News Briefs - Nov. 29
The Latest Headlines:
- Pennsylvania Turnpike Toll Collectors Remain on Strike
- Latin America Reluctant to Send More Oil to U.S.
- European Central Bank to Decide on Rates
- Bush to Change Economic Team
- Two Railways Set Chicago Cutback
- Shipping Costs for Commodities Rise to Record for Second Week
- AAR Says Rail, Intermodal Volumes Reach Records
- Segmentz Buys Temple Trucking Inc.
- Latin America Reluctant to Send More Oil to U.S.
Pennsylvania Turnpike Toll Collectors Remain on Strike
Pennsylvania Turnpike Officials said flat rates on the Turnpike remained in place and Turnpike operations were running smoothly during the strike by toll collectors.About 1,800 union employees have been on strike since 4 a.m. Nov. 24, the Turnpike said in a statement. Turnpike officials told Transport Topics it planned to meet with union representatives today. Union members had been working under a contract that expired September 30, 2003.
The Turnpike said that nearly fifty temporary workers had been hired to work as toll collectors in addition to 220 Turnpike management employees.
Latin America Reluctant to Send More Oil to U.S.
Despite vast oil reserves, Venezuela, Mexico and other Latin American producers probably would not provide help to the U.S. during oil-price squeezes, the Wall Street Journal reported today.Latin America produces 13% of the world’s total oil and has the potential to produce more, the newspaper said.
However, increasing output would require money the region’s governments don’t have or the assistance of foreign oil companies, which the Latin American countries don’t welcome, the Journal reported. Transport Topics
European Central Bank to Decide on Rates
The European Central Bank was expected to signal this week that it would raise interest rates, a move that could boost the already-strong euro against the sagging dollar, the Wall Street Journal reported today.The decision would show that Europe’s monetary-policy makers were more concerned about the risk of inflation fueled by high oil prices than about moderating the euro or protecting the sluggish growth of the 12-nation eurozone economy, the Wall Street Journal said.
The newspaper reported that critics of the ECB worried it would be making a bad trade-off raising rates at a time of weak economic demand.
The ECB was scheduled to make its decision at its regular monthly policy meeting on Dec. 2. Transport Topics
Bush to Change Economic Team
President Bush selected Carlos Gutierrez, chief executive officer of breakfast food maker Kellogg Co., to replace Donald Evans as secretary of Commerce, Bloomberg News reported.Evans announced his resignation shortly after the Nov. 2 election. President Bush said Gutierrez was a respected business leader who took his first job for Kellogg as a truck driver in Mexico City, delivering Frosted Flakes to local stores. Twenty-five years after he started, he was running the entire company, Bush said.
White House aides and advisors said Bush planned to overhaul his economic team for the second time in two years and wanted to tap prominent replacements from outside the administration, the Washington Post reported.
Aides said changing four of the five top economic officials, including the Treasury and Commerce secretaries, was part of Bush’s preparation for sending Congress an ambitious second-term domestic agenda, the Post reported. Under those changes, only budget director Joshua Bolten would remain, the Post said. Transport Topics
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Two Railways Set Chicago Cutback
Union Pacific Corp. and Canadian National Railway Co. announced Nov. 24 they would move U.S.-Canada freight shipments to reduce rail congestion at Chicago.The railroads would redirect shipments to lesser-used connections between their systems. UP said in a statement that the change would improve transit times and asset utilization for the customers of UP and CN. The new routing protocol will be implemented over a three-month period, UP said. Transport Topics
Shipping Costs for Commodities Rise to Record for Second Week
Shipping costs for iron ore, coal and other dry-bulk commodities rose to records for a second week amid shipping delays at world ports and surging demand from China for raw materials, Bloomberg News reported.Peter Norfolk, an analyst at Simpson, Spence & Young, a London-based Shipbroker said demand was overwhelming supply.
The Baltic Dry Index, which measures the cost of shipping dry-bulk goods across different ship sizes on global routes, rose 104 points, or 1.7 percent, to a record 5,974 today. The index has surged about 21% this month and 9.7% last week, the biggest weekly gain in more than four months.
Demand for shipping space has surged this year, outpacing fleet growth, as China, the fastest-growing major economy, boosts imports of commodities. That has pushed freight rates to records for both dry-bulk ships and oil tankers, increasing costs for steel mills, power plants and construction companies.Transport Topics
AAR Says Rail, Intermodal Volumes Reach Records
U.S. freight railroads set weekly records for both total freight traffic and intermodal volume in the week ended Nov. 20, the Association of American Railroads said.AAR said intermodal volume totaled 238,961 trailers or containers for the week and that railroads originated 354,122 carloads of freight.
The intermodal figure was 3,085 more than the previous record set the week ended Oct. 30, and rail carloads were 2.5% higher than the same week last year, AAR said.
Railroad volume is considered an important economic indicator. Intermodal traffic, which tends to be higher-valued merchandise than bulk commodities, uses trains for the long haul and trucks for the shorter distance at either end of the trip. Transport Topics
Segmentz Buys Temple Trucking Inc.
Transportation and logistics provider Segmentz Inc. said today it purchased Temple Trucking Inc., a private Indianapolis trucking company for stock and debt assumption.Temple generated more than $6 million in revenue last year and the two companies have been working together since June of this year, Segmentz said. The company said the agreement would increase its presence in the Midwest and give it an entry into the regional expedited market.
The purchase price included of 295,000 shares of Segmentz stock and the assumption of $820,000 in debt Temple owed to Segmentz.
It also included a provision under which Segmentz could be required to pay up to an additional $500,000 in cash or stock to Temple’s former owner the next 3 years, depending on Temple’s performance. Transport Topics
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