Eastern.

• Position: REGIONAL REPORT - Meshed briefs

ROANOKE RAPIDS -- Depew, N.Y.-based PCB Piezotronics, which makes pressure, heat and other sensors for companies such as Ford, General Motors and General Electric, will open a 50,000-square-foot factory here by early 2005. It will employ 250 at salaries averaging $26,000 a year. The company will qualify for up to $1.6 million in state incentives.

KINSTON -- Just weeks after buying a former DuPont yarn plant here, Greensboro-based Unifi announced it will cut 490 jobs and idle two of four production lines. About 250 workers will remain. DuPont laid off 1,190 in 2000 and 2001 before selling the plant to Wichita, Kan.-based Koch Industries. Unifi bought it in September.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Black & Decker, a Towson, Md.-based toolmaker, will cut 330 workers from its plant here by year-end. About 800 employees will remain.

KINSTON -- Smithfield Packing, part of Smithfield, Va.-based Smithfield Foods, will build an $85 million ham-processing plant here. Construction will begin in 2005. The plant will employ about 200.

WASHINGTON -- Coeur, which makes medical syringes and other devices, will spend $2.5 million to expand its plant in 2005. It will create 46 jobs, increasing its work force to about 100.

ELIZABETH CITY -- Blackwater USA, a Moyock-based security company, will build a plant near here that will make shooting targets. It will employ about 25 but expand to 100 workers at full production. No timetable was set.

ROCKINGHAM -- The 27-member North Carolina Electric Membership Cooperative, based in Raleigh, will spend about $250 million to build peak-load electricity plants in Richmond and Anson counties, starting in late 2005. Production at the natural-gas-fired plants...