Business news in brief

Steel merger to bear 85 Fort Smith jobs

FILE- In this March 9, 2016, file photo, a bottle of maple syrup are displayed at the Merrifield Farm and Sugar Shack in Gorham, Maine. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reconsidering its plan to label pure maple syrup and honey as containing added sugars. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
FILE- In this March 9, 2016, file photo, a bottle of maple syrup are displayed at the Merrifield Farm and Sugar Shack in Gorham, Maine. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reconsidering its plan to label pure maple syrup and honey as containing added sugars. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

A new company, the result of a recent merger, is basing its manufacturing headquarters in Fort Smith, providing 85 new jobs to the area.

Midwest Automation Custom Fabrication Inc. is the result of the merger of Fort Smith steel-maker Custom Fabrication and Engineering and Midwest Automation of Arkoma, Okla. The combined company will employ 120 workers in total and will invest $1.6 million in the expansion and renovation of the former Custom Fabrication and Engineering's location on Wheeler Avenue.

The new entity is an integrated fabrication company making and installing structural steel for commercial and industrial uses, according to a Wednesday release.

Midwest Automation Custom Fabrication Inc. received the Create Rebate incentive, which provides annual cash payments based on a company's annual payroll for new, full-time, permanent employees and the Tax Back incentive, which provides sales and use tax refunds for the purchases of building materials and some machinery and equipment, according to an Arkansas Economic Development Commission spokesman.

-- John Magsam

Walmart selling bonds to aid Flipkart buy

Walmart Inc. is selling $16 billion in bonds to help finance its investment in India's biggest online seller. The bond sale would be the second-largest of the year, edging out an offering Bayer AG recently completed.

The retailer is offering fixed- and floating-rate bonds in nine parts. The longest bond, a 30-year security, may yield around 1.05 percentage points above Treasury notes, less than the initial 1.2 percentage points that was being pitched earlier in the day, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the details are private.

Walmart, the world's largest retailer, said last month that it will acquire a 77 percent stake in Flipkart Group for $16 billion, leaving the remainder to Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal and other shareholders. The deal -- Walmart's largest ever -- gives it greater access to India's fast-growing e-commerce market as the company tries to challenge Amazon.com Inc. Walmart acquired e-retailer Jet.com Inc. for about $3.3 billion in 2016.

-- Bloomberg News

Volvo's S.C. plant opens as tariffs loom

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Volvo Cars opened its first plant in the U.S. on Wednesday in a much different trade environment from when it announced its expansion across the Atlantic three years ago.

The Swedish automaker threw a glitzy party for the reveal of its redesigned S60 sedan, which will roll off a South Carolina assembly line this fall. All the cars will run on hybrid electric power, with no diesel engine options.

But looming over the celebration is President Donald Trump's aggressive trade policy, with threats of tariffs that could disrupt the global car market. Trump was elected in 2016, a year after Volvo announced its $1.1 billion investment in Ridgeville, about 25 miles inland from the busy port in Charleston. Foreign automakers are one of Trump's favorite targets for extra charges on imports.

Volvo called up more than a dozen of its nearly 1,500 employees at the plant to share their stories at the ceremony.

-- The Associated Press

China step floods global solar market

Solar panels were already getting cheaper this year, and then China pulled the plug this month on about 20 gigawatts of domestic installations. The result was a glut of global inventories, and now prices are plunging even faster.

China, the world's biggest solar market, on June 1 slammed the brakes on new projects that would have had as much capacity as about 20 nuclear power plants. With a global panel glut, it's a buyer's market and developers in other countries are delaying purchases, holding out for even lower prices.

The average price for a polysilicon module slumped 4.79 percent since May 30, reaching a record low of 27.8 cents a watt Wednesday, according to PVInsights. That's on track to be the biggest monthly decline since December 2016, the last time the industry was facing a global oversupply. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world's solar components.

-- Bloomberg News

FDA to review labeling for maple syrup

MONTPELIER, Vt. -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reconsidering its plan to require that pure maple syrup and honey be labeled as containing added sugars.

Maple-syrup producers had rallied against the plan, saying the nutrition label updates were misleading, illogical and confusing and could hurt their industries.

No sugar is added to pure maple syrup or honey. However, the FDA's update would have defined maple syrup as an added sugar, both when used as a sweetener in the processing of other foods and as a stand-alone product.

The agency's goal was to update the Nutrition Facts label on products to educate consumers about the amount of added sugars in foods based on government dietary guidelines that recommend no more than 10 percent of daily calories come from added sugars.

After receiving more than 3,000 comments on its draft plan, the FDA acknowledged that the labeling was confusing and that it would now come up with a revised approach for maple syrup and honey.

-- The Associated Press

Deutsche Bank fined for rigging currency

NEW YORK -- New York regulators are levying a $205 million fine on Deutsche Bank, after allegations that traders at Deutsche manipulated the foreign-exchange market for years.

Deutsche Bank is the latest Wall Street firm to face penalties for manipulating the $5.3 trillion currency market. Banks such as Barclays, Citigroup and several others have paid hundreds of millions of dollars in fines since the scandal broke several years ago.

The New York Department of Financial Services said that from 2007 to 2013 Deutsche Bank traders used chat rooms and shared customer information in order to manipulate currencies before they closed each day.

-- The Associated Press

Business on 06/21/2018

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