Wednesday, January 16, 2013
LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY “GM is saying to the world we’re committed to this extended-range hybrid system.” Larry Dominique, executive vice president of TrueCar.com Article, 1D
Chrysler inks deal on Jeeps in China
DETROIT - Fiat SpA and Chrysler Group LLC said Tuesday that they have reached an agreement with Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. Ltd. to expand their cooperation on passenger-car manufacturing and sales in China.
Under the agreement, Guangzhou will build one Jeep model in China for Chrysler for sale in China. A specific model was not announced.
The agreement was signed at Chrysler headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich., by Zeng Qinghong, general manager and chief executive officer of GAC Group, and Mike Manley, president and chief executive of Jeep and head of Chrysler’s international operations.
Zeng said the interest among Chinese consumers to buy Jeeps should increase after Guangzhou begins production. Last year, Jeep sold about 50,000 sport utility vehicles in China.
Zeng said production of the model built by Guangzhou should begin in 2014.
-Detroit Free Press
In drought, crop claims hit a record
The worst U.S. drought since the 1930s led to record payouts on crop-insurance claims, with farmers collecting $11.581 billion as of Monday for damage in 2012, government data show.
Payments are up 6.8 percent from 2011, when claims reached the previous record of $10.843 billion, according to a Risk Management Agency report published Tuesday on the U.S. Department of Agriculture website. In 2010, the total was $4.251 billion.
Last year’s Midwest drought sent corn and soybean prices surging to records as output fell, while dry fields across the Great Plains left winter-wheat conditions in November at their worst since at least 1985, when the USDA began collecting the data.
About 282 million acres of crops were insured in 2012, up 6.1 percent from a year earlier. Farmers planted 326.3 million acres of 16 principle crops in 2012, the USDA estimates. The total premium paid for government subsidized crops was $11.06 billion in 2012 compared with $11.97 billion a year earlier.
Pratt & Whitney to jettison 350 jobs
EAST HARTFORD, Conn. - Jet-engine maker Pratt & Whitney said it’s cutting 350 salaried workers, with about 200 of those in Connecticut.
The subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. said Tuesday that it’s responding to “business and economic conditions.” The company, based in East Hartford, Conn., said the cuts are necessary to remain competitive.
Pratt & Whitney announced in December that it would lay off 80 hourly employees and eliminate 20 other jobs through buyouts.
The company employs about 36,000 workers worldwide.
Company President David Hess said in May that sales are expected to double, to $24 billion, by the end of the decade. But he said Pratt & Whitney must navigate a few transitional years of high fuel costs and a weak economic recovery that are pressuring airline customers.
Rates mixed at Treasury-bill auction
WASHINGTON - Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were mixed in Monday’s auction with rates on three-month bills rising to the highest level in three weeks while rates on six-month bills were unchanged.
The Treasury Department auctioned $28 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.075 percent, up from 0.065 percent last week. Another $32 billion in sixmonth bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 0.105 percent, the same as last week.
The three-month rate was the highest since those bills averaged 0.085 percent on Dec. 26.
The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,994.69, while a six-month bill sold for $9,998.10. That would equal an annualized rate of 0.107 percent for the three-month bills and 0.076 percent for the six-month bills.
Separately, the Federal Reserve said Monday that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable-rate mortgages, edged down to 0.14 percent last week from 0.15 percent the previous week.
U.K. court rejects Bud-brand appeal
PRAGUE - A British court has rejected for good brewery Anheuser-Busch’s request to block rival Budvar from selling its beer under the Budweiser trademark in the country, the latest ruling in a long legal battle over the brand name.
Britain’s Supreme Court confirmed Tuesday that it rejected on Jan. 8 a request by Anheuser-Busch to overturn a ruling by the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal had said Budejovicky Budvar NP should keep the right to the name.
The ruling means that unlike other markets, Anheuser-Busch and Budvar can both continue to use the Budweiser trademark in Britain. Both brewers were granted the right to use it in 2000.
Budvar, a state-owned Czech company, said Tuesday that Anheuser-Busch, which is owned by Belgium’s AB Inbev, cannot appeal the latest verdict.
Conoco selling oil acres for $1 billion
HOUSTON - ConocoPhillips is selling some properties in North Dakota and Montana to a subsidiary of Denbury Resources Inc. for $1.05 billion.
The oil and natural-gas company said Tuesday that the Cedar Creek Anticline properties span about 86,000 net acres in southwestern North Dakota and eastern Montana. Net production from the properties averaged 13,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day through November.
The sale doesn’t include any of ConocoPhillips’ Bakken Formation assets. The company owns 626,000 net acres there.
Denbury, based in Plano, Texas, said it plans to pay for the transaction with part of the approximately $1.3 billion in cash it received from the first phase of its deal to sell its holdings in the Bakken oil field to Exxon Mobil Corp. The first phase of the sale closed in December.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter.
Shares of ConocoPhillips rose 22 cents to $58.69 in midday trading while Denbury Resources shares gained 56 cents, or 3.3 percent, to $17.44.
Business, Pages 24 on 01/16/2013