News Briefs - July 12

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The Latest Headlines:


Tentative Deal Averts Strike at L.A., Long Beach Ports

Port clerks and shipping firms at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have reached a tentative contract agreement which would avert a strike at the two busiest U.S. container ports, news services reported.

The deal between the shipping lines and the office clerical unit of Local 63 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union gives clerical workers a no-layoff clause and a pay raise that increases starting wages from $33 to $37.50 an hour over three years, the Associated Press reported.

The union's members are expected to vote on the proposal Thursday, AP said. The contract would also improve their retirement plans.



A lockout in October 2002 shut down all 29 West Coast U.S. ports from San Diego to Seattle, and was the most disruptive since the 1970s, costing the U.S. economy billions of dollars and idling hundreds of ships, Reuters said. Transport Topics


Lundberg: Gasoline Prices Flat Over Last Two Weeks

The weighted national average price for all grades of gasoline dipped about 1 cent over the past two weeks to $1.96 per gallon, according to the Lundberg survey of 8,000 stations nationwide.

A recent rise in the cost of crude oil slowed dropping pump prices, analyst Trilby Lundberg said in a statement. Since May 21, prices have risen 14 cents.

Lundberg also said with OPEC adding 500,000 barrels a day to its output in August pump prices should remain stable or fall further, the Associated Press reported.

The national weighted average price of a gallon of gasoline at self-serve pumps on Friday, including taxes, was about $1.93 for regular, $2.03 for midgrade and $2.12 for premium, Lundberg said. Transport Topics


Freightliner Expected to Hire 2,000 More Workers

DaimlerChrysler AG, the world's largest truck maker, will add about 2,000 jobs this year at its Freightliner factories in North America to meet growing demand, Bloomberg reported.

Freightliner is the largest truck maker in North America. The heavy-truck market has grown 40% this year in North American, according to Eckhard Cordes, head of the DaimlerChrysler's commercial-vehicles unit.

The truck unit's North American workforce was cut by half to 11,000 employees over the past four years as demand sank, Bloomberg reported. But DaimlerChrysler's truck sales in North America increased 14% to 134,200 vehicles, Bloomberg said. Transport Topics


Fuso Says It Fired Official Who Faked Safety Reports

Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp. said it has fired an official who faked safety inspection for its trucks to the

apan's transport ministry, Bloomberg reported.

The company is 65% owned by DaimlerChrysler AG. It became a separate company from Mitsubishi Motors in January 2003.

Japan's transport ministry last week ordered the company to ask customers to stop driving Fuso-brand vehicles that used faulty clutch housings.

Mitsubishi Fuso and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. have recalled more than 800,000 Mitsubishi-brand cars, vans and heavy vehicles so far this year to fix defects from faulty wheel hubs to brakes, Bloomberg said. Transport Topics


Fed's Hoenig: Expansion Will Reach 4.5% Pace by Year End

Thomas Hoenig, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, said the U.S. economy will expand at least 4.5% by year-end, helped by low tax rates and strengthening global demand, Bloomberg reported.

Speaking to executives in Columbus, Neb., Hoenig also said that job growth would continue into 2005

He said global demand was being helped by a Japanese recovery, and that stimulative fiscal and monetary policies would contribute to U.S. growth, Bloomberg said. Transport Topics

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