News Briefs - May 6
The Latest Headlines:
- Price of Crude Oil Remains Near $40
- Visteon, UAW Sign Seven-Year Accord
- Boyd Bros. Profits Rise but Economic Concerns Remain
- EGL Earns 13 Cents Per Share in 1Q
- Japanese Police Arrest Seven in Mitsubishi Truck Probe
- International to Raise Truck Prices
- Visteon, UAW Sign Seven-Year Accord
Price of Crude Oil Remains Near $40
Crude oil for June delivery rose as high as $39.97 on Thursday, but ended the day down 20 cents to $39.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg reported.Oil prices are up 53% from a year earlier.
On Wednesday, oil settled at $39.57 a barrel, the highest close since Oct. 12, 1990, when Iraq occupied Kuwait.
Visteon, UAW Sign Seven-Year Accord
Vehicle parts maker Visteon Corp. said it signed a seven-year agreement with the United Auto Workers on Thursday that allows lower wages and benefits for new employees.The deal will help Visteon cut costs and win new business, Bloomberg reported. Visteon has about 19,500 UAW-represented
mployees.
Pay will start at $14 an hour and may rise to $18.50, the company said in a statement. Visteon pays current workers represented by the union wages that begin at $25 to $30 an hour.
The wages in the Visteon agreement are similar to those in a seven-year accord the union reached recently with rival Delphi Corp., Bloomberg said. Transport Topics
Boyd Bros. Profits Rise but Economic Concerns Remain
Flatbed trucking company Boyd Bros. Transportation Inc. said late Wednesday its net income for the first quarter was $383,967 or 13 cents per share, compared with $4,185 or less than 1 cent a year earlier.Operating revenues rose 6% to $34.6 million, the company said in a statement.
"We remain concerned about the potentially dampening effect that higher fuel costs may have on the general economy in the months ahead and the related impact on overall freight levels and our own profitability," said Boyd's President Gail Cooper. Transport Topics
EGL Earns 13 Cents Per Share in 1Q
EGL Eagle Global Logistics, a Houston-based firm that arranges international freight shipments, said Thursday its net income for the first quarter was $6 million or 13 cents per share, compared with $2.8 million or 6 cents a year earlier.Gross revenues increased 21% to $586 million, reflecting a 17% increase in air freight revenues, the company said in a statement.
EGL also said it expected profits in the second quarter to be in the range of 20 cents to 23 cents, compared with 14 cents in the second quarter of 2003. Transport Topics
Japanese Police Arrest Seven in Mitsubishi Truck Probe
Police in Tokyo raided the offices of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp. on Thursday and arrested seven former executives suspected of falsifying data on a fatal accident in which a wheel flew off one of its trucks, news services reported.The seven are reportedly suspected of trying to shirk responsibility for an accident in which a 29-year-old woman was killed when she was hit by a wheel that came off a passing Mitsubishi truck after a hub connecting the wheel to the axle broke, the Associated Press reported.
Mitsubishi Fuso was spun off from Mitsubishi Motors in January 2003, and the executives reportedly under investigation worked for the Japanese automaker at the time of the January 2002 accident, AP said.
Police were also preparing to seek criminal charges against Mitsubishi Motors for allegedly failing to implement adequate safety measures, according to published reports. Transport Topics
International to Raise Truck Prices
Truck manufacturer International Truck & Engine Corp. said April 28 it would raise prices for its Class 8 trucks in coming weeks because of rising steel prices.Spokesman David Wrobel said the company was not prepared to say exactly how much its truck prices would increase, but that the company would host a conference call May 6 to discuss the issue.
Virtually all U.S. truck makers have said they would recoup sharply rising raw material costs by pushing up retail prices.
Industry leader Freightliner LLC said it told customers April 5 it would immediately impose surcharges on all new truck orders. Mack Trucks said it would impose a $1,000 surcharge May 1. Tiffany Wlazlowski
This story appeared in the May 3 print edition of Transport Topics
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