BUSINESS BRIEFS
Tesoro to process less crude oil
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Tesoro Corp., the San Antonio refiner that operates Hawai'i's largest refinery, is forecasting it will process less crude oil at its Campbell Industrial Park facility during the fourth quarter than it did a year earlier.
Tesoro anticipates throughput at its Hawai'i operation will be 60,000 to 70,000 barrels a day during the October-to-December quarter, the company said yesterday on a conference call with investors and analysts.
If the projection holds, throughput would be lower than the 74,000 barrel throughput Tesoro averaged in Hawai'i during the 2007 fourth quarter. During the most recent quarter, the local refinery's throughput fell as sales of gasoline, jet fuel and other petroleum products slipped.
BUILDERS BREAK GROUND ON CENTER
The Building Industry Association of Hawai'i and the Hawai'i Building Industry Foundation yesterday commemorated the construction of a new building for the Construction Training Center of the Pacific at a facility groundbreaking in Waipahu.
The center, which helps educate and provide training for construction workers, will encompass a two-story, 15,700-square foot building. The program also provides continuing education for existing construction workers as well as reaching out to women, youth, minorities and women who want careers in the building industry.
PUNAHOU, PHASE 2 SAVE ON ENERGY
IBM said Punahou School and Phase 2 International, a Honolulu-based technology company, will be able to lower energy costs because of recent installations of its computer server and software.
IBM said Punahou has replaced its legacy servers with low-power System X3850 M2 servers and VMWare software as part of a program to lower its overall campus energy consumption by 25 percent by 2010.
Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM said Phase 2 could lower its energy costs by more than 65 percent in switching to similar servers and software. The change from Dell servers should also provide the company with more capacity to support clients in the same amount of space.
WALGREEN TO CUT COSTS, SLOW GROWTH
Walgreen Co., the drug store company that wants to open 25 to 30 stores in Hawai'i, said it wants to cut $1 billion of costs by fiscal 2011 and that it will slow store growth.
The company did not say whether the slower store growth would pertain to Hawai'i. It entered the local market in November 2007 with a store in Honolulu and is building sites in Kane'ohe and Kalihi.
Walgreen said going slower on store openings nationally would allow it more time to develop its management ranks and free up money to invest in its core business.
EXPEDIA NET INCOME FALLS 4.8%
Expedia Inc., the world's largest online travel agency, reported third-quarter net income fell by 4.8 percent as airline revenue and sales of vacation packages to Las Vegas and Hawai'i declined.
The company said profit slipped to $94.8 million, from $99.6 million a year earlier. It said the travel package business fell 5 percent.
Bloomberg News reported Expedia expects airfares to increase in 2009, the first time the industry has seen higher ticket prices during a recession.
