Zinc recycler Horsehead plans $87M facility in SC

SNELLING (AP) — A national zinc producer is planning to bring a recycling facility and 65 new jobs to South Carolina.

Monaca, Pa.-based Horsehead Corp. is planning to locate an $87 million zinc recycling facility in Barnwell County. Horsehead has a contract to recycle dust generated during melting of scrap materials from Nucor Steel's three facilities in North and South Carolina.

Horsehead produces zinc and zinc-based products that are used in galvanized steel products, tires, alkaline batteries, paint, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

South Carolina's jobless rate reached a 15-year high, at 7.6 percent in August. Barnwell County was tied for the state's eighth-highest unemployment rate, at 12.5 percent.

Health insurance costs grow more gradually

WASHINGTON (AP) — Health insurance premiums rose a modest 5 percent this year for coverage that's getting skimpier, researchers say.

The 5 percent increase was comparable to last year's uptick. Overall, premiums for family coverage increased to $12,680 and premiums for single coverage increased to $4,704, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust. Employers pick up, on average, about three-quarters of that cost.

Over the past decade, insurance premiums have grown much more quickly than wages and inflation. That wasn't the case this year. But to help slow the costs of health insurance, companies are increasingly offering coverage that requires their workers to pay more of their medical expenses before the insurance will kick in.

In just one year, the percentage of workers enrolled in high-deductible insurance of $1,000 or more jumped from 12 percent to 18 percent.

"We may be seeing the tip of the iceberg of a trend towards less comprehensive, skimpier health insurance coverage for many working people," said Drew Altman, president and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which conducts health research.

Japanese banks hunting again for overseas deals

TOKYO (AP) — Back in the 1980s, when Japan found itself flush with unprecedented wealth, it splurged on flashy overpriced trophies like Rockefeller Center and the Pebble Beach Golf Links.

It was a dizzying shopping spree that left little but a bad case of buyer's regret as Japan's asset bubble burst and markets crashed in the early 1990s. Its mammoth banks retreated from the limelight, weighed down by mountains of bad loans.

But in 2008, Japan Inc. is making a comeback.

Mindful of the painful lessons, Japan's financial heavyweights are venturing aggressively abroad again, on the hunt for smart deals in the wake of a historic Wall-Street shake-up.

"The Japanese have recovered from their own debacle in the 1990s and early 2000s and now have reasonable amounts of capital but not domestic growth," said David Threadgold, banking analyst at Fox-Pitt Kelton in Tokyo. "The Americans have squandered unimaginable amounts of money and are now looking around the world at who can help fill the hole."

Daimler in talks to sell remaining Chrysler stake

NEW YORK (AP) — Germany's Daimler AG says it's in talks to sell its remaining stake in Chrysler LLC to private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Partners.

Daimler spokesman Han Tjan (CHON) has confirmed a report in Germany's Manager Magazin that the company is in talks to sell the remaining 19.9 percent it owns in the U.S.-based automaker, but he declined to provide further details.

Cerberus Capital Partners LP bought 80.1 percent of Chrysler from Daimler in August 2007 in a $7.4 billion deal. The sale ended a nine-year partnership between Daimler and Auburn Hills, Mich.-based Chrysler.