Construction beam goes up at local Boeing plant

Boeing Co.'s new 787 assembly plant began to take shape with a lone 35-foot-long steel beam jutting straight from the ground.

After the piercing blast of an air horn, the gray beam was lowered into place, a major milestone for Boeing's $750 million investment that's expected to bring several thousand jobs to North Charleston and put the Lowcountry on the map as a major aviation hub.

Work crews will install hundreds of the I-shaped girders during the next six months, slowly forming the skeleton for the planned 1.2 million-square-foot building that will reach 114 feet into the sky at its peak.

Despite abnormally heavy rainfall in recent months that sent construction managers scrambling, the plant at Charleston International Airport is expected to open on time in July 2011.

After that, nearly 4,000 workers are expected to report to the 787 final-assembly site.

Shipping out

BMW has marked another maritime milestone. Slightly more than 15 years after opening its only U.S. plant in the Upstate, BMW Manufacturing announced that it has now exported more than 1 million vehicles produced in Greer.

Officials said 85 percent of those automobiles were transported by ship to overseas car dealers through the Port of Charleston.

Loan woes

The owner of First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Charleston warned that it will report a quarterly loss later this month based on a review of its commercial loans. North Charleston-based First Financial Holdings Inc. said it expects to set aside between $44 million and $46 million to beef up its loan-loss reserve fund, bringing the total to about $82 million.

Inside job?

The Securities and Exchange Commission is suing a Mount Pleasant man, alleging he took part in an insider-trading scheme while working as a top executive at a global electronics giant. The SEC said Ralph J. Pirtle shared corporate secrets with an Illinois associate, who used the tips to buy and sell stocks of three public companies.

Pirtle was director of real estate in North America for Royal Philips Electronics, which was looking to acquire the three firms but had not announced the deals. His attorney denied any wrongdoing.