Halter buttons Belleli deal Halter Marine unit TDI-Halter is understood to have successfully concluded a deal that gives it a 35% interest in a joint venture that will operate the Belleli Offshore fabrication yard in Taranto, Italy.
First Wave first quarter FirstWave Marine, Inc.yesterday reported revenues for the first quarter of 1999 of $25.9 million, an increase of 64% over the 1998 period of $15.8 million.FirstWave reported a net loss for the quarter of $636,000, or $0.05 per basic and diluted share.
Carnival in Korea SAMSUNG Heavy Industries is to build the next generation of passenger cruise ships for the world's largest cruiseship operator, Mickey Arison's Carnival, in a move which could put a further nail in the coffin of European shipbuilding.
Mare Forum sets quality flag agenda A 'NETWORK of Quality Registers' designed to encourage maritime administrations to subscribe to reasonable standards is being proposed by the Netherlands government.
OMI plans leaseback deal on new tankers Leading US tanker group OMI is planning the sale and leaseback of two new product carriers which are being delivered from South Korea later this year.
Daimler-Chrysler AG annual meeting Jurgen E. Schremp, chief executive of Daimler-Chrysler AG, addresses some 20,000 shareholders during their annual meeting yesterday in Stuttgart - the first since the two car manufacturers merged. Daimler-Chrysler continued to show profitable growth up to April 1999, with revenues up 9% to Euro46.7bn for the four months to April.
Aesa upbeat on offshore yards Shipbuilder Astilleros Españoles is optimistic about the future of the group's two offshore yards, despite difficult market conditions.
Older vessels fly home flag OWNERSHIP patterns of the world merchant fleet show that ships registered under the national flag of their owners are significantly older than those under foreign flags, a German research institute claims.
First salvo in UK warships deal VOSPER Thornycroft and GEC Marconi are confident of gaining a contract to design and build 12 destroyers for the Royal Navy as part of a programme costing the UK taxpayer some '7bn ($11.3bn).
Order revival signals upturn in capesize newbuildings A SPATE of capesize newbuildings emerging this week are believed to signal the first signs of an upturn in the large dry bulk newbuilding sector according to brokers in London.
Vosper To Gain From Navy Deal Vosper Thornycroft Holdings Plc, Britain's second largest warship builder, is reportedly in talks to participate in a major Royal Navy contract that could total $11.36 billion.
Horace Clarkson Reports Trading Is In Line Horace Clarkson Plc reported current trading had met expectations with low vessel earnings expected to continue well into 1999.
India Seeks Boost For Domestic Petroleum Shippers India's Surface Transport Ministry reportedly suggested that all petroleum product imports be made on a free-on-board basis to help boost freight loads of domestic shippers, a senior government official said on Tuesday.
Yousfi: OPEC Must Hang Tough On Oil Cuts OPEC President Youssef Yousfi of Algeria reportedly warned that the international oil market remained precariously balanced because of extremely high stocks.
Vosper, Marconi In Talks For Destroyer Vosper Thornycroft Holdings Plc has reportedly started discussions with Marconi Electronics Systems on joint involvement in designing and building two anti-air warfare destroyer ships.
Substandard Vessels Dropped From Cyprus Register Six vessels have reportedly been flagged out of the Cyprus shipping registry by their owners for failing safety standards.
Deregulation of the electric utility industry will hurt railroad profitability unless the rails take some proactive steps. That's the word from leading Wall Street transportation analyst James J. Valentine of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. He's advising railroads to help their utility customers become more competitive in deregulated wholesale power markets by encouraging greater coal use. Coal is the mainstay of railroads' profitability. More than 80 percent of U.S.-mined coal is burned to generate electricity and coal accounts for more than 20 percent of all rail industry revenue—$6.2 billion a year. Eastern railroads could benefit as much as the Western railroads because tonnage and distance would increase under Valentine's scenario.
Shippers with clout got the ear of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, the Texas Republican who chairs the Senate Surface Transportation subcommittee. Some heavyweight chemical shippers, including Occidental Chemicals CEO Roger Hurl and Solvay America President Whitson Sadler, lobbied Hutchison face to face in an attempt to reign in railroads' market power. The chemicals industry claims it pays upward of $700 million more each year for rail service than it would in a competitive marketplace. The Chemical Manufacturers Association is promising that more chemical industry CEOs will be meeting with their senators soon. The shippers say they don't want deregulation. Rather, they want the goals of the Staggers Act enforced and the promise that monopoly power won't be abused by railroads.
How is maritime deregulation playing in the early days in the marketplace? Well, the world hasn't ended. But a debate at the Transportation Club of San Francisco showed the shipping environment will have to contend with economic forces that reach beyond the scope of the legislation. The changing face of Asian cargo volumes is one worry that some executives have.
Truckers' hours-of-service rules, largely unchanged since 1935, will be modified by Election Day 2000. That's the best guess of Julie Cirillo, the new program manager for the Federal Highway Administration's Office of Motor Carriers and Highway Safety. The trucking industry is favoring liberalization in the rules with "flexibility" the buzzword. But Cirillo isn't promising anything. With OMCHS under congressional pressure to tighten up trucking safety, the industry is prepared for the worst but hoping for the best from the government.
And the winner is ... the Port of New York & New Jersey. It won the bidding war to become the East Coast hub for Sea-Land Service and Maersk Line. In beating out Baltimore, the Port of New York & New Jersey effectively secured its future as a world-class container port. A Maersk official said rail and intermodal costs favored the New York & New Jersey port. There were reports of up to $600 million in incentives used to lure Sea-Land and Maersk to the port but officials declined to be specific on that issue.
There's a traffic jam in the Powder River Basin coal fields in Wyoming. That has prompted new demurrage policies by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. That has had the effect of diverting traffic away from the rail line jointly served by BNSF and Union Pacific Railroad. The upshot is traffic tie-ups have caused coal companies, electric utility coal shippers and the Western railroads to submit more timely tonnage forecasts as a way to better plan equipment and inventory requirements. The problem began in March. Since the policy was implemented in early April, some of the mines have recovered "fairly well," one rail official said.
If it happens it won't be a surprise, but if FDX Corp. goes ahead with its purchase of GeoLogistics it will raise a lot of eyebrows. It is no secret that FedEx is looking for a way to gain more market share across Europe and GeoLogistics could help it get there. FDX also is pursuing heavy freight more aggressively than ever before. A freight forwarder subsidiary makes a lot of sense for the company, but whether GeoLogistics is the right fit or not gets mixed reviews.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory is working with several partners to end truck rollovers and improve road safety with a new onboard warning system that alerts drivers to upcoming hazardous curves. ORNL plans to begin beta testing in July, according to project leader Scott Stevens. He estimates that 4,000 of the 15,000 rollovers that occur each year could be prevented with the new technology.
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