A possible early sign that a fragile economic recovery may be under way came from Richmond yesterday, when MeadWestvaco Corp. reported a slight rise in the amount of bleached paperboard it sold in late summer. The white-surfaced cardboard is used to package a wide range of products, from breakfast cereal to electronics, and it is one of the first things businesses start buying when they sense orders starting to rise.

A tax credit for using alternative fuel helped MeadWestvaco Corp. more than double its second-quarter profit, despite a drop in revenue. The Henrico County-based packaging company yesterday reported profit of $125 million, or 72 cents a share, for the second quarter, up from $56 million, or 33 cents, a year ago. Revenue fell 16 percent to $1.43 billion from $1.71 billion.

Downtown Richmond’s newest office tower, soon to be the home of packaging company MeadWestvaco Corp., is progressing toward a fall completion. The gleaming exteriors are finished on the nine-story building overlooking the James River between Fifth and Seventh streets, next to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. MeadWestvaco’s brand logo—the letters “MWV”—is visible at the top of the building, which is lit at night. The interior structural work, such as elevators and wiring, also is essentially done, developers said.

The 4-foot tall, 2,000-plus-pound rolls are piling up five or six high at the Bear Island paper mill outside Ashland—a potentially unsettling economic sign.

Packaging company MeadWestvaco Corp. will close a plant in Caguas, Puerto Rico, this year, in addition to shutting down a Louisa County plant. The Henrico County-based company notified state officials Wednesday that it plans to close its folding carton plant in Louisa, eliminating 171 jobs. Yesterday, the company announced the closing of the Puerto Rico plant, which employs 107 people.

MeadWestvaco Corp. is planning to close a manufacturing plant in Louisa County, eliminating 171 jobs, as the packaging company continues to restructure its business operations. The Henrico County-based company filed a notice with the state yesterday indicating it would close the plant on Industrial Drive in Louisa in May.

Ten of Virginia’s top 20 revenue-producing public companies combined to spend more than $100,000 a day lobbying the federal government last year, records show. As CEOs grappled with a sliding U.S. economy and then-candidate Barack Obama targeted corporate influence in Washington, eight Virginia-based companies—including the Richmond area’s Altria Group Inc., Genworth Financial Inc. and Dominion Resources Inc.—each spent more than $1 million in 2008 trying to influence lawmakers.

A recession is no time to retreat from global trade, several experts on international business said yesterday at Virginia Commonwealth University. If anything, U.S. policymakers and businesses need to look for more ways to build overseas markets, as developing nations increase their share of the world economy and the economic power of Europe and America is challenged, they said.

Globalization has created a shift in power from Europe and the United States to Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. Virginia Commonwealth University’s 15th Annual International Business Forum will discuss tomorrow what globalization means in the U.S. and abroad. The topic: “The third great power shift in modern history: The post-Western world as globalization gains depth and breadth.“

Henrico County-based MeadWestvaco Corp. is closing a plant in Connecticut and eliminating about 190 jobs in its envelope business within two months. The reductions are part of a broader cost-cutting plan the packaging and paper products company announced last week. That plan includes cutting about 2,000 jobs, or nearly 10 percent of MeadWestvaco’s global work force, and closing or restructuring 12 to 14 manufacturing plants to save the company $250 to $300 million by mid-2010.

The frugal buying habits of worried consumers are translating into more job losses in the Richmond area. Now, the industry that makes packaging for products ranging from DVDs to cosmetics is taking a hit—and that’s a bad signal for the economy at large this year, economists say. MeadWestvaco Corp., a Fortune 500 packaging and paper-products company, announced yesterday that it would cut 2,000 jobs—10 percent of its worldwide work force—by the end of the year to save money as it contends with the recession. About 800 of the cuts will come in the first quarter.

Outgoing Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder took a victory lap of sorts yesterday, touring more than $1.2 billion in actual and proposed development projects in the downtown area. SLIDESHOW: Wilder tours downtown development