P.M. Executive Briefing - Oct. 23
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Wabash National Agrees to Purchase Breadner Group
Truck-trailer manufacturer Wabash National Corp. (WNC said Monday it has signed a letter of intent to acquire the Breadner Group of Companies, a privately-held Canadian trailer dealer.The Breadner Group, headquartered in Kitchener, Ontario, has ten branches in six provinces offering sales and service for new trailers and aftermarket parts.
The acquisition is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2000, Wabash said.
Oil Prices Down Little as Supply Concerns Ease
The price of crude oil was little changed Monday as Arab leaders came out of a weekend summit with no plans to halt oil production, Bloomberg reported.U.S. crude was down 14 cents to $32.81 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and Brent crude was down 12 cents to $31.50 on London's International Petroleum Exchange, the story said.
More fighting broke out between Israelis and Palestinians over the weekend, and many traders feared that Arab leaders, after condemning Israel and supporting Palestinian resistance, would disrupt oil supplies to the West much like in 1973, the story said. However, the Arab nations merely gave a statement and did not include any stronger language that would indicate a supply disruption, Bloomberg said. Transport Topics
TCT Logistics to Run General Mills Canada Distribution Center
TCT Logistics Inc., a Canadian transportation and logistics company, announced Monday a long-term agreement with General Mills Canada to manage its 220,000-square-foot distribution facility in Calgary, Alberta.General Mills has also agreed to buy rights to utilize TCT's supply chain management technology.
TCT Logistics Inc. is an asset-based supply chain management firm with one of the largest trucking fleets in Canada and over 30 million cubic feet of warehousing capacity. TCT has branches in major business districts in Canada as well as parts of the United States. Transport Topics
Sysco Workers Strike in Montana
Negotiations between Sysco Food Services (SYY) and its workers broke down Saturday night, touching off a strike by about 240 employees, the Associated Press reported.Sysco is a commercial food and supply distributor with about 1,000 customers - ranging from Burger King and Dairy Queen to hospitals and cafes - in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and parts of the Dakotas. Those workers on strike include many truck drivers who deliver Sysco's products.
Another round of talks between Sysco and the Teamsters Local 190, which represents the workers, also ended Sunday without an agreement, continuing the strike, the Billings (Mont.) Gazette reported. That newspaper said Sysco placed a classified ad in its Sunday edition, seeking 100 replacement drivers.
Alabama Site Uses Truckers to Test Asphalt
The new National Center for Asphalt Technology, which will be dedicated Monday, looks like a NASCAR track for truckers but is actually a testing ground for new asphalt mixes, the Associated Press reports.The $7 million track is 1.7 miles long and has 200-foot-long, four-inch-deep sections of test asphalt mixes, and a team of truckers will put 20 years' worth of wear and tear on it over two years, the story said.
The Alabama Department of Transportation is the primary sponsor of the track. Several Southern and Midwestern states, as well as the Federal Highway Administration, are also paying to have their asphalt mixes tested at the facility, AP said. Transport Topics
Asian Import Traffic at Los Angeles-Long Beach Keeps Rising
The amount of containerized imports from Asia handled at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach continued to rise in September, though not as much as in recent months, the Journal of Commerce Online writes.Imports through the Los Angeles-Long Beach complex, through which most of the country's Asian imports flow, increased 7.4% over the same period of 1999, the story said. However, those imports have grown in double-digit figures (about 15%) for much of the year, and September's numbers may indicate a slowdown, the Journal noted.
Port traffic can also reflect on business for trucking and drayage companies in the region, who handle the freight from ports to inland destinations.
September and October are the peak shipping months, and some importers and carriers speculate that retailers brought in their Asian-based holiday merchandise early to avoid congestion at the ports, the story said. Transport Topics
Bimodal RoadRailer Links Canada, Southwestern U.S.
Canadian National Railway Co. (CNI) and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co. (BNI) are creating a seamless truck-competitive bimodal RoadRailer network linking Montreal, Toronto, Chicago and Arizona and California in the United States Pacific Southwest, JOC Online reported Monday.
Shippers in Southern Ontario and Quebec now can use a "seamless" 3,000-mile RoadRailer network reaching key markets in Arizona and Southern California, Mark Lerner, CN's director of RoadRailer services, said.
CN's dry van Montreal-Toronto-Chicago RoadRailer service for general merchandise now extends to the Pacific Southwest from Chicago over BNSF. The partnership also expands BNSF's refrigerated Ice Cold Express ReeferRailer service for Pacific Southwestern shippers of fruits and vegetables beyond Chicago to Toronto and Montreal over CN lines. Transport Topics
Headlines From Today's A.M. Briefing
- GE Merging with Honeywell
- USFreightways Posts Lower 3Q Earnings
- Paccar Beats 3Q Estimates
- FedEx Opens 340,000-square-foot 'Super Hub' in N.J.
- Accuride 3Q Sales Down on Market Slump
- Siemens, International Open Joint-Venture Facility
- Sypris Cancels Purchase of Dana Truck-Parts Plant
- Driver Joins Twin Brother as J.B. Hunt's Three-Million-Milers
- Nissan, Mitsubishi in Forklift Pact
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