News Briefs - July 28
The Latest Headlines:
- ArvinMeritor Seeks Meeting With Dana Directors
- Fed's Moskow Optimistic on U.S. Economy
- Marten's 2Q Profits Rise
- Gasoline Prices Remain Steady, Lundberg Says
- OPEC Expected to Keep Quotas Unchanged
- FMCSA Drops Three Proposed Rules
- Hino Posts 1Q Profit on Domestic Truck Demand
- Fed's Moskow Optimistic on U.S. Economy
ArvinMeritor Seeks Meeting With Dana Directors
ArvinMeritor Inc., the world's biggest maker of axles for commercial trucks, told independent directors for rival Dana Corp. that it wants to meet after Dana rejected its $2.2 billion takeover bid, Bloomberg reported Monday.Arvin, which owns more than 1 million shares of Dana's common stock, had offered $15 in cash for all outstanding shares of Dana.
Dana became a takeover target after a net loss of $182 million last year and $298 million in 2001, Bloomberg said. Transport Topics
Fed's Moskow Optimistic on U.S. Economy
Michael Moskow, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and voting member of the Fed’s policy committee, said Monday that he was confident the U.S. economy would "regain momentum," Reuters reported.Trucking is sensitive to economic conditions and would be among the first groups to benefit from growth.
Although much of the economic data after the Iraq war was disappointing, more recent reports have been more promising, including durable goods orders and industrial production, he said.
Moskow also said risks remain in the economy, especially that consumer spending could lose momentum in the second half of the year, Reuters noted. Transport Topics
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Marten's 2Q Profits Rise
Marten Transport Ltd. said late Friday that its net income for the second quarter increased to $3.5 million or 53 cents per share, compared with $2.8 million or 44 cents.The refrigerated truckload carrier said operating revenue increased 13.7% to $84.2 million. The company said it saw an increase shipping demand during the second quarter.
The company also said it had filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer of up to 3 million shares of the company's common stock, plus an additional 450,000 shares subject to an over-allotment option in favor of the underwriters.
It planned to hold a special stockholders meeting Aug. 11 to discuss creating a new class of capital stock designated as preferred stock.
Marten is ranked No. 58 on the 2003 Transport Topics 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian trucking companies. Transport Topics
Gasoline Prices Remain Steady, Lundberg Says
Gasoline prices rose less than a penny per gallon over the last two weeks, according to the Lundberg Survey of 8,000 stations nationwide.About one-third of commercial trucking uses gasoline. The summer is the nation's heaviest driving season.
The average price of self-serve gas, including all grades and taxes, was $1.55, the survey found. That was an increase of 0.12 cents per gallon from a July 11 survey.
Analyst Trilby Lundberg said the increase was due to increased costs of crude oil, refinery glitches and Hurricane Claudette, which struck the Texas Gulf coast July 15, the Associated Press reported.
Gas prices remain about 10 cents higher than a year ago. Transport Topics
OPEC Expected to Keep Quotas Unchanged
The OPEC oil cartel is expected to maintain its current ceiling of 25.4 million barrels per day at a meeting in Vienna, Austria, on Thursday because prices have held in its target range, Reuters reported Monday.Crude oil is distilled down to motor fuels like diesel and gasoline, both of which are used to power the trucking industry.
Prices have held firm as looting and sabotage has held Iraq's post-invasion oil exports at just a quarter of pre-war levels. The longer Iraq takes to restore its once-mighty oil industry, the longer its fellow cartel members can put off cutting their own output to make way for fresh Iraqi barrels.
OPEC supplies about a third of the world's crude. The group agreed at its June meeting to leave its production ceiling unchanged at 25.4 million barrels a day. Transport Topics
FMCSA Drops Three Proposed Rules
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration last week withdrew three proposed rules that would have changed the requirement that drivers speak and read English, codified out-of-services criteria and lifted restrictions on placing television and data display screens in vehicles.n the July 24 Federal Register, FMCSA withdrew a 1997 proposal that would have weakened the requirement that commercial drivers must be able to read and speak English well enough to read road signs and communicate with other drivers and law enforcement officials.
FMCSA also said it would drop a 1998 proposal to include the North American Uniform Out-of-Service Criteria, currently published by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations.
And FMCSA kept restrictions on where television receivers are positioned in commercial motor vehicles. The agency said the rule was needed to prohibit drivers from watching television but that enforcement personnel could allow collision-avoidance equipment such as side-view cameras. Sean McNally
This story appeared in the July 28 print edition of Transport Topics.
Hino Posts 1Q Profit on Domestic Truck Demand
Japanese truck maker Hino Motors Ltd. said Monday its net income for the 2004 fiscal first quarter ended June 30 was $31 million, compared with a loss of $14.2 million a year ago.Total sales rose 24% to $1.8 billion, the company said.
Hino and its rivals are increasing sales as companies replace old trucks with ones meeting new emissions regulations the Tokyo Metropolitan government will introduce in September, Bloomberg reported.
Hino also aims to expand overseas in the United States as growth in its domestic market is limited. Transport Topics
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