News Briefs - Jan. 20

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The Latest Headlines:


Delphi Earnings Drop 31% in Fourth Quarter

Automotive and truck part supplier Delphi Corp. said Tuesday that it’s fourth-quarter earnings fell 31% to $82 million.

The company said net income for the three months ended Dec. 31 was 15 cents a share, down from 21 cents in the same quarter the previous year. During the 2002 fourth quarter, Delphi said its earnings totaled $119 million.



Delphi said that for the year, it posted a loss of $56 million or 10 cents per share vs. a net profit of $342 million or 61 cents a share in 2002.

Fourth-quarter revenue for the company rose 4% to $7.26 billion from $7 billion in the previous quarter. For 2003, the company reported revenue of $28.1 billion, up 2.4% from $27.4 billion in the previous year. Transport Topics


UPS Said to Buy Out Japanese Partner

United Parcel Service Inc. will reportedly buy out its Japanese joint venture with Yamato Transport Co. by the end of March, Bloomberg News said.

Citing a report in the Nihon Keizai newspaper, Bloomberg reported that UPS Yamato Express would be renamed UPS Express when the transaction is completed.

Currently, UPS owns 51% of the joint venture. Established in 1990, the jointly owned company employs 600 workers in Japan. UPS and Yamato Transport deliver each other’s packages through the venture, Bloomberg said.

UPS is ranked No. 1 on the Transport Topics 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian trucking companies. Transport Topics


Crude Oil Jumps After Port Blast Disrupts Shipments

The price of crude oil rose Tuesday morning after an explosion in an Algerian port disrupted oil and petroleum shipments from the country’s second largest export site, Bloomberg News reported.

In early electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude oil prices rose 59 cents a barrel to $35.66, Bloomberg News reported.

Algeria is a major exporter of crude oil and other petroleum products to the United States. U.S. crude oil prices have risen 10% so far in 2004, Bloomberg reported, as inventories have dwindled to 28-year lows. Transport Topics


Goodyear, Penske Extend Supply Deal

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. said it signed a contract extension making it Penske Truck Leasing's primary supplier of tires in North America until at least 2008.

Goodyear said in a release it supplies Penske with new, replacement and retreaded tires.

Penske operates about a total of 200,000 vehicles throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, South America and Europe. Transport Topics


O&S Trucking Merges With Stever Firm

Diversified transportation services provider O&S Trucking Inc. said it merged with Stever Trucking and would operate the company as its refrigerated division. O&S said it was the latest example of its strategy to diversify into refrigerated hauls.

O&S said the merger will be developed through a stock trade between the two companies, but offered no details.

With the merger, O&S said it would now operate 450 power units, 230 refrigerated trailers and 550 dry freight vans.

Dick Grant, Stever’s former president, was named senior vice president of the new refrigerated division, O&S said.

The company said the merger “has a special sentiment and legacy” because Keith Stever was the “S” in O&S “before the partnership had a peaceful split in 1987.”

Grant purchased Stever Trucking in 1995, said O&S, which also has brokerage, intermodal services, less-than-truckload, warehousing and logistics operations. Transport Topics

This story appeared in the Jan. 19 print edition of Transport Topics.

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