Business news in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“We don’t want safety to be only for the people who can afford it.”

Deborah Hersman,

chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board Article, 1D

Cargill chips in for watershed refuge

Minneapolis-based Cargill Inc. will donate $50,000 over two years to the Illinois River Watershed Partnership to develop the 30-acre Wetland Sanctuary at Cave Springs in Northwest Arkansas, the company said Wednesday.

The Watershed Sanctuary at Cave Springs will promote a better understanding of water-quality issues, demonstrate improvements in water-related practices and improve water quality in the Illinois River Watershed, according to a release.

Cargill’s donations will fund part of the nearly $1 million cost of the project, developed by the Game and Fish Commission. Half of the Cargill donation comes from its turkey business, and the remainder comes from the company’s corporate global-partnership fund.

Cargill Meat Solutions, a subsidiary of Cargill Inc., operates a turkey plant in Springdale.

The watershed sanctuary includes a fishing bridge and boardwalk, walking trails, an amphitheater, a watershed learning center, a 6-acre lake, and a natural cave and cave spring.

The Illinois River Watershed Partnership formed in December 2005 with a goal of protecting the Illinois River watershed in Northwest Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma from degradation. The partnership’s members include representatives of drinking-water providers, poultry and construction companies, farmers, and city and environmental groups.

  • John Magsam

Honda rushes redo of razzed Civic

Stung by criticism from consumers, its own dealers and auto reviewers, Honda Motor Co. is about to begin selling a significantly redesigned Civic after only a year of the current-generation model.

Honda is making changes to the sheet metal on the vehicle to give it a more aggressive, sportier look. Inside, it is improving comfort, changing the much-criticized interior and is revamping the sedan’s driving characteristics.

“Our customers frankly had higher expectations of us,” said John Mendel, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co. “We underestimated the level of competition.”

Most of the changes will be announced when the car goes on sale later this month.

“It is unparalleled,” said Jesse Toprak, an analyst at auto-price information company TrueCar Inc. “I don’t remember them ever doing it before, but the last redesign was seen as lukewarm at best and negative in general. I give them credit. They accelerated the cycle.”

Nonetheless, the current Civic has sold well. Honda has sold 255,000 in the U.S. through the first 10 months of this year, a 39 percent gain compared with the same period last year. It’s among the top-selling passenger cars in America and is ahead of rivals, including the Toyota Corolla, Hyundai Elantra, Chevrolet Cruze and Ford Focus.

  • Los Angeles Times

Panasonic plans to shed 8,000 jobs

Panasonic Corp. plans to cut 8,000 jobs in the second half of this fiscal year as the Japanese TV-maker restructures amid falling demand and a rising yen.

The company, which eliminated 8,871 jobs in the six months ending Sept. 30, is planning further cuts by March 31 to speed up the changes, Atsushi Hinoki, a Tokyo-based spokesman, said by phone Wednesday. The expense for the job cuts is already included in the company’s forecast for an annual loss of $9.6 billion, he said.

Panasonic shares this month plunged to the lowest in at least 38 years, and Moody’s Investors Service said it will review the company’s debt for a potential downgrade after Japan’s third-biggest employer predicted a loss this fiscal year. The Osaka-based company eliminated almost 39,000 jobs in the past year, or about 11 percent of its work force, as Japanese electronics makers struggle amid competition with Samsung Electronics Co. of Korea.

“They have no choice but to cut more jobs, given the enormous loss,” said Yoshihiro Okumura, a general manager at Chiba-Gin Asset Management Co.

  • Bloomberg News

Venza to join Toyota’s U.S. exports

Toyota Motor Corp. is making good on a plan to boost U.S. exports by shipping Kentucky-built Venzas to South Korea, helping Asia’s largest automaker maximize use of factories in North America and blunt the yen’s impact.

The company’s plant in Georgetown, Ky., is producing a version of the midsize wagon for South Korea, where it already sends U.S.-produced Camry sedans and Sienna minivans, Toyota said Wednesday. The Japanese automaker expects exports of U.S.-built vehicles to reach a record, increasing 52 percent this year to more than 130,000 cars and trucks, the company said.

The Kentucky manufacturing operation is Toyota’s largest outside of Japan and employs about 6,600 people.

Toyota, along with Japan-based Honda and Nissan, has been shifting more production to North America to counter the yen’s almost 30 percent rise against the dollar in the past five years, including opening a Corolla small-car plant in Mississippi, moving Highlander sport utility vehicle production to Indiana and expanding Lexus RX SUV output in Canada.

  • Bloomberg News

Bank of England sees GDP shrinkage

LONDON - Britain’s weak economy may shrink in the last three months of the year and growth will remain sluggish into 2013, the governor of the Bank of England warned Wednesday.

The United Kingdom central bank’s warning came after the country’s gross domestic product on annual basis unexpectedly grew by 1 percent in the third quarter, ending a nine-month recession.

“Welcome as that is, it is not a reliable guide to the future,” Governor Mervyn King said at a news conference introducing the bank’s quarterly Inflation Report.

“Output growth is likely to fall back sharply in Q4 as the boost from the Olympics in the summer is reversed - indeed output may shrink a little this quarter,” King said.

The bank also lowered its GDP growth forecast for 2013 to about 1 percent.

“We face the rather unappealing combination of a subdued recovery with inflation remaining above target for a while,” King added.

Despite the recent recession, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday that that the U.K. unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent in the July-September period, down from 8.0 percent in the previous three months and from 8.2 percent in the year-earlier period.

  • The Associated Press

Business, Pages 28 on 11/15/2012

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