Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 12, 1991                   TAG: 9102120011
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BANKRUPTCY FILINGS RISE 121 PERCENT

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Roanoke on Monday said it received 53 petitions from businesses during January, up 121 percent from 24 in January 1990. There were 23 filings in December.

The January total was the highest since June 1982, when 55 businesses sought protection from creditors. They are the only two months since the first of 1980 in which 50 or more business petitions were filed.

The January report followed a year in which the number of bankruptcy filings declined. The court received 355 petitions last year, down 3 percent from the 366 reported for 1989.

Other statistics added to the Roanoke Valley economic indicators show:

Norfolk Southern Corp. loaded 21,677 rail cars in its Pocahontas coalfields last week, a 3 percent increase over the 21,015 cars loaded during a comparable week last year and a 1.5 percent rise over the prior week's 21,360 loadings.

Roanoke banks cleared checks worth $163,939,707 against each other last week, 39.2 percent fewer than the $269,838,881 that went through the Roanoke clearinghouse a year ago and 12.4 percent fewer than the prior week's $187,140,353. - Staff report