Business

HILLSVILLE — Fittingly enough, the quality of the workforce at the Bucyrus plant has contributed to the expansion of jobs at Hillsville.
Heavy equipment maker Bucyrus, an international company headquartered in Milwaukee, has decided to shift two of its products to the Hillsville plant in a consolidation, said Sonny Beckham, plant manager.
The products are a polymer plastic, which is already up and running in its new location, and pulleys that can be up to four feet in diameter.

Guardian Industries will invest $2.1 million to expand operations at its Consolidated Glass & Mirror facility in the Galax, which will create 40 new jobs through its new solar energy product line, announced Gov. Bob McDonnell on Wednesday.
The Galax plant currently provides 234 jobs. Equipment is expected to be installed by spring, and new workers will be in place by next August.
Greg Adkins, human resource manager for the plant, said the Galax facility competed with plants in Iowa and California to bring in the new product line.

Never before have motorists paid $3 for a gallon of gasoline at Christmastime.
Unless things change, that could soon happen across the nation, according to the American Automobile Association’s “Daily Fuel Gauge Report.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A decision by the U.S. International Trade Commission to maintain duties on Chinese furniture imports will help combat China’s unfair trade practices, Virginia’s U.S. Sen. James Webb said this week.
In testimony submitted to the commission review hearing in October, Webb warned that “dumping” practices are putting Virginia manufacturers on “a knife’s edge” and that failure to counter them could lead to “the point where the furniture industry in Virginia is only history.”