The Morning News from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 30

Japan's exports of cars, trucks and buses rose 6.8 percent in January from a year earlier, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers' Association said. Exports had dropped 1 7.8 percent in December. The January increase was attributed to a 38 percent rise in exports to the 12-nation European Community. Friday, Feb. 27,1987 Traffic using the Delaware Memorial Bridge last year increased by 500,000 vehicles over the 1985 volume.

The two spans were assessed at $216 million each for insurance purposes. Railroad back cm track The market B12 The News-Journal Papers, Wilmington, Del. Dow Jones Industrial Avg. NYSE volume (in millions) 350 1 III! 2250 2225 2200 2175 2150 2125 lllllll-ll md. BUR MD.

oZJ Eastern I Shore I 2100 vate buyer as "very favorable." No deadline has been set for a sale, Houska said, and the commission plans to continue to operate the line until a private buyer is found. The commission is a public body set up several years ago by the state of Virginia to administer state and federal funds for railroads. A group of Delmarva businessmen previously showed interest in buying the Eastern Shore line from Canonie. That group, working with the Greater Salisbury (Md.) Committee, reported in mid-January that their efforts had failed because they had been unable to get enough potential investors interested in the purchase. Robert W.

Cook, director of the Salisbury committee, said the interested buyers believed the railroad can be operated profitably, "if it's recapitalized under new management with a lean operation and low overhead." Houska said the rail line and its equipment has recently been appraised at about $8 million. said Thursday. "Now we have time to put together a proper proposal for selling it to a private operator." Houska said the sale has now been finalized. A group of Virginia banks authorized a $7 million loan package last week to the Accomack Northampton Transportation District Commission, which purchased the line from Canonie for that price, Houska said. The commission plans to operate the rail line until it can sell it to another private company.

It is asking the Delaware, Maryland and Virginia state governments for loans of $500,000 each to cover immediate costs such as insurance premiums and loan payments. Houska said the states have tentatively agreed to make the loans, although each legislature will have to approve the action. Kermit H. Justice, Delaware's transportation secretary, has called the line "critical to the future economic well-being of not only Delaware but the entire Delmarva Peninsula." Houska categorized the outlook for eventually selling the railroad to a pri By ANN STEWART Staff reporter The Eastern Shore Railroad, whose future has been in jeopardy since October, has been sold to a Virginia public commission that says service will continue uninterrupted. The sale of the 90-mile freight line means that Delmarva Peninsula businesses will still have rail service south of Pocomoke City, Md.

The previous owner, Canonie Atlantic had announced plans to abandon the line at the end of this month. The line connects Pocomoke and points north with Norfolk, using barges to carry the rail cars across the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay from Cape Charles, to Norfolk. Had it been shut down, freight service in Delaware could have been seriously hurt because rail lines would have reached a dead end in Pocomoke. "The important thing is that no service has been disrupted," Thomas E. Houska II, railroad administrator for the Delaware Department of Transportation, Feb 12 13 17 18 19 20 23 24 25 26 Feb 12 13 17 18 19 20 23 24 25 26 2239.31 Volume 165,800,000 High Low 2196.71 Advances 620 Close 2216.68 Declines 935 Change 9.56 Index 161.41 News-JournalDan Garrow Durable-goods report pushes market dovn Stock prices settled lower Thursday in selling ascribed partly to some unexpectedly negative economic news.

The Commerce Department early in the day reported a 7.5 percent drop in new orders for durable goods last month. The figure caught many Wall Streeters by surprise and came as a setback to hopes for a pickup in economic growth in the months ahead. Two auto insurance firms raise rates in state; 4 more apply In brief 1 1 Scott, Mead selling mill Scott Paper Co. said it and Mead Corp. plan to sell their ownership of Brunswick Pulp Paper of Brunswick, Ga.

Brunswick operates one of the world's largest bleached pulp and paperboard mills. The companies said they are selling because they have added to their own pulp-making capacity since buying Brunswick. New Kevlar unveiled The Du Pont Co. says it has developed an advanced form of its tough Kevlar aramid fiber that's up to 40 percent stiff er than first-generation aramids and absorbs less than half the moisture. Kevlar, invented by Du Pont in the late 1960s, is five times stronger per pound than steel and is used to replace metals in products such as aircraft, tires and rubber goods, and marine rope and cables.

