TRENTON, N.J. >> Reversing a long-term trend, prices for more than 1 in4 generic medicines widely used by older Americans increased in 2013, some very sharply, according to a survey by AARP.

Generic drug prices on average are still falling, but the increases for certain classes of drugs may be a sign of more to come, the advocacy group says, because industry consolidation is reducing competition, manufacturing quality problems are causing shortages and the number of blockbuster brand-name medicines going off patent has fallen since a huge surge a few years ago.

"This is the beginning of a shift," Leigh Purvis, director of health services research in AARP’s Public Policy Institute, told The Associated Press.

Isle stevedores get contract after a year of negotiations

Hawaii stevedores have a new union contract after 12 months of negotiations, the union said Wednesday.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142, Hawaii Longshore Division, reached an agreement on terms with several stevedoring companies, including Hawaii Stevedores Inc., Horizon Lines LLC, Matson Terminals Inc. and McCabe, Hamilton & Renny Co. Ltd., who were represented in negotiations by the Hawaii Employers Council.

The ILWU Local 142 Longshore Unit voted to ratify the contract on Friday.

Contract talks began on May 13, 2014. The previous contract expired on June 30, 2014, but was extended during the talks on a new contract. The new pact will remain in effect until June 30, 2019. Terms of the deal were not released.

Co-founder of L&L eateries will head Chinese Chamber

Eddie Flores Jr., president and chief executive officer of L&L Franchise Inc., will be the new head of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii.

He will be installed as president at the 104th Chinese Chamber installation banquet on May 28 at Empress Restaurant.

Flores, who grew up in Hong Kong and moved to Hawaii at age 16, is the founder of L&L Hawaiian Barbecue, a business he started with partner Johnson Kam in 1976. The restaurant has nearly 200 locations throughout the United States, China, New Zealand, Japan, Guam and Indonesia with new outlets opening in Malaysia and the Philippines later this year.

The Chamber has worked with the state in promoting investment missions to Taiwan, Hong Kong and China for more than a century. Flores will be leading a trade and cultural tour to Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Suzhou and Wuzhen.

Slow spending drags down Philippines’ economic growth

MANILA >> Sluggish government spending slowed Philippine economic growth in the first quarter of this year, officials said Thursday.

The country’s gross domestic product grew by 5.2 percent in the first quarter, down from 5.6 percent a year earlier and 6.6 percent in the last quarter of 2014.

Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the slow pace of public spending, particularly in construction, resulted in growth that was lower than government and market expectations.

Balisacan said the economy is expected to expand faster in the coming months as public spending picks up.

Decades of corruption in government, and vulnerability to natural disasters such as typhoons, have meant the Philippines lagged other Southeast Asian nations such as Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore in economic development. But a push to reduce poverty and improve infrastructure by the government of President Benigno Aquino III has resulted in higher annual growth rates in the past half-decade.

Ford starts car-sharing service for part-time drivers in London

Ford Motor Co. will start offering London- ers a network of cars to share, rather than buy, in an effort to tap the growing market for on-demand driving.

The automaker’s GoDrive offers one-way rides with guaranteed parking. Ford, the U.K.’s best-selling car brand last year, said Tuesday it’s expanding beyond a pilot phase to 50 vehicles in 20 London locations.

"People are becoming increasingly open to new means of mobility," Ken Washington, vice president of research and advanced en- gineering, said in a statement. "Car sharing is proving to be an appealing model."

Manufacturers including BMW AG and Daimler AG have been building city-based sharing programs that offer rentals by the minute for drivers who want to drive a car occasionally without owning one. Their numbers are growing: Car sharing may be as much as a $6.1 billion a year industry by 2020, according to a December study by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants GmbH.

Fuel tank, steering problems force recall of Ford models

Ford has two new recalls involving 423,000 vehicles in North America with po- tential steering problems and 19,500 Mus- tangs with fuel tank issues.

The first recall covers some 2011-2013 models of the Ford Taurus and Flex vehicles, Lincoln MKS and MKT as well as 2011-2012 Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ sedans and the 2011 Mercury Milan, the automaker said. An electrical connection in the steering gear of these models could result in the loss of electric powering, which leaves the car with manual steering that is tougher to steer.

The recall involves 393,622 vehicles in the United States; 25,195 in Canada and 3,997 in Mexico. There have been four minor acci- dents with no injuries related to the problem.

Dealers will either update software for the power steering control module or re- place the steering gear.

The second recall is for the 2015 Ford Mustang with a 2.3-liter engine. If the under- body is too hot for too long, the fuel tank and vapor lines can degrade, which could result in a fuel leak and cause a fire. The parking brake cable seals could also be damaged.

There are 19,095 vehicles in the United States and 391 in Canada affected. Dealers will replace the fuel tank shield with one with better insulation, install thermal patches on the fuel tank and parking brake cable, and put thermal wraps on the fuel va- por lines.

Automakers ahead of schedule for 2020 fuel economy targets

The auto industry is making significant strides toward increasing fuel efficiency and is ahead of schedule in meeting strict federal fuel economy goals, according to a new analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Already, 10 percent of the new passenger cars and trucks on the market today meet their federal targets for 2020 and the indus- try still has much room to apply state-of- the-art fuel efficiency technology to the remaining fleet, UCS said.

"The efficiency and emissions standards are working — all you have to do is look at cars and trucks that are on the road," said Dave Cooke, vehicles analyst at UCS. "Au- tomakers are meeting the challenge of mak- ing cleaner cars, and Americans are buying those cars."

Automakers must produce fleets that have a so-called Corporate Average Fuel Economy of about 42 miles per gallon by 2020 and 54.5 mpg by 2025. But those num- bers are compiled by mandated tests that overstate real life fuel economy and the win- dow stickers placed on new cars.

The 2020 target is closer to 32 mpg and the 2025 is about 37 mpg, Cooke said. Vehi- cles that already meet or exceed those num- bers include variants of nearly 100 different models, including some top sellers.

The group includes Ford’s hulking F-150 pickup truck when equipped with a 2.7 liter, turbocharged V-6 engine. The "EcoDiesel" version of the Ram 1500 pickup truck also meets the 2020 fuel standard. Other ver- sions of top sellers meeting the standard in- clude the four-wheel-drive Honda CR-V, the Toyota Corolla LE ECO, the Honda Civic HF and Ford’s Fusion Hybrid and Fusion Energi plug-in hybrid.

Detroit goes after Silicon Valley to be leader in driverless cars

Detroit put the world on wheels and should be the place that takes the driver out of the driver’s seat, according to a coalition of Michigan business leaders and politicians.

The MICHauto group unveiled an initia- tive Wednesday to promote Detroit and Michigan for development of a new genera- tion of mobility, including self-driving cars. The coalition includes Ford Motor Co. Exec- utive Chairman Bill Ford and General Mo- tors Co. Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra.

"If you look at Europe, a lot of people look toward Germany as the place to make things," Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said in an interview. "I want Michigan to be viewed as the Germany of the United States, as the place to make things."

The effort is a response to Silicon Valley’s growing automotive influence as companies such as Google Inc. and Apple Inc. develop driverless vehicles alongside electric-car maker Tesla Motors Inc. Michigan led the U.S. last year in connected-auto projects with 45, to California’s 31, the group said.

"Detroit and Michigan are in the crosshairs of some very talented innovators in places like Silicon Valley," Doug Rothwell, president of Business Leaders for Michigan, a roundtable of top executives, said in a statement. "Michigan has to work quickly and cohesively to maximize our existing au- tomotive resources in next-generation mo- bility." —— Star-Advertiser staff and news services

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