A.M. Executive Briefing - Oct. 5
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Refiners Awarded Oil From SPR; Crude Prices Fall
The price of crude oil fell a third straight day and 11 U.S. refiners were awarded the 30 million barrels of oil being released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Bloomberg reported Thursday.Crude oil dropped as much as 73 cents to $30.70 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg said.
Oil companies, including BP Oil Supply Co. and Marathon Ashland Petroleum, that were tapped to receive SPR supplies will receive the oil by the end of November, and under the bids they submitted will have to replace 31.56 million barrels by November 2001, the story noted.
EU Mulling Oil Market Intervention Plan
The European Union is still looking to develop a plan for intervening in oil markets when, as now, oil prices rise sharply, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.European Commission energy chief Loyola de Palacio issued a proposal for the member countries to jointly use their oil reserves to intervene in the market. This comes despite the International Energy Agency's decision Wednesday that the current situation did not require releasing any reserve oil, the Journal said.
A European summit will be held next week in France to discuss joint oil strategies. Transport Topics
U.S. Truckers Rally at 16 Ports
Sixteen U.S. ports were the stage Wednesday for a rally of 3,000 truckers seeking reimbursement for rising fuel costs, Bloomberg reported.Newark, N.J., and Charleston, S.C., port officials said the rallies did not affect normal business.
The rallying drivers are among those who haul cargo from the ports to inland destinations for companies such as A.P. Moeller's Maersk Sealand. They are asking these companies to pay fuel surcharges to offset their increased fuel costs, the article said. Transport Topics
Trucker Protests Continue in Europe, End in Argentina
Several European countries saw continued protests over fuel prices Wednesday, while a four-day trucker strike ended across the Atlantic in Argentina, according to Associated Press reports.Sicily's supermarket shelves were empty of fresh food and a Fiat factory shut down due to lack of parts thanks to an ongoing trucker road and port blockade, one report said. Many gas stations in Italy have closed and public transportations services cut back for want of fuel.
Ports were blocked in Greece by striking fishermen, AP noted. More than 50 Danish truckers demonstrated outside of Copenhagen's parliament Wednesday calling for fuel tax cuts, another report said.
Meanwhile, the roads of Argentina began to clear for deliveries of produce, cattle and other necessities after that country's truckers ended their strike. They had won an agreement with the government and gas companies to lower fuel prices by 7 cents per liter, AP reported. Transport Topics
Frozen Foods Express Warns on Earnings
Frozen Foods Express Industries (FFEX), a refrigerated truckload and less-than-truckload carrier, said Wednesday it expects lower than-anticipated earnings for the last six months of its current fiscal year, ending Dec. 31.While the company did not release a revised estimate for earnings, its statement said earnings would be "significantly less" than the 20 cents per share believed to be the current market estimate. Company Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Stoney M. Stubbs Jr. said this is due mainly to that current bane of all trucking companies, high fuel prices. Transport Topics
LoJack Reports 36% Net Income Gain
LoJack Corp. (LOJN), makers of a tracking unit used in recovering stolen vehicles, reported increases in revenues and income for the second quarter of fiscal 2001, ended Aug. 31.Net income rose 36% to $2.52 million or 14 cents per diluted share, as revenues increased 9% to $26.32 million.
The company had an 11% increase in domestic sales of its LoJack Units in the second quarter; that was a new company record, LoJack Chairman C. Michael Daley said. Transport Topics
UPS Taps Online Oil-Supply Bids This Week
Package delivery giant United Parcel Service (UPS)- a huge player in U.S. as well as global shipments across trucking, rail and air transport modes - is running its first live online auction for oil supplies through the American Petroleum Exchange this week, the Washington Post reported.
The company said in early August that it would use APE's Web-based service to buy about 90 million gallons of fuel. That allows new bidders to compete against current UPS vendors for the right to supply UPS, based on who offers fuel at lowest cost.
The Post noted this system can also benefit fuel sellers in that it can help them curb back-office expenses. The bidding began Monday for 35 potential suppliers for 69 million gallons of diesel fuel and 18 million of gasoline, the story said. Transport Topics
Pilots, BAX Global in Tentative Deal
Freight handling company BAX Global Inc. said this week that its Air Transport International airline unit had a tentative deal for the first-ever contract with Teamsters representing 292 cockpit crew members, The Journal of Commerce Online reported.union vote is expected around Nov. 1. The negotiations had been going on for about 2 years, the JOC story said, and had recently been supervised by the National Mediation Board. In August, the workers had formed a strike committee because the talks appeared to be stalled. Transport Topics
Chunk of Houston's I-45 Closed for Repair
Some trucks traveling through Houston may need to find alternate routes, as the Texas Department of Transportation has shut down part of north-south Interstate 45 there for reconstruction, area television station KPRC reported this week.Between now and Jan. 18, a section of that highway will be closed from where it connects to east-west Interstate 10 to West Dallas Road in Houston. The overall project should be completed by spring 2001, transportation officials said in the report.
Several aging parts of the freeway that are targeted for such revamping projects beyond normal maintenance, according to KPRC. Houston is a major trucking zone, as it is both a large commercial center and a multi-modal hub for intercontinental rail and truck freight. Transport Topics
Headlines From Yesterday's P.M. Briefing
- U.S. Aug Factory Orders up 2%
- Safeway Calif. Warehouse Workers Edge Toward Strike
- IEA: World Oil Supply "Sufficient"
- Crude Leaking From Indonesia Spill
- Spanish Truckers Agree to End Strike
- CF Establishes Electronic Customs Link
- Heavy Rain Continues in S. Florida
- Missouri Debates Major Interstate 70 Construction
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