From staff reports

General Cable closing plant

Highland Heights-based General Cable Co. is closing its 131,00-square-foot plant in Taunton, Mass., and is studying the feasibility of keeping its South Hadley and Marion, Ind., plants open, the company said this week.

General Cable said it became unprofitable to keep open the Taunton plant, which employs 77 people and makes bare copper strand and PVC jacketing compounds. The firm said it will take a $7 million charge to close the plant in the fourth quarter of 2003.

Mycom has loss on higher costs

Mycom Group reported a 20 percent increase in third-quarter revenue Wednesday but said product development and support costs led to a $63,200 net loss.

The Cincinnati-based developer of information technology products and services said third-quarter sales, boosted by the February 2003 acquisition of Maximize IT, totaled $2.3 million, compared with $1.9 million in the same quarter in 2002. For the first nine months of 2003, Mycom's revenue was up 7.4 percent to $6.3 million.

Lubricant maker sells off units

Cincinnati-Vulcan Co., a St. Bernard-based blender of specialty lubricants, plans to focus on its metalworking and industrial lubricants, toll manufacturing and fuel distribution operations after selling its steel and food-grade lubricants businesses.

Terms of the sale to Quaker Chemical Corp. of Conshohocken, Pa., weren't disclosed.

"This divestiture represents a renewed commitment to our industrial customers,'' David E. Kellner, president, said.

Vulcan, founded 91 years ago, employs about 60. The sale will mean the reduction in a few technical jobs.