Business news in brief

Crown Holdings Inc., a Philadelphia manufacturer of food and beverage containers, said it agreed to buy a Mexican producer of aluminum cans, bottle caps, and glass bottles for the beverage industry from Heineken N.V. for $1.23 billion. Crown said the purchase of Empaque, expected to be completed by the end of this year, would make Crown the second-largest beverage-can manufacturer in North America, producing 24 billion containers a year for beer and soda companies. Empaque is expected to have 2014 sales of $700 million and operating profits of $150 million. Crown has 147 factories in 40 countries and employs 21,300. Empaque will add three factories and 1,500 employees, Crown said. - Harold Brubaker

Philadelphia Gas Works said it lowered its natural gas supply rates for the fall, effective Sept. 1. The new residential rate, $1.40 per hundred cubic feet, or Ccf, from $1.51, will lower the average residential customer's bill by about 6.9 percent per month, for an annualized saving of $99, PGW said. The city-owned utility, which is under agreement to be sold to UIL Holdings Corp. in a $1.86 billion deal, reviews its gas rate quarterly. The new rate will stay in effect through Nov. 30. - Reid Kanaley

Dominion Resources Inc., Duke Energy Corp., and other partners are proposing a $5 billion natural gas pipeline to connect the Southeast with the prodigious supplies of natural gas being produced in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. The 550-mile project, called the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, would begin in Harrison County, W.Va., and stretch through Virginia and North Carolina to Robeson County, near the South Carolina border. It's designed to tap the rapidly growing supplies of gas produced in two geologic formations, known as the Marcellus and Utica Shales, that are now accounting for more than a quarter of the nation's natural gas. - AP

American Airlines and merger partner US Airways will begin twice-daily nonstop flights Wednesday between Grand Rapids, Mich., and Philadelphia International Airport. The route will be operated as US Airways Express on Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet aircraft, which seat 40 to 50 passengers. - Linda Loyd

A large central Pennsylvania bakery will close later this month, leaving about 90 people without jobs. Bimbo Bakeries USA said it will shutter the Stroehmann facility in Harrisburg on Sept. 19. Company spokesman John Bowden said production will be shifted to bakeries in Hazleton and the Lehigh Valley. Bimbo has operated the Harrisburg bakery since buying Stroehmann in 2009. It had already cut more than 60 jobs at the site earlier this year. Bimbo is a division of Mexico's Grupo Bimbo. Its brands include Entenmann's, Orowheat, and Stroehmann. - AP

Home Depot Inc. may be the latest retailer to suffer a credit-card data breach. The Atlanta-based home- improvement retailer told the Associated Press on Tuesday that it's looking into "unusual activity" and that it's working with banks and law enforcement. A spokeswoman noted that if the retailer confirms that a breach occurred, it will notify customers immediately. Shares of Home Depot fell 2 percent to close at $91.15 on the New York Stock Exchange. - AP

Seeking to improve on-time performance of its long-distance passenger trains, Amtrak has filed a complaint against Canadian National Railway, a major operator of freight trains. Amtrak asked the federal Surface Transportation Board to investigate Canadian National for delaying passenger trains that operate on the freight railroad in Illinois. Under federal law, passenger trains are required to receive preference over freight trains in dispatching of trains. Amtrak has blamed freight operators for a big drop in Amtrak's on-time performance in the last year. - Paul Nussbaum

The Transportation Department turned down a request by Norwegian Air International that would have allowed the carrier to offer low-cost service between London's Gatwick Airport and New York, Orlando, Fla., and other U.S. cities. - AP

Gasoline prices in South Jersey fell by 2 cents a gallon over the holiday weekend, to an average of $3.21 for a gallon of regular Tuesday. But that number was up 3 cents from a week earlier, AAA Mid-Atlantic said. The latest price in Southeastern Pennsylvania, where state gasoline taxes are higher, was $3.46 per gallon, down a penny for the weekend and for the week, the auto club said. The national average was $3.43, unchanged for the week. The U.S. average peaked in late April at $3.70 a gallon. - Reid Kanaley