LR port celebrates $6.2M dock upgrade
The Little Rock Port Authority is scheduled today to mark the completion of its $6.2 million expansion of the dock at the port's slackwater harbor.
The improvements include a new warehouse and office and a rail spur and special systems that allow cargo to be transferred directly between barges and rail cars.
The authority was awarded a competitive grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation totaling $6,185,000 to pay for the improvements.
Completion of the project will be marked at a special Coffee at the Port at 7:30-8:30 a.m. at the new slackwater harbor dock at 10600 Industrial Harbor Drive. The entrance is near the port's main office. Greg Joslin, the port's board chairman, will speak.
-- Noel Oman
$13M expansion set for Louisiana plant
SAREPTA, La. -- A north Louisiana automotive and industrial plastics plant near the Arkansas border is planning a $13 million expansion, the state and company announced Wednesday.
Continental Structural Plastics will invest $12.1 million and the North Webster Parish Industrial District is contributing $1.2 million, Gov. John Bel Edwards and company chief executive Steve Rooney said in a news release.
"Our Sarepta, La., facility is a model for our organization in terms of safety, our workforce and our efforts to automate our processes," Rooney said. Sarepta is about 34 miles south of Magnolia.
Continental of Auburn Hills, Mich., was acquired in 2017 by Teijin Ltd. of Tokyo.
Officials said the expansion in Sarepta will create 33 jobs with an average annual salary of about $38,000 in a town of 830 where the Census Bureau puts the median household income at about $33,300.
"We welcome the jobs this project will create for our rural workforce in Webster Parish," Edwards said.
Continental will be eligible for a performance-based grant of up to $600,000. It also is expected to get tax credits on the new jobs and to use a program offering up to 80% off property taxes on the new construction for up to 10 years.
About 170 people work at the plant, where car and truck parts are made.
-- The Associated Press
State index edges up, ends at 622.52
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, closed Wednesday at 622.52, up 0.60.
"Equities closed modestly higher led by the industrials and materials sectors following release of minutes from the June Federal Open Market Committee meeting that showed that "further progress was generally seen as not having yet been met," said Leon Lants, managing director at Stephens Inc.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.