News Briefs - Dec. 19
The Latest Headlines:
- Navistar Closes Bond Sale
- Mullen Acquires Two Oil Drilling Companies
- Volvo Says Truck Deliveries Fell in November
- Initial Jobless Claims Dropped by 11,000 Last Week
- Mullen Acquires Two Oil Drilling Companies
Navistar Closes Bond Sale
Truck maker Navistar International Corp. said Wednesday that it has closed on $190 million in convertible bonds sold in a private placement.The placement was consistent with financing plans for 2003 that the company announced on Oct. 29 and again in a Dec. 3 conference call.
The net proceeds from the sale of the bonds will go toward paying down existing debt, including $100 million in senior bonds that mature in February 2003. Transport Topics
Mullen Acquires Two Oil Drilling Companies
Mullen Transportation Inc. said Wednesday that it has purchased two drilling companies that provide service in western Canada.The purchases of OK Drilling group and Anderson Drilling group are in addition to several acquisitions that the Canadian transportation and oilfield service firm made in October (Click here for related coverage.).
Mullen said it will pay about $15 million for both companies. Transport Topics
Volvo Says Truck Deliveries Fell in November
Volvo AB, the world’s No. 2 manufacturer of heavy-duty trucks, said that global deliveries of trucks fell 7%, mostly on fewer purchases by North American customers, Bloomberg reported.Volvo said it had expected sales in North America to fall because of falling demand after new environmental standards went into effect in the United States, Bloomberg reported.
For the first 11 months of the year, overall sales rose 10% in North America, Volvo said, to 34,809 trucks. Analysts attributed this increase to truckers pre-buying trucks ahead of those new environmental standards, that went into effect in October, Bloomberg said. Transport Topics
Initial Jobless Claims Dropped by 11,000 Last Week
The number of U.S. workers filing for unemployment benefits for the first time fell by 11,000 to 433,000 in the week ended Dec. 14, the Labor Department reported Thursday.Employment data can have an impact on consumer spending habits and that can effect the trucking industry.
The four-week moving average, a statistical device used to level off week-to-week changes in the report, rose to 400,750 from the 388,000 Labor reported last week.
Analysts told Bloomberg that while companies are slowing their firings, they have not yet begun to resume hiring new employees, thus keeping the job market soft. Transport Topics
