Champion Enterprises Inc

Manufactured-home maker Champion Enterprises Inc. said it will cut 1,500 jobs, or 15% of its work force, as it closes plants and sales centers to cope with slumping demand. Shares of the Auburn Hills, Mich.-based company fell more than 6% after it announced the moves, closing down 18 cents to $2.87 on the NYSE.

Manufactured-home maker Champion Enterprises Inc. said it will cut 1,500 jobs, or 15% of its work force, as it closes plants and sales centers to cope with slumping demand. Shares of the Auburn Hills, Mich.-based company fell more than 6% after it announced the moves, closing down 18 cents to $2.87 on the NYSE.

* Champion Enterprises Inc., the biggest U.S. maker of manufactured homes, said it closed two plants and 30 sales centers as it reduces inventory. The Auburn Hills, Mich.-based company also said it expects to report a first-quarter loss of 40 to 45 cents a share, much deeper than the 30-cent loss analysts expected, with revenue down about 40%. * Rohm & Haas Co.

* Champion Enterprises Inc., the biggest U.S. maker of manufactured homes, said it closed two plants and 30 sales centers as it reduces inventory. The Auburn Hills, Mich.-based company also said it expects to report a first-quarter loss of 40 to 45 cents a share, much deeper than the 30-cent loss analysts expected, with revenue down about 40%. * Rohm & Haas Co.

Fleetwood Enterprises Inc., a maker of motor homes and manufactured houses, warned Thursday that fiscal first-quarter results will be just above break-even because higher interest rates are eroding demand. The Riverside-based company had net income of $26.4 million, or 72 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. It was expected to earn 55 cents in the quarter ending July 30, according to one analyst surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial. It is Fleetwood's second profit warning in four weeks.

Shares of mobile home manufacturers soared Monday on the hope that business would increase after the destruction Hurricane Charley wreaked in Florida over the weekend. In commodities trading, orange juice futures posted their biggest one-day gain in three years on concerns about damage to some citrus orchards. Among manufactured-housing stocks, Riverside-based Fleetwood Enterprises Inc. scored the sector's biggest gain, surging $1.24, or 11.4%, to $12.10 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Manufacturers are gearing up to produce cities of mobile homes for Hurricane Katrina victims, but 10 days after the federal government received their proposals to address the housing emergency, the companies are still waiting for a response. "A lot of people are waiting," said Phyllis Knight, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Champion Enterprises Inc., a mobile home manufacturer based in Auburn Hills, Mich. The Federal Emergency Management Agency set a Sept.

Fleetwood Enterprises Inc. should consider a sale to manufactured-housing competitor Champion Enterprises Inc. to reduce manufacturing capacity and cut costs, Fleetwood's third-largest shareholder said. SLS Management proposed the idea in a letter to Riverside-based Fleetwood's board that was included Monday in a regulatory filing. The New York-based investor declined to comment further.

A glut of manufactured homes is causing havoc for the home builders' earnings and stock prices, as industry leader Champion Enterprises Inc. confirmed Thursday in announcing that its second-half 1999 profit will plunge about 40% from a year earlier. Champion's forecast came only a day after Fleetwood Enterprises Inc. in Riverside posted a 13% drop in earnings for its fiscal first quarter ended July 25, mostly because of the slump in its manufactured-housing business.

The slump in the nation's manufactured-housing industry is deepening, prompting continued factory shutdowns and massive retrenchment in dealerships. Though traditional home builders have been enjoying record sales, shipments of houses made in a factory--also called mobile homes--dropped by 28% in 2000 and have plunged by about 40% in the first four months of this year.