• Maersk Line offers new direct US Gulf - West Africa
• Hutchison puts hold on Subic Bay development
• Brazilian port shuttle sees rapid expansion
• FMC lays out strategy
• Italian shipping lines attract plenty of attention
• Japan and America due to reach aviation agreement
• SAS-Finnair rivalry in Europe moves up a notch
• Macau Airport not affected by currency crisis
• Boeing and Airbus in battle for Air India order

• Container transhipment Bremen and Hamburg under one roof
• Zeebrugge and Bremerhaven fastest growers in 1997 container transhipment
• Philips joins in with AEI and Emery
• Problems with visas in Eastern Europe
• TNT builds European hub
• Daewoo possibly to Amsterdam Airport; LG-Electronics is already coming

• TWRA heading for individual contracting
• US-Asia box traffic dips in November
• OOCL/Canmar service shifts to Thamesport
• Transroll mulls over four 3,800-TEU newbuildings
• Antwerp gets nod for expansion project
• Air France granted for China flights

• Munich Re creates new German giant
  MUNICH RE, the world's largest reinsurer, has created a new major primary insurance group in Germany with a Dm21bn ($7.5bn) premium income.
• Probe into shipyard deaths blaze begins
  INVESTIGATORS yesterday began scouring the wreckage of a chemical carrier at Union Naval de Levante's Valencia shipyard for clues to the cause of Spain's worst shipbuilding disaster.
• Spill clean-up near complete in Tokyo Bay
  JAPAN'S Maritime Safety Agency said yesterday that it expected to complete recovery of crude oil discharged in Wednesday's Tokyo Bay tanker spill by the end of the day.
• In brief
  Angerstein scheme for names.
• Crowley and APL 'in Transroll deal'
  BRAZILIAN shipping line Transroll Navegacao is close to entering a new alliance with American partners Crowley and American President Lines, according to reliable sources in Buenos Aires.
• Samsung all set to win BP VLCC order
  SAMSUNG Heavy Industries has emerged as the leading contender to secure British Petroleum's long-awaited order for new VLCC tonnage.
• South American hub race hots up
  TEN big ports are vying for dominance of the vast containership market serving South America, where box throughput has soared to 3.5m teu annually.
• Brazil sets up second ship register
  THE Brazilian Congress and President Fernando Henrique Cardoso has finally passed into law the country's special second register which will greatly reduce costs for shipowners.
• 'Kovambo' refit completed
  RICKMERS-Lloyd Dockbetrieb at Bremerhaven has completed the lengthening, widening and rebuilding of the former Russian diving support vessel Sprut, now known as Kovambo.

• Shipmanager slams Beirut for lax security
  ROTTERDAM-based shipmanager Oost Atlantic Lijn slammed Beirut for poor port security and possible collusion following the discovery last week of eight Iraqi stowaways.
• HK cargo owners get day in Chinese court
  HONG Kong companies that had goods worth HK$20m ($2.6m) seized from a ship by Chinese authorities will be able to put their case before a mainland court.
• KMY 'to win $2bn cruiseship orders'
  KVÆRNER Masa-Yards is expected to win orders from up to five major cruiseships with a total value of about $2bn.
• Storli calls egm to rename company
  THE board of the Norwegian chemical carriers group Storli has called an extraordinary shareholders' meeting for February 9 with the intention to change the company's name.
• New offshore operator set up
  A NEWLY established supply ship operator, North Sea Supply, is planning to raise Nkr300m ($29m) through a share issue and seek a listing on the Oslo stock exchange.
• N&T pulls out of ferry operations
  NORDSTRÖM & Thulin has sold its 50 per cent stake in the EstLine ferry company to Estonian Shipping Company.
• Bristol aims to be No 1 for car imports
  BRISTOL is planning to become the UK's largest port for car imports next year.
• OOCL re-enters the Mediterranean
  HONG-Kong liner operator OOCL is re-entering the Mediterranean-Asia trade for the first time since 1990.
• Paradip to build drydocks
  BCC Shipping and Shipbuilding is to construct two floating dry docks and one graving dock in Paradip port on India's east coast.
• Philippine owners seek bunker price protection
  DOMESTIC lines in the Philippines have asked the government to shield them from price increases in bunker fuel and to reduce costs in operations.
• Setbacks for Flare investigators
  CANADIAN accident investigators have suffered a setback in efforts to determine the cause of the sinking of the Cyprus-registered, Greek-owned bulk carrier Flare.
• Wilhelmsen to order new ro-ro design
  WILHELMSEN Lines, the Oslo based ro-ro specialist, is about to order up to three ships of a new design.
• New US-Mexico rail-barge link announced
  INTERNATIONAL Trade and Transport (ITT) and the Port of Galveston have announced plans for the development of a new roro rail barge service
• PSA Corp takes over Genoa terminal
  SINGAPORE'S PSA Corporation has taken a majority stake in Sinport, which controls the Voltri Terminal Europa in Genoa.

