The Newsletter

A quiet success in Bellingham - Ershigs Inc., a family-run company that makes fiberglass-reinforced plastic composites. It's a complicated business, but essentially the company builds tanks and pipes for corrosive materials.

These are industrial-strength tanks in both size and use. Try two tanks for chlorine dioxide, 28 feet in diameter and 55 feet high.

The company does work in the chemical, paper, petroleum, food-processing and power-generating industries.

So what's the success? Chicago Bridge and Iron Co. (1992 sales, $1.67 billion), which makes steel tanks for many of the same industries, and Ershigs are joining forces rather than continuing to compete.

CBI completed its acquisition of Ershigs late last month. A. Herbert Ershig, chairman, said the move will give the company the capital to expand and open up export markets for its products.

Ershigs employs 250 people. Headquarters are in Bellingham, but it operates plants in Wilson, N.C., and Gatesville, Texas.

The company is an example of the boom in Bellingham. The city is quietly emerging as a great place to be and to do business.

Watch Northwest Airlines, a major carrier here, over the next few days. It is negotiating with unions again as it dangles on the cliff of possible bankruptcy once again.

At the same time, it posted encouraging traffic gains in May. Comparisons are against a tough year, so they are discounted a bit. Domestic traffic increased 15 percent year-over-year. Pacific traffic got a boost during the vacation period in Japan.

Systemwide, Northwest flew nearly 4.9 billion revenue passenger miles in May vs. 4.5 billion a year ago. (A revenue passenger mile is one paying passenger flown one mile.) The load factor (percentage of seats filled with paying passengers) climbed 13.4 points to 80.1 percent.

Capitalism in Vietnam, still a communist country, is growing. So's the rhetoric. If you remember the Vietnam War era, the irony may be thick enough to spread.

European and Asian entrepreneurs have invested about $5 billion in Vietnam since the war. They like its 90 percent literacy rate and $35 per month minimum wage.

The U.S. embargo still stands, limiting U.S. participation. But it may come off soon. It is up for annual renewal Sept. 14.

Meanwhile, the Vietnamese government is hosting trade fairs and inviting U.S. businesses on visits to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City this summer and fall.

There's a downside. Reports increase of bribes in exchange for paying wages below minimums. The Saigon Newsreader recently said foreign bosses mistreated workers. Result? About 30 labor strikes in the past three years.

Take note of EVA Airways' arrival on the scene at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Its first departure was last week, and the airline increases traffic from Seattle across the Pacific. Such flights help establish the region's position as a leading city on the Pacific Rim.

EVA will fly 747-400s. Flights originate in Newark, N.J., and serve the New York metropolitan area as well. EVA flies Seattle-Taipei on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

Y.F. Chang, EVA chairman, who turned Taiwan's Evergreen Group into the world's largest cargo-container shipper, got his airline off the ground last year. It took delivery of a 747 in May and plans to take another today.

Notes on the accompanying chart. The people side of Boeing's slump has begun to surface on the Eastside, an area with one of the smallest number of Boeing workers. Officials at the Bellevue unemployment office say the number of Boeing workers in their waiting lines has begun to grow. Only 16 Boeing employees signed up for unemployment in April, 43 signed up in May.

Last month, 157 more Washington residents signed up for unemployment in Bellevue than signed up in May 1992, an 8.1 percent increase. Although the size of the increase was well below April's, Rin Causey, operations manager for the office, said a rise was also seen in workers from aeronautical companies that are related to Boeing. "There is some domino unemployment showing up," she said.

`This was a strategic move. . . . The affiliation with a worldwide construction group with the resources and reputation of CBI will better enable Ershigs to develop to its full potential in a global market.' - A. Herbert Ershig, chairman, Ershigs Inc.

Just so you know that all's fair in these parts. Here is some feedback. From my voice mail. `The newsletter. Comment. Disjointed. Very much. Sentences. Not connected. Short. Awful. Don't like it. Fix it. Bye.' No name. No number. Too bad. Would have called her. Short conversation.