Northrop Grumman closing Avondale

Northrop Grumman closing Avondale    Northrop Grumman Corp. said it is consolidating its Gulf Coast shipbuilding businesses and “exploring strategic alternatives,” including a possible spinoff to shareholders of its shipbuilding business.
   The company, said it will close its Avondale yard in New Orleans in 2013 after it completes two LPD-17 amphibious transport dock ships, which are designed to deliver up to 800 Marines ashore by landing craft and helicopters.
   Production of a series of these ships will be consolidated at the company’s yard in Pascagoula, Miss. It said it will take a pre-tax charge of $113 million in the second quarter of 2010 related to the consolidation.
   The company also has a shipyard in Newport News, Va., where it builds nuclear-power aircraft carriers and submarines.