News Briefs - Sept. 6
The Latest Headlines:
- CF Gets OK to Pay Back Wages, Complete Shipments
- Gasoline Price Falls in Texas, Rises in California
- Daimler Seen Buying 40% of Mitsubishi Truck Unit
- Crude Oil Price Rises to 11-Month High
- Paccar to Idle 300 Workers in Wash.
- Economist Sees Strong Rebound for Manufacturing
- Rail Intermodal Loads Up 8.3% in Week-to-Week Match-Up
- Gasoline Price Falls in Texas, Rises in California
CF Gets OK to Pay Back Wages, Complete Shipments
onsolidated Freightways said Friday it has received bankruptcy court approval for financing that will allow it to reopen certain terminals and bring back drivers and other employees as necessary to expedite customer shipments remaining in the CF system.
The $225 million debtor-in-possession financing line will come from General Electric Capital Corporation, the press release said.
On Thursday, the court gave CF permission to pay wages earned before the company filed for Chapter 11 protection Monday.
The CF press release said the checks were to be processed Thursday and mailed to employees’ homes over the next few days. Transport Topics
(Click here for the press release.)
Gasoline Price Falls in Texas, Rises in California
Texas has seen slight decreases in the price of gasoline since Labor Day, while California has experienced higher prices, state auto clubs reported Friday.A significant portion of the commercial trucking industry uses gasoline-burning vehicles.
AAA Texas said the statewide average price for a gallon of regular self-serve is $1.33 per gallon, which is unchanged since last week. However, the price fell 1.4 cents in Corpus Christi and San Antonio reported a 0.9-cent drop. Smaller declines were seen in other cities, including Dallas and Ft. Worth.
Meanwhile, the Automobile Club of Southern California said the average price of gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area is $1.632, which is four-tenths of a cent higher than last week.
All major cities in Southern California saw increases of less than a cent, the report said, noting that the price rose 0.6 cent in Las Vegas, but declined in Phoenix. Transport Topics
(Click here for the press release from California.)
(Click here for the press release from Texas.)
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Daimler Seen Buying 40% of Mitsubishi Truck Unit
DaimlerChrysler AG will pay about $675 million for 40% of Mitsubishi Motors Corp.'s new truck unit, Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai reported Friday.Daimler, which owns 37% of Mitsubishi, plans to send an executive to be the venture's president once it is made a separate entity, the newspaper said.
On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that Mitsubishi had not yet decided on whether to separate its truck and bus divisions, but that it would decide by the end of the year. (Click here for the related story.) Transport Topics
Crude Oil Price Rises to 11-Month High
Crude oil rose to an 11-month high on Friday morning as President Bush prepared to seek support from other nations in his attempt to remove Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from power, Bloomberg reported.Movement in oil prices are reflected in the prices of gasoline and diesel fuel, which are used by the trucking industry.
Brent crude oil for October settlement rose as much as 88 cents to $28.54 in London, while prices rose 89 cents to $29.87 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices have now risen five out of the past six weeks, Bloom-berg said.
Bush is expected to talk with leaders of Russia, China and France on Friday and United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair on Saturday on Iraq, Bloomberg said. Transport Topics
Paccar to Idle 300 Workers in Wash.
Paccar Inc. will lay off 300 employees at a heavy-duty truck plant in Renton, Wash., on Nov. 1, Bloomberg reported Thursday.Also facing layoffs on Nov. 1 are 500 workers at the company’s Madison, Tenn. plant. Union employees at the Tennessee plant were told not to report to work after their contract expired on Aug. 30.
With the Oct. 1 deadline for new emissions rules set to take effect, demand for trucks has softened, forcing truck makers to prepare for weaker sales by cutting costs.
The Bellevue, Wash.-based company has not yet issued layoff orders at a Kenworth factory in Ohio or a Peterbilt plant in Texas, a spokesman told Bloomberg.
Rival truck maker Navistar Corp. and DaimlerChrysler AG’s Detroit Diesel engine unit both announced layoffs in August. Transport Topics
Economist Sees Strong Rebound for Manufacturing
NEW YORK -- The manufacturing sector should expand more quickly than the rest of the economy through the remainder of this year and into 2003, Jim Glassman, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.’s chief economist, said here Thursday afternoon.Glassman told a group of investors he expected gross domestic product growth of 3% this year and 3.5% next year – levels less than the long-run potential rate of 4% a year.
Glassman said manufacturing output could soon be accelerating by 5% a year.
Manufacturing is particularly important to trucking because it generates a disproportionately large amount of shipping compared with the service or government sectors of the economy.
Glassman discounted the possibility of a return to economic contraction, or a "double dip" recession for the economy as a whole. He said he was particularly optimistic about manufacturing because it fell so hard in 2000 and 2001.
"The industrial sector has a lot of room to recoup. Because of the bigger plunge, the natural tendency is to expect a stronger rebound," he said. Jonathan S. Reiskin
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Rail Intermodal Loads Up 8.3% in Week-to-Week Match-Up
Intermodal loadings on the nation's railroads continued to surge in the week ended Aug. 31, topping the corresponding week of 2001 by 8.3%, the Association of American Railroads reported Thursday.Intermodal is the segment of the railroad business most directly competitive with long-haul trucking.
Trailers and containers loaded during the week totaled 202,557 compared with 186,977 in 2001. Containers were 12.1% up from the previous year while trailers were down 1.1%.
For the 35 weeks of the year, trailer and container loadings came to 6,253, 797 exceeding 2001's 5,947,926 by 5.1%.
Containers were up 9.1% for the cumulative period while trailers were down 4.3%. Transport Topics
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