Average gasoline price jumps to $2.97
CAMARILLO, Calif. -- The average U.S. price of regular-grade gasoline has spiked 7 cents a gallon over the past two weeks, costing $2.97.
Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg of the Lundberg Survey says that's 41 cents a gallon higher than at this time last year.
Lundberg said Sunday that rising crude-oil prices are the main reason for the increase at the pump.
The highest average price in the contiguous 48 states is $3.82 a gallon in Los Angeles. The lowest average is $2.58 in Houston.
The average price of diesel also rose 7 cents over the past two weeks, to $3.28.
-- The Associated Press
LR port says barge traffic up considerably
Barge traffic at the Port of Little Rock is at "near-record levels," up 42 percent in the first eight months of 2018 compared to the same period last year, according to the latest port data.
Through August, the port's two docks worked 365 barges, which is 109 more than the 256 the port worked at the same point in 2017.
"Year-to-date activity for the Port of Little Rock continues to be at near-record levels and projections are for it continue to be stronger than normal through the end of the year," according to a report from executive director Bryan Day.
The cargo tonnage handled through August also "remained well above the pace in the same period last year," the report said.
Cargo handled at the port totaled 557,000 tons in the first eight months of 2018. At the same point a year ago, the port had handled 386,000 tons, a difference of 44 percent.
In August, the port worked 53 barges and handled 80,000 tons of cargo.
A total of 7,645,241 tons of cargo was transported on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System through the first seven months of 2018, which was a slight increase from the 7,609,115 tons in the same period last year, according to data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
-- Noel Oman
Most of Triple-T in NW Arkansas sold
A good portion of Triple-T Foods Arkansas Inc. in Northwest Arkansas has been acquired by Darling Ingredients, a global firm that turns animal byproducts into gelatin, edible fats and plasma, among other things.
Darling said Friday that it bought "substantially all" of Triple-T Foods, which included a wet-pet-food factory in Springdale and a cold-storage site in Rogers.
The deal closed Friday for an undisclosed cash amount, a Darling spokesman said.
Darling Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Randall Stuewe said in a news release the acquisition will add to its pet-food operations in Nebraska and Kentucky. Aside from pet food, Texas-based Darling makes products from used oils and animal fats for the pharmaceutical, food and energy industries.
"Triple-T has established a long history of providing quality proteins into the high-end pet food markets, and we look forward to building upon that reputation," Stuewe said.
The Arkansas operations are not to be confused with the Kansas-based company of the same name. Springdale General Manager Mark Hayes said the Arkansas assets split from that Triple-T years ago.
-- Nathan Owens
Oil-tanker surge pushes rates higher
The oil-tanker market is surging amid signs that impending U.S. sanctions against Iran are prompting rival producers in the Middle East to ramp up shipments.
Rates to haul 2 million-barrel cargoes to Asia jumped to $40,275 in the week that ended Friday, more than doubling from late September, according to data from Clarkson Research Services Ltd., a unit of the world's biggest ship broker. Asia is sourcing more crude from the U.S. and West Africa, increasing the length of journeys, according to researcher Petromatrix GmbH.
The Persian Gulf is by far the world's biggest crude-exporting region and is home to rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran. Saudi Arabia is already pumping enough to make up for the loss in Iranian supply due to U.S. sanctions and can produce more if needed, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman said in an interview last week.
A total of 78 supertankers were booked on the Middle East spot market in the first week of October, compared with 136 in all of September, according to data from ship broker Galbraith's Ltd.
-- Bloomberg News
Google exits Pentagon cloud bidding
Alphabet Inc.'s Google has decided not to compete for the Pentagon's cloud-computing contract valued at as much as $10 billion, saying the project may conflict with its corporate values.
The project, known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud, or JEDI, involves transitioning massive amounts of Defense Department data to a commercially operated cloud system. Companies are due to submit bids for the contract, which could last as long as 10 years, on Friday.
Google's announcement on Monday came just months after the company decided not to renew its contract with a Pentagon artificial-intelligence program, after extensive protests from employees of the Internet giant about working with the military.
The JEDI contract attracted widespread interest from technology companies struggling to catch up with Amazon in the burgeoning federal government market for cloud services. Final requirements for the project were released in July after a monthslong lobbying campaign in Washington by tech companies including Microsoft, International Business Machines Corp. and Oracle Corp. that opposed the Pentagon's plans to choose just one winner for the project instead of splitting the contract among a number of providers.
-- Bloomberg News
GE unit to sell $1B in equity investments
General Electric Co. agreed to sell about $1 billion of equity investments to Apollo Global Management as the manufacturer extends a push to slim down and shed finance assets after a surprise CEO change.
The portfolio includes about 20 investments in renewable energy and other U.S. power assets held by the energy financial services unit of GE Capital, the companies said Monday in a joint statement. Financial details of the transaction, including the purchase price, weren't disclosed.
The deal underscores GE's efforts to rein in its once-vast finance business and narrow its focus on manufacturing industrial equipment. The Boston-based company, which tapped Larry Culp last week to replace Chief Executive Officer John Flannery, hopes reducing complexity will help it recover from a slump that has wiped out about $100 billion in investor wealth over the past year.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 10/09/2018