Daily's Nugget buy OK'd their rates without waiting. Travelers Insurance Co. put a 12.1 percent increase into effect in December for the 21,888 vehicles it insures in Delaware. Keystone raised rates 12.2 percent for its 1,485 Delaware vehicles in September. Officials at both companies were unavailable for comment Thursday.

If Insurance Commissioner David N. Levinson finds the rates are unacceptable, he could roll back the increase. Levinson is expected to rule Monday on Travelers, Keystone and the other applications for rate increases. He would not name the other four companies because requests for rate increases are confidential until they are considered by the department or the companies put them into effect without the department's approval. "Vtr -sit By KATHRYN CANAVAN Staff reporter Two companies selling auto insurance in Delaware have increased their rates more than 12 percent.

Four other companies have asked permission to raise rates between 3.2 percent and 49 percent. All six companies, saying their loss ratios are too high, have applied to the state Department of Insurance for permission to raise their rates. Delaware has the lowest auto insurance rates in the Northeast region. But its loss ratio has been the highest in the country for two years. Although companies traditionally wait for the insurance commissioner's approval before raising rates, insurance department officials said Travelers Insurance Co.

and Keystone Insurance Co. raised 'Si SSL-SI Staff photo by Jim Graham The tenant house on the estate was recently sold for $235,000. Former du Pont estate slated for development I Imperial Chemical Industries earns $181 million in quarter Bally Manufacturing Corp. has won approval from the New Jersey Casino Control Commission to acquire the Golden Nugget Casino Hotel for $440 million. Bally agreed to buy the Atlantic City casino hotel from Las Vegas, Golden I Proposed ttBrandywine 1 development BUCK ji Eleuthorian 1 MXs Christ Jj Church Hagley Museum II By MAUREEN MILFORD Staff reporter A 59-acre country estate, once part of a compound of du Pont family manors on the Brandywine, is on the drawing boards for development.

whose principals are William Boucher and Eugene Bennett, have plans to build 22 luxury houses at Squirrel Run Hill, the Montchanin estate of the late E. Paul du Pont. The tract, in the shadow of the steeple of Christ Church Christiana Hundred, is off Delaware 100 at the intersection of Buck Road and a lane leading to the Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation Inc. (the Hagley Museum) and the church. The lane is sometimes called Christ Church Road.

bought the estate for $2.5 million from the estate of E. Paul du Pont. SeeHOMES-Bll By MERRITT WALLICK Staff reporter Imperial Chemical Industries, the British parent of Wilmington-based ICI Americas earned $181 million for the fourth quarter of 1986, up 7 percent from the same period last year. The company took a one-time charge for the quarter of $63 million related to its withdrawal from certain petrochemical businesses-overseas. The company had a onetime charge of $20 million in the comparable period last year.

Excluding one-time charges, profits rose 29 percent. Fourth-quarter sales were $3.99 billion, up 3 percent. For the year, Imperial Chemical's earnings rose 8.7 percent to $888 million. Sales for the year declined to $14.41 billion for 1986, down from $14.59 billion. Earnings per American Depositary Receipt for the quarter were $1.49, compared with $1.17 for the period last year.

For the year, earnings per ADR were $5.45, compared with $5.11. Each ADR is traded on the New York Stock Exchange in lieu of four shares of the British company's stock. Imperial Chemical's sales were reduced 6 percent for the year due to currency fluctuations, the company said. Three-quarters of the company's sales are outside Great Britain. Product prices were down 2 percent, it said, although sales volume rose 3 percent.

Profits were down in the agricultural and oil businesses, the com-pany said. Profits rose in pharmaceuticals and most of the company's chemicals, pigments and paints businesses, it said. News-JournatOan Garruw Nugget for $60 million in cash and $40 million in a new series of Bally preferred stock. It also will assume a $299 million mortgage on the Golden Nugget and buy $40 million in other real estate. South Africa loses another McGraw-Hill one of the world's largest publishing and information-services companies, said it will end all operations in South Africa and stop selling its products to the racially segregated country.

McGraw-Hill's South African operations employ 51 people. Their sales, $2.5 million in 1986, accounted for less than 0.2 percent of the company's total sales. Philips' profits jump NV Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken, a large Dutch electronics company, said its profit surged 74 percent in the fourth quarter of 1986 to about $260.2 million. The company said the rise was fueled in part by an extraordinary gain from the sale of its Baker, Knapp Tubbs Inc. furniture manufacturing subsidiary.

