Activity at LR's port
rises a bit in January
The Port of Little Rock worked 41 barges and handled 63,000 tons of cargo in January, according to Bryan Day, the port executive director.
The activity represented a slight increase over the same month in 2019 when the port worked 39 barges and handled 58,000 tons of cargo. Twenty-nine barges were worked at the port's slack-water harbor while the other 12 were worked at the port's Arkansas River terminal.
While the port got off to a "good start" in 2020, Day said in a memo to the Little Rock Port Authority board that he expects activity to slow this month.
Meanwhile, activity on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, of which the Little Rock port is a part, fell 12% last month compared with January a year ago.
A total of 751,768 tons of cargo went through the system in January, or nearly 100,000 tons fewer than the 850,571 tons the system carried in January 2019, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Corps operates and maintains the 445-mile system with 18 locks and dams that runs on the Arkansas River between its confluence with the Mississippi and White Rivers in southeast Arkansas and near Tulsa.
-- Noel Oman
Passenger trips up
at LR, NW airports
Passenger traffic at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field rose 3.3% in January compared with the same month in 2019, the latest data showed.
A total of 158,475 passengers went through the state's largest airport last month, or 5,065 more than the 153,410 passengers in January a year ago, according to data provided by the airport.
Northwest Arkansas National Airport at Highfill, the state's second-largest commercial service airport, had 135,708 passengers in January, an 18.9% increase over the 113,891 passengers in the same month in 2019, according to statistics posted on the airport's website.
-- Noel Oman
3.8% gain at Uniti
leads index up 2.33
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, closed Tuesday at 451.10, up 2.33.
"The major U.S stock market indexes finished mostly lower on Tuesday after tech giant Apple highlighted the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on global supply chains, pushing the stock 6% lower on the day," said Chris Harkins, managing director at Raymond James & Associates in Little Rock.
Shares of Uniti Group Inc. rose 3.8% to lead the index Tuesday. Walmart shares rose 1.5%. Shares of Dillard's Inc. fell 2.9%.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 02/19/2020