• FedEx's next China stop: strategic Shenzhen region
• Cathay slashing staff after 1-2 punch
• Passenger tax hike touted at air parley
• German ports hope to offset Asia damage
• Con-Way subsidiary expands in Northeast
• Low debt could inoculate East Europe against flu
• Leo Brien foundation established
• Taiwan, China forge Russian shipping links
• Universal serial bus is a bust for anybody who can't figure it out
• The Texas port plans, with a local venture firm, to bring back the alternative shipping service that was sunk when BN and Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe merged. With the crunch at the land border, the time seems ripe for the . . .

• After more than two years of contentious negotiations, the United Parcel Service and the Independent Pilots Associations struck a "handshake" agreement. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it is expected to mirror competitor FedEx's recent deal with its pilot group. UPS and the IPA held a joint press conference bestowing praise on one another for coming to an agreement after just six days of negotiations. Most of the detail work was done last summer, but the two groups stood far apart on the issue of pay.
• Depending on whom you talk to, the Harbor Maintenance Tax is either hurting the United States economy or is a vital funding mechanism for the national intermodal system. The National Industrial Transportation League says the tax is unconstitutional, while the state of Oregon argues that the fee allows ports around the country to serve shippers, providing options that might otherwise not be available. The disparate views were among those submitted to the Supreme Court in preparation for a March 4 hearing on the constitutionality of the 11-year-old tax.
• As ship lines continue to merge like crazy, competition is heating up. 1998 is turning out to be a far cry from the quiet seas of 1997. Hanjin is out of the Trans-Atlantic Conference in order to drop its rates. Newcomer Cosco is as competitive as any line out there. As rates drop, shippers are benefiting from the carrier infighting. Carriers on the other hand are worrying that competitors are acting too fast and losing sight of their responsibility.
• The threat of overcapacity in the trucking industry was raised by a Salomon Smith Barney forecast of record Class 8 truck sales. The truckload sector was estimated to increase capacity by 11.2 percent, according to the forecast. Other analysts downplayed the prediction of overcapacity, saying increased competition would keep market forces firm.
• The currency meltdown in Asia is causing airlines to look at cargo and the U.S. market as a potential savior. Cathay Pacific, which has laid off hundreds of people and is flying nearly empty planes around Asia, expects big things from the cargo division. Korean Air, which sold six of its aircraft and has three more on the block this year, has canceled some frequencies but expects to be able to ride out the storm. Shippers and freight forwarders, meanwhile, are benefiting from bargain-basement rates to Asia.
• The United Transportation Union followed up its bid to force a vote by train crew members that likely would lead to the elimination of one rail union by breaking ranks with the rest of rail labor to forge an agreement with Norfolk Southern and CSX to support their takeover of Conrail in exchange for enhanced protection for its members. The UTU agreement is similar to one forged, along with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, with Union Pacific in 1996, but it differs from the UP accord in one significant aspect: it calls upon the union to use its best efforts to negotiate implementing agreements even before the Surface Transportation Board graces the carve-up of Conrail by NS and CSX.
• Brazil is hoping this year will bring an end to all the promises and real infrastructure changes will be made in place of political lip service. Trade is booming between the U.S. and Brazil and it struck so forcefully and quickly that the government had no time to make the changes to ports, railroads and airports it had promised. The problem is everyone wants it done yesterday and local governments are now trying to step in and take over. Without a cohesive plan, the country could end up in an even bigger mess.
• The nation's biggest shipper - the Department of Defense - plans to introduce a new standardized distance-calculation system that will affect how the DOD handles rating and payment issues with hundreds of munitions, household-goods and general commodity motor carriers. Although its goal is greater efficiency and lower costs, the DOD's plans have some companies and groups that supply mileage data to shippers and carriers up in arms. Major combatants in this showdown: ALK Associates vs. the Household Goods Carriers Bureau and Rand McNally-TDM.
• Asia's currency woes have been slow to reach U.S. shores but firms are bracing themselves for what could be an unpleasant surprise. Some shippers report freight rates haven't yet caught up with the currency devaluations giving them an edge. Others say they haven't seen much change at all. Asia's currency devaluations got under way in July when Thailand's currency depreciated 17 percent relative to the dollar. The plunge spread quickly to other countries in the region, setting off speculation among economists that Asia will look to higher exports to pull it out of its slump.