefits of the requirement as part of a regulation directing employers and insurers how to carry it out.

The new benefit will cost $3,380 for each dependent, raising premiums by 0.7 percent in 2011 for employer plans, according to the department’s midrange estimate.

BA plans fresh strikes

LONDON

Cabin crew at British Airways PLC announced plans Monday to strike for a total of 20 days in May and June, threatening yet more chaos for tens of thousands of travelers just weeks after an Icelandic volcanic-ash cloud shut down European air space.

The strike action, due to begin early next week, also will add to mounting costs for the struggling British flagship carrier in the wake of the volcano disruption and walkouts by BA staff last month.

Vindicator wire reports