Flags slated for inquiry failures A TOP level maritime industry summit has blasted certain unnamed flag states for failure to investigate casualties, and backed a call for the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) to beef up its efforts in this field.
Incoming Russian president Vladimir Putin takes the oath Old and new: incoming Russian president Vladimir Putin (left) takes the oath watched by outgoing president Boris Yeltsin during his inauguration ceremony in the Kremlin yesterday. Putin vowed to unite the nation, repay people's trust and take care of the country he inherited from Yeltsin in Russia's first democratic handover of power.
OMI suffers double blow AILING US tanker company OMI Corp suffered a double blow last week, posting a sharp increase in losses for the first quarter of this year and losing long-serving chief financial officer Vince de Sostoa to a start-up technology company.
New chief splits rail operator into two divisions Freightliner's new boss has announced a corporate restructuring for the train operator whose main business is transporting maritime boxes across the UK rail network.
Seachem loses chief executive PAUL Wogan, chief executive of Ceres Hellenic's chemical tanker company Seachem, is understood to have quit, even as Seachem's merger with Norway's Odfjell was consummated last week.
Den norske Bank claws back NKr6m on first quarter shipping loans DEN norske Bank has unveiled a clawback of NKr6m ($666,000) on shipping loans during the first quarter, out of total loan-loss reversals of NKr57m for the group as a whole.
Olsen hit hard by krone collapse FRED Olsen Energy of Norway has claimed that the Norwegian krone's collapse against the US dollar has wiped out the best quarterly financial performance in the company's history.
Caution over yard's contract saviour Closure-threatened Harland and Wolff has adopted a cautious position on reports that it is close to winning a $500m contract to build four ferries.
Anvers a augmenté sa part de marché en conventionnel/breakbulk Dans une précédente édition, nous faisions allusion à la nécessité pour Anvers de développer une nouvelle stratégie dans le comaine du conventionnel breakbulk, ce qui implique une refonte de certaines pratiques, de tarifs et autres conditions de travail. Nous posions d'ailleurs la question: à quand la future table ronde qu'avait annoncé l'échevin du port à ce sujet? En fait de table ronde, il s'avère que le terme et le concept ne sont pas tout à fait appropriés et qu'il faudrait plutôt les remplacer par une succession de réunions de travail à divers échelons, qui viennent d'ailleurs démarrer. En effet, lors de sa dernière réunion, le conseil de concertation du port a abordé le sujet en présentant un document réalisé par les services d'études du port accompagné de diapositives, qui vise à présenter la situation de ce secteur et à faciliter la discussion à mener dans ses grandes lignes, et aider à prendre des décisions en ce qui concerne le suivi.
Forte hausse des résultats financiers de Deutsche Post en 1999 Le groupe Deutsche Post AG, qui opère désormais sous le nom de Deutsche Post World Net, a enregistré un bénéfice net de 1,1 mia. d'EUR en 1999, soit une hausse de 20,8% par rapport à 1998. Le chiffre d'affaires a augmenté de 52% à 22,4 mia. d'EUR, essentiellement du fait de son avalanche d'acquisitions. Pour la première fois, le groupe postal et logistique allemand a donné ses résultats individuellement pour chacune des divisions. Il en ressort que la division postale intervient encore pour environ 90% des bénéfices. Par ailleurs, il a été annoncé que l'introduction en bourse d'une partie du capital de DP est désormais prévue pour début novembre. Si la Commission européenne ne met pas de bâtons dans les roues...
Zeebrugge: les syndicats craignent de perdre une partie du trafic vers Hull Le front syndical commun CVD/UBOT du port de Zeebrugge a exprimé dans un courrier son inquiétude sur l'impact que pourrait avoir un nouveau service entre Edimbourg et le continent sur le plan de l'activité dans le port côtier. Ils craignent une perte de trafic sur la liaison assurée par P&O NSF vers Hull et une baisse du nombre de tâches pour les dockers de Zeebrugge si l'opérateur finalement choisi opte pour un autre port. Tant à la MBZ que chez P&O NSF, on trouve la réaction des syndicats prématurée.
La création de Sea-Invest France confirme la stratégie européenne du groupe gantois A la fin du premier trimestre de 1999, le groupe gantois Sea-Invest reprenait les activités de manutention portuaire du groupe Saga Terminaux Portuaires, filiale du groupe Bolloré. Cette opération portait essentiellement sur des terminaux vraquiers, mais aussi sur quelques autres terminaux traitant d'autres trafics. Depuis quelques jours, Sea-Invest a repris les derniers 50% que détenait encore STP et, en conséquence, a créé l'entité Sea-Invest France sous laquelle se poursuivront désormais les activités.
You aren't alone if you feel new technologies are whizzing by in a blur. Internet marketplaces are springing up daily. Software companies are merging, changing names and shifting focus to e-commerce. Says Adrian Gonzalez, an analyst at ARC Advisory Group: "There is a lot of confusion in the marketplace. Technology changes every day. The speed of innovation is faster than ever before." What does it all mean? Why is it happening so fast? What should I do? Why me? These questions may not be new but they weigh heavily on shippers and carriers alike.
The three federal judges scheduled to hear oral argument June 13 on a petition to