Charlotte.

• Position: Regional Report - Business news briefs - Column

STATESVILLE -- Philadelphia-based Hunt will close its office-supplies factory here by July, eliminating 325 jobs. The company is moving production of its Boston office supplies and X-Acto knives to Asia. Hunt still has a distribution center and an art-supplies factory in Statesville that together employ about 300.

CHARLOTTE -- Celgard expected to finish an expansion of its battery-parts plant here and hire 50 additional employees by the end of 2003, bringing the factory's total to about 330. No cost estimate was given. The expansion will triple Celgard's capacity for making parts used in lithium batteries for cell phones, laptop computers and other portable electronic devices.

RANLO -- About 120 workers at Cavalier Specialty Yarn's mill were to be laid off in November. The company's bankrupt Canadian parent halted operations in the Gaston County mill as part of a corporate restructuring. The plant might resume production, but no timetable was given.

[GRAPHIC OMITTED]

LOCUST -- Superior Steel Components of Grand Rapids, Mich., has begun construction of a $1 million plant. The company, which makes steel trusses, now leases a building in Stallings. When complete in February, the Stanly County factory will employ 20, which could grow to 50 within two years.

CHARLOTTE -- Duke Energy said it would eliminate 2,000 jobs, 8% of its 25,000 global work force by the end of 2003. The company didn't say how many North Carolina jobs would be cut. It also announced that third-quarter earnings were down 79% from 2002.

CHARLOTTE -- The Bobcats, Charlotte's National Basketball Association expansion franchise, picked Bernie Bickerstaff as the head coach and general manager. Bickerstaff had been general manager of the WNBA Charlotte Sting and previously coached NBA teams in Seattle, Denver and Washington, D.C.

MONROE -- American Community Bancshares is moving into South Carolina. The company agreed to buy Gaffney, S.C.-based FNB Bancshares. American Community...