News Briefs - March 5
The Latest Headlines:
- Crude Oil Closes Above $37 a Barrel in N.Y.
- Some Shippers Turn to Trucks as CN's Strike Continues
- FedEx Express, Pilots Begin Contract Talks
- Rail Intermodal Loadings Up 6.6% in February
- Volvo Sells $2 Billion Scania Stake to Money Managers
- Menlo Links With Chinese Postal Service
- Some Shippers Turn to Trucks as CN's Strike Continues
Crude Oil Closes Above $37 a Barrel in N.Y.
The price of crude oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed at $37.26 a barrel, the highest since March 12, 2003, just before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Bloomberg reported.Price rose on concern increasing protests in Venezuela may limit oil shipments to the United States, Bloomberg said.
Venezuela's United Nations ambassador Milos Alcalay resigned Thursday, saying President Hugo Chavez isn't protecting human rights or supporting democratic principles, Bloomberg reported. In December, Venezuela was in December the second-biggest foreign supplier of gasoline to the United States.
Some Shippers Turn to Trucks as CN's Strike Continues
Container traffic at Canadian National Railway Co. dropped 26% last week from the week before and the ongoing strike has forced some shippers to turn to trucks, Reuters reported.About 5,000 workers in Canada represented by the Canadian Auto Workers went on strike on Feb. 20 after rejecting a proposed 3% annual pay increase.
Shippers including Abitibi-Consolidated Inc., the world's biggest newsprint maker, have already turned to trucks, although it normally moves 40% of its newsprint by rail, Reuters said.
CN's network, which is ranked as the most efficient North American railway, stretches across Canada and down through the United States to the Gulf of Mexico, Reuters said. CN's U.S. workers are not on strike. Transport Topics
FedEx Express, Pilots Begin Contract Talks
FedEx Express, the air freight unit of FedEx Corp., has started contract talks with the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents FedEx's 4,100 pilots, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported.The pilots are seeking improvements in work rules, pay and pension security, the article said. The average FedEx pilot makes $167,000 a year, the company said.
FedEx reached its current contract with the pilots in 1999. The pilots in 2002 joined the Air Line Pilots Association through a merger with their independent FedEx Pilots Association. Transport Topics
Rail Intermodal Loadings Up 6.6% in February
The number of intermodal loadings on the nation’s railroads rose 6.6% to 47,808 trailers and containers in February, compared with the same month a year earlier, the Association of American Railroads reported Thursday.Railroading, like commercial trucking, is considered an important economic indicator. Intermodal traffic, which tends to be merchandise rather than bulk commodities, is more directly competitive with trucking and more reflective of the state of the economy.
For the first two months of the year, intermodal traffic increased by 87,915 trailers and containers, or 6%.
AAR also said for the week ended Feb. 28, intermodal volume totaled 198,283 trailers and containers, up 9.3% from the same week a year earlier. Transport Topics
Volvo Sells $2 Billion Scania Stake to Money Managers
Volvo AB sold Scania AB shares worth as much as $2 billion to institutional investors to meet a regulatory deadline for their disposal, Bloomberg reported.The company has been trying to find a buyer for Scania after a $6.9 billion takeover attempt was blocked by the European Commission four years ago. The company was ordered by the commission to get rid of the shares by April 23, Bloomberg said.
Volvo will spin off most of its remaining Scania stake to shareholders by transferring Scania A shares, or about 27.3 million shares representing 24.8% of the voting rights, to a new company, Bloomberg said. Transport Topics
Menlo Links With Chinese Postal Service
Diversified transportation services provider Menlo Worldwide, a subsidiary of CNF Inc., said it signed a letter of intent with Guang-ong Postal Logistics, owned by the postal service of China’s Guangdong province, to cooperate on logistics operations in southern China and globally.
Menlo Worldwide Logistics said it would manage the relationship with the Chinese entity, but did not provide financial details.
Guangdong Postal Logistics, owned by the Guangdong Postal Bureau, is in the heart of the “key markets of South China,” the company said.
Spokesman David Benton told Transport Topics Feb. 19 the partnership “has a lot of implications on our operations on the ground in China” and for U.S. companies that have or will have operations in China.
“We think it’s a plum for us,” Benton said.
CNF Inc. ranked No. 4 on the TT 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian fleets. Transport Topics
This story appeared in the March 1 print edition of Transport Topics.
