News Briefs - March 29
The Latest Headlines:
- Price of Crude Oil Declines as OPEC May Postpone Cut
- Lundberg: Gasoline Prices at Record High
- FMCSA to Issue Chassis Rule This Year
- Nevada to Spend $50 Million More for Colorado River Bridge
- Volvo to Invest in New China Engine Factory
- Lundberg: Gasoline Prices at Record High
Price of Crude Oil Declines as OPEC May Postpone Cut
The price of crude oil declined on Monday on signs the OPEC oil cartel may postpone planned cuts in production quotas at a meeting on Wednesday, Bloomberg reported.On Feb. 10, OPEC agreed to cut its quota by 1 million barrels a day starting in April. However, President Purnomo Yusgiantoro said in an interview with Bloomberg the cartel was concerned with high prices and could postpone the cut.
Crude oil for May delivery on Monday dropped 28 cents to $35.45 a barrel at 10:01 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg reported. Prices were up 17% from a year ago. Transport Topics
Lundberg: Gasoline Prices at Record High
The price of gasoline rose 3 cents in the past two weeks to a new record-high average of $1.80 for all grades, according to the Lundberg survey of 8,000 stations.The trucking industry burns an estimated 269 million gallons of gasoline each week.
Analyst Trilby Lundberg said gasoline prices are up 29 cents per gallon since late December and she did not expect prices so fall significantly any time soon, the Associated Press reported.
The national weighted average price of gasoline, including taxes, at self-serve pumps Friday was about $1.77 for regular, $1.87 for midgrade, and $1.96 for premium.
San Diego has the highest gas prices in the country, at $2.12 for a gallon of regular unleaded, according to the survey. Transport Topics
FMCSA to Issue Chassis Rule This Year
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will issue a rule on intermodal chassis maintenance that would be published by the end of the year, the agency’s second-highest ranking official said.“When we come out with our rulemaking, whether Congress does it or we do it, by the end of this year, we’ll have a roadability proposal that will ensure the equipment is safe before it hits the road,” Warren Hoemann, deputy FMCSA administrator, told a National Industrial Transportation League’s meeting last week in Arlington, Va.
Hoemann said the rule would require “the equipment provider to maintain the chassis and make sure they meet existing standards on the road.” Sean McNally
This story appeared in the March 29 print edition of Transport Topics.
Nevada to Spend $50 Million More for Colorado River Bridge
The Nevada Board of Transportation voted unanimously to commit $50 million in bond money toward construction of a new, four-lane bridge over the Colorado River, the Associated Press reported.The bridge is part of the 3.5-mile Hoover Dam bypass project, which will carry truck and auto traffic on U.S. 93, a key route between Las Vegas and Phoenix. The bridge is expected to cost $234 million bridge and be completed in 2008, AP said.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, almost all truck traffic has been diverted away from Hoover Dam. About 2,100 trucks a day have to take a lengthy detour that's costing the trucking industry more than $30 million a year, AP said.
The Bureau of Reclamation, which administers the dam, restricts commercial trucking over the dam to short trips serving businesses nearby.
Long-haul trucks are detoured 60 miles south on U.S. 95 to cross the Colorado River between Laughlin, Nev., and Bullhead City, Ariz., AP said. Transport Topics
Volvo to Invest in New China Engine Factory
Volvo AB said it had signed an agreement with two partners to invest $196 million in an engine factory in China.Volvo said in a statement the factory with China National Heavy Duty Truck Corp. and China FAW Group Corp. would produce 50,000 engines a year by 2010.
The plant is expected to start building engines from kits imported from Europe starting in 2005 and develop its own production in 2006, Volvo said. Transport Topics
