BUSINESS BRIEFS
Hawaiian Air flights 84 percent full
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Hawaiian Airlines said its planes were 84 percent full in January.
The state's largest airline said today that its load factor for January 2007 was down 3.5 percentage points from the year-earlier's 87.5 percent.
Hawaiian said it served a total of 546,164 passengers last month — up 12.2 percent from 486,634 in January 2006.
SAMSUNG TO PAY $90 MILLION
Hawai'i and 40 other states have reached a $90 million settlement with Samsung Semiconductor resolving allegations that Samsung and other manufacturers fixed prices of dynamic random access memory computer chips.
While Samsung did not admit that it violated the law, it did agree to make the payment, refrain from anti-competitive behavior and implement an antitrust compliance program.
HOKU EXPANDS SUPPLY DEAL
Hoku Scientific Inc. today said it expanded a prior supply agreement with Solar-Fabrik AG, a German maker of solar power products.
The companies have increased the total amount of their planned contract to about $175 million, and extended a deadline to finalize a polysilicon supply agreement. The supply deal was originally expected to generate $120 million to $140 million in sales for Hoku over several years, starting in roughly two years.
Hoku plans to make the polysilicon chunks at a new facility it is planning in Idaho.
GENETIC CROP REVIEWS LACKING
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal court has ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to conduct more detailed reviews of applications to plant experimental plots of genetically engineered crops.
District Judge Henry Kennedy in Washington, D.C., said the department should have more thoroughly reviewed an application by The Scotts Co. to plant more than 400 acres of grass in Oregon that was genetically engineered to withstand a popular weed killer.
