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

DATE: TUESDAY, August 1, 1995                   TAG: 9508010054
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN BUSINESS

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Domestic coal production totaled 20.1 million tons during the week ending July 22, up 4 percent from the 19.3 million tons produced the previous week, the U.S. Department of Energy reported Monday.

The U.S. coal industry produced 19.6 million tons in the same week last year, according to the department's Energy Information Administration.

Virginia mines produced 764,000 tons during the week of July 22, up from 665,000 tons a week earlier and from 741,000 tons in the corresponding week a year earlier.

Domestic coal production so far this year is 559 million tons, 3 percent ahead of last year's production at this time.

The week's production accounts for bituminous and lignite coal.

- Associated Press

Union approves Valleydale pact

The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 on Monday announced the ratification of a contract that the union said will improve wages and benefits for 200 employees at Valleydale Foods Inc. in Salem.

The four-year contract, approved by union members Saturday, provides for undisclosed raises and less-expensive health insurance that expands protection against serious illnesses and injuries for workers and their families, said Thomas McNutt, president of the local, which is based in Landover, Md.

Company officials could not be reached for comment. Valleydale is owned by Smithfield Foods Inc. in Smithfield.

- Staff report

Weather boosts natural gas prices

NEW YORK - Natural gas prices surged to their highest levels in a month Monday, lifted by a tropical storm that could threaten rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and continued hot weather across much of the country.

Natural gas fuels many electric utility generators.

Natural gas for delivery in September settled at $1.614 per 1,000 cubic feet, up 9.1 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Higher demand for natural gas during the hot summer months helped boost prices Monday.

Also, ``many traders heard that a tropical storm may be heading into the Gulf and thought that could slow production in the near term,'' said George Gaspar, an oil analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc., a Milwaukee investment firm.

- Associated Press