Startup wins most cash in UA history
Lapovations, a medical device company, became the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville startup to accumulate the most competition winnings, after it took home $1,500 for its elevator pitch at the University of Oregon New Venture Championship competition.
To date the Fayetteville-based company has seen cash and investment winnings of just over $300,000, according to a news release Tuesday. The New Venture Championship was held late last month.
Lapovations is developing a noninvasive alternative for lifting the abdominal wall in laparoscopic surgeries. Lapovations' chief executive officer, Jared Greer, a master's student with the Department of Biomedical Engineering, along with fellow students and company executives Flavia Araujo and Michael Dunavant, competed on behalf of the company.
Lapovations placed well in the Arkansas Governor's Cup last month, winning the graduate division and $25,000. Lapovations' faculty adviser is Carol Reeves, associate vice chancellor for entrepreneurship.
-- John Magsam
Ford's sedan output plunges in Mexico
MEXICO CITY -- Ford Motor Co.'s output in Mexico is tumbling as the company prepares to exit the sedan business in the U.S.
Production at Ford's Mexican factories plunged 31 percent last month to the lowest for any April since at least 2009, according to data compiled by a trade group of automakers. Ford's exports from Mexico, most of which go to the U.S., sank 36 percent.
The downturn underscores Ford's strategic shift in the U.S., where the company will refocus around lucrative trucks and sport utility vehicles while abandoning money-losing sedans. Two of the three models that Ford makes in Mexico, the Fiesta subcompact and Fusion family car, are marked for death in the U.S. The third, the Lincoln MKZ, shares the mechanical underpinnings of the Fusion and is built on the same assembly line, which leaves its future in doubt.
"We are constantly adjusting production to the demands of the North American market, with the goal of reducing inventory," Ford said in an emailed statement. The company's production fell 18 percent in the first four months of the year compared with the same period a year earlier.
In Mexico, Ford's auto sales grew 5.2 percent last month, according to an association of auto dealers. The Dearborn, Mich.-based carmaker has been consistently losing ground to Kia Motors Corp. and other Asian rivals that have been coaxing Mexican buyers away from U.S. brands.
-- Bloomberg News
U.S. natural-gas inventories climbing
VILLANOVA, Pa. -- U.S. stockpiles of natural gas have expanded by the most seasonally in three years as mild spring weather curbed demand.
Inventories climbed by 90 billion cubic feet last week, based on the median of 10 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. All but one predicted the gain would exceed the five-year average of 75 billion for the period.
Though stored gas supplies are 28 percent below normal for the time of year after a frigid April increased consumption of the heating fuel, production from shale basins has surged to a record. Traders and analysts are keeping a close eye on weekly changes in storage as a sign of whether output will overwhelm demand and send prices plunging, even as the U.S. exports more gas to Mexico and overseas buyers.
"The make-or-break point in the market is going to occur within the next two reports," said Stephen Schork, president of Schork Group Inc., a consulting company in Villanova, Pa.
Gas inventories totaled 1.343 trillion cubic feet on April 27. The U.S. Energy Information Administration's weekly storage report is due Thursday in Washington.
-- Bloomberg News
Canadian agency to tap maple reserves
LONGUEUIL, Quebec -- The OPEC of maple syrup has a plan to cover this year's shortfall of the sticky breakfast staple.
Output of maple syrup in Quebec, the largest global producer, is poised to fall as much as 27 percent to 110 million pounds, according to the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers -- a government-sanctioned sales agency that sets bulk prices for about 72 percent of the world's syrup and limits farmer output through quotas. Production was hurt after below-average daytime temperatures resulted in less sap flowing from the province's trees.
The good news is nobody's waffles will go bare, thanks to the agency's strategic reserve, which warehouses more than 96 million pounds of extra syrup in case of such a crisis.
"With the strategic reserve of syrup, nobody will miss maple syrup from Quebec," spokesman Helene Normandin said in an emailed statement. "This year the cold weather caused this situation."
The reserve, which was the scene of a notorious monthslong heist that ended in 2012, hasn't been tapped to offset production shortfalls since 2015. Quebec has recently moved to increase quotas and boost output of maple syrup as U.S. producers are increasing their share of the world market.
-- Bloomberg News
Bag fees boost airlines' profit to $15.5B
WASHINGTON -- The good times for the nation's airlines continued last year, with the country's largest carriers reporting a combined profit of $15.5 billion, including $4.6 billion from baggage fees.
The 23 largest airlines reported a combined after-tax profit for the fifth consecutive year, representing a strong rebound from nearly a decade of losses following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the recession that followed, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
The airline industry enjoyed the biggest year on record in 2015 when low fuel costs helped airlines collect a record of nearly $25 billion in profits, the bureau said.
The airline industry played down the profit increase in 2017, crediting it partly to the tax overhaul legislation adopted by federal lawmakers last year. Airline representatives noted that fuel and labor costs increased last year by more than $7 billion, compared with 2016.
-- Los Angeles Times
Business on 05/09/2018