Shell buys former zinc smelter site for $13.5 million

MONACA — Shell Chemicals has bought the site of a former zinc smelter although it hasn’t announced a decision on building a petrochemical plant on the property.

The company paid $13.5 million for the former Horsehead Corp. site in Potter and Center townships in Beaver County.

Shell officials have maintained that buying the property is a necessary step in gaining state permits to build an ethane cracker plant at the site about 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.

Shell proposes piping in ethane from natural gas wells and then chemically “cracking” the liquid fuel so it can be converted to polyethylene pellets used to make various plastic products.

Officials say 400 to 500 operational jobs and thousands of construction jobs would be created.

Toyota adds nearly 1.4M vehicles to air bag recall

DETROIT — Toyota is adding nearly 1.4 million cars, trucks and SUVs to a growing recall for air bags that can explode with too much force.

The company says it’s expanding a previous recall after Takata Corp. of Japan agreed in May to double the size of its air bag inflator recall to 33.8 million. Vehicles added to a passenger air bag inflator recall include the 2003 to 2007 Corolla and Matrix, 2005 and 2006 Tundra pickup, 2005 to 2007 Sequoia SUV and the 2003 to 2007 Lexus SC430 convertible.