BUSINESS BRIEFS
Young Brothers rate increase OK'd
Advertiser Staff and News Services
The Public Utilities Commission yesterday approved Young Brothers Ltd.'s application for a 5.5 percent increase in its interisland shipping rates.
The increase, effective today, will help cover the cost of placing two new barges into service this year, as well as rising labor costs, the company said.
The increase does not reflect the rising cost of fuel, which is covered in the company's separate fuel price adjustment.
Young Brothers applied for the rate increase on June 17.
The company said the rate hike translates into an increase of about $4 to ship 2,000 pounds of cabbage via refrigerated pallet, about $5 to ship 2,000 pounds of frozen chicken, and about $2 to ship a 60-cubic-foot pallet of soft drinks.
TESORO WORKING TOWARD PROFIT
Tesoro Corp. said it hopes to swing from a loss to a profit at its Hawai'i refinery in the current quarter given improvements it has been making to its Campbell Industrial Park operation.
The company's executives told analysts and investors in a conference call they've been pleased with progress at the refinery, which had a negative gross refining margin during the second quarter. Tesoro has been working on profitability initiatives at the refinery, which is the only one of its seven refineries that lost money on a gross refining margin basis during the quarter.
"But that certainly looks like we may have passed the point where, at least where we've been losing money, where we have a good chance of making money now in the third quarter," Tesoro Chief Executive Officer Bruce Smith said during the call.
HAWAII PACIFIC'S OUTLOOK IMPROVES
The outlook for Hawaii Pacific Health, Hawai'i's largest private hospital operator, has been raised to "positive" from "stable" by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services. The credit ratings agency also affirmed its "BBB+" rating on Hawaii Pacific's long-term and underlying rating on Hawaii Pacific's about $256.4 million of debt.
The ratings agency said the revision reflects a significant improvement in the health system's operating results and improved balance sheet. It said management initiatives have returned Hawaii Pacific to profitability from a loss in its fiscal 2006 financial year.
AGENCIES TO DISCUSS FOOD SAFETY
Results of a Hawai'i food safety project will be discussed at a conference next month in Las Vegas.
A case study of the state's produce traceability study funded by the Economic Development Alliance of Hawaii and administered by the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation will be presented at the RFID World 2008 conference during a workshop titled "Food Traceability: Securing the Food Supply Chain."
RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification, a system that uses tags to track and log other information on items.
"Hawai'i's recent and extensive produce traceability pilot project provides invaluable insights into the viability of RFID technology to dramatically improve food supply chain safety," said John Ryan of the Hawai'i Department of Agriculture in a press statement.
JAPANESE CELL PHONES GET ISLE SERVICE
Customers of NTT Docomo, Japan's largest mobile-phone operator, now have 3G voice and data-roaming services in the main populated areas of all islands.
The firm said it and AT&T Inc. had extended a 3G, or third-generation, mobile network here, allowing use of Docomo handsets compatible with international roaming services in Hawai'i.