Du Pont wins patent suit The U.S. District Court in Wilmington on Thursday ordered Phillips Petroleum Co. to stop making, selling and using a group of resins and pipe systems patented by the Du Pont Co. The ethylene copolymer resins and polyethylene pipe systems are used in several products, including wire and cable insulation, trash bags, certain containers and gas distribution systems. The court also ordered an accounting to figure damages due Du Pont.

Porterfield by Joe Martin Himont earnings soar 358 BeneficiaFs loss Insurance business was culprit year, Himont said. Higher profits were due to improved sales and lower raw-material costs, Himont said. Himont is the world's largest manufacturer of polypropylene, a plastic used to make a variety of fibers, films and plastic parts for the carpet, food packaging, furniture, automotive and baby diaper industries. More than half of the world's polypropylene production is made by a patented process under license from Himont. Himont was originally created as a 50-50 joint venture between Hercules Inc.

and Montedison S.p.A. of Italy. Earlier this month, Himont offered 20 percent of its stock to the public at $28 a share. The stock closed Thursday at 37 up 1 By MERRITT WALLICK Staff reporter Himont earnings for the quarter ending Jan. 31 rose 358 percent to $63.7 million, compared with the same period a year earlier, the Wilmington-based company said Thursday.

The increase was boosted by a onetime gain of $21.5 million in the 1987 quarter for the sale of businesses in Brazil and Italy, Himont said. Without the gain, profits doubled. Per-share earnings were $1.27 for the quarter, compared with 36 cents for the period a year earlier. The one-time gain added 43 cents a share. Sales for the quarter rose 12 percent to $254.4 million.

Operating profit rose to $72.7 million for the first quarter of 1987, up from $29.5 million for the quarter last By MARCIA MING Staff reporter A $279 million loss in its insurance business wiped out $88 million in 1986 profits for other Beneficial Corp. operations. The insurance operation drastically affected Beneficial's Thursday report of 1986 earnings, turning what would have been a profitable year into one of net losses amounting to $101.7 million for the fourth quarter and a net loss of $171.6 million for all of 1986. Beneficial, which is negotiating for the sale of its insurance group and other interests, wrote off the operation after announcing plans to sell them late last year. The losses came from the companies' discontinued insurance operations.

Beneficial had a net loss of $279.1 million from discontinued operations in 1986. About 4147.3 million of the losses were due directly to the massive losses of Beneficial's property and casualty insurance subsidiaries. The rest, $131.8 million, is what the company estimates its losses will be on the disposal of the business. Officials wouldn't comment on the timing of the sale or whether there is a buyer. The company had said previously that it expects to complete the sale of its insurance group by the end of the second quarter.

Wall Street anticipated the losses. On Feb. 12, Beneficial said it would pay its regular quarterly dividend of 50 cents a share on common stock in response to concerns that dividends wouldn't be paid, a spokeswoman said. The company's earnings report was about two weeks later than normal, she said. On Wednesday, Beneficial's stock fell a couple of points after E.F.

Button's Fred Meinke lowered his recommendation. Before that, only a handful of securities analysts followed the stock. Charles M. Vincent, an analyst who follows banks and insurance companies for Philadelphia's Provident Bank, said he doesn't follow See BENEFICIAL Bll WTGI files for protection under Chapter 11 WTGI-TV (Channel 61), Wilmington's cated home-shopping shows. WTGI, owned by Delaware Valley Broadcasters Limited Partnership, switched to home shopping in an effort to alleviate its financial difficulties.

It went on the air offering mainly syndicated reruns of situation comedies and adventure shows. The cost of putting the station into operation was about $6 million. Channel 61 has faced stiff competition from established Philadelphia-based stations, and was hurt by failure to be included on the Heritage Cablevision system in Wilmington or any other cable only independent television station, has filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The station has had financial problems since going on the air last July 9.

The Chapter 11 filing is designed to enable the station to stay in business while it delays payment to creditors and negotiates a revised payment schedule with them. General Manager Daniel G. Slape said the station will continue its current programming, which since November has consisted almost exclusively of syndi 1 V.JMbW1 3E i MS0TM "6:301 It's 9:301 You've been here 8,000 years and yon haven't changed your watch.