News Briefs - March 2
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LI>Horizon Lines Files for Initial Public Offering
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LI>U.S. Bank Buys Aviation, Trucking Card-Services Firm
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Horizon Lines Files for Initial Public Offering
Container-shipping firm Horizon Lines Inc. said Wednesday it filed a proposed initial public offering statement with Securities and Exchange Commission. Horizon, which also has logistics operations, said it will use $131.5 million of the proceeds from the IPO to redeem preferred stock and to pay a special dividend, the Associated Press reported. For the 12 months ended Dec. 26, Horizon reported net income of $6.8 million and operating revenue of $980.3 million. Horizon Lines, based in Charlotte, N.C., has a fleet of 16 vessels and about 22,000 cargo containers. Transport TopicsHR>
January Air Cargo Shipments Rise 6.7%
Total air cargo shipments rose 6.7% in January compared with a year earlier, the Air Transport Association reported Wednesday. Domestic shipments dropped 0.4%, while international shipments rose 14.7%, the trade group said in its monthly report. Air cargo shipments always have a trucking component, since air carriers use trucks for local and regional ground transportation. Overall January cargo shipments increased to 1.95 billion revenue ton-miles. A revenue ton-mile is the revenue generated by carrying one ton of freight one mile. Transport TopicsHR>
U.S. Bank Buys Aviation, Trucking Card-Services Firm
U.S. Bank said late Monday it had agreed to purchase the aviation business of Multi Service, a provider of aviation and trucking credit card services. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. About 100 Multi Service staff members will become employees of U.S. Bank as part of the acquisition, U.S. Bank said in a statement. “We are excited to expand our commercial payment solutions into the aviation space,” said Robert Abele, executive vice president for U.S. Bank Corporate Payment Systems. U.S. Bank is a unit of U.S. Bancorp, the sixth-largest financial services holding company in the United States. Transport TopicsHR>
Atlas Van Lines' Revenues Rise 12% in 2004
Atlas World Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mike Shaffer said Wednesday its Atlas Van Lines unit increased its sales by 12%, or $75 million, over the previous year, to $684.9 million. Atlas Van Lines also re-released its sales figures for 2002 and 2003 following a change in reporting method, the company said in a statement. The unit’s 2003 revenue was $614 million and 2002 revenue was $609.6 million. Atlas World Group posted record revenue of $869 million last year. It is ranked No. 34 on the Transport Topics 100 listing of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers. Transport TopicsHR>
Greenspan Optimistic, but Cautious on Economy
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Wednesday that "the U.S. economy delivered a solid performance in 2004, and thus far this year, activity appears to be expanding at a reasonably good pace." But “the positive short-term economic outlook is playing out against a backdrop of concern about the prospects for the federal budget, especially over the longer run,” the Fed chairman said in his prepared testimony before the House Budget Committee in Washington. Greenspan testified on a variety of economic subjects, including President Bush's Social Security plan. Transport TopicsHR>
February Job Cuts Rise, Challenger Report Says
The number of announced U.S. job cuts rose 17% to 108,387 in February from January, an industry report said Wednesday. Increased cuts and higher unemployment can be bad signs for the trucking industry because they can affect industrial production and consumer spending, which provide business for truckers. Announced cuts are not the same as layoffs or firings, because some employees are reassigned, other cuts never actually take place and some are done through early retirement and other means. The report, compiled by job-placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., said that telecommunications firms had the most cuts, with 33,270, about three times the total of transportation companies, which cut 12,188 jobs. Transport TopicsHR>
XRG Posts Small Third-Quarter Profit
Truckload holding company XRG Inc. reported net income of $48,000 or less than one cent per share, compared with $244,000 or 22 cents the previous year, for its third quarter ended Dec. 31. The company said it was the first positive net income for a quarter since it made five acquisitions last April. Revenue rose to $12 million for the quarter compared with $908,000 the previous year, mostly a result of the acquisitions, XRG said. “Advancing from a net loss to positive income this quarter validates our strategy to grow aggressively through acquisitions,” XRG Chairman Don Huggins said. Transport TopicsHR>
Sarbanes-Oxley Raises Concerns, Journal Says
New federal accounting rules have led to more than 500 public companies reporting deficiencies with their accounting procedures and controls, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The rules, within the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate accountability law, are costing businesses money and effort to turn up accounting deficiencies that are in many cases minor, the paper said in a front-page story. The Journal reviewed about 50 public filings showing that some of the problems encountered included easily correctable items to some larger problems that could lead to restating past earnings results. Transport Topics (Click here for previous coverage.)HR>
Teamsters Plan Thursday Demonstration at Miami Port
Hundreds of Teamsters union organizers from across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico said they planned to demonstrate Thursday morning to back what they called "exploited" truck drivers at the Port of Miami. Chuck Mack, the union’s port division director, said in a statement drivers were paid too little, “forced to haul unsafe containers on unsafe trailers [and] forced to wait in line for hours.” Last summer about 700 truckers struck the port for two weeks, claiming inadequate pay and working conditions, causing major delays to shippers and carriers. Transport Topics Previous News BriefsH4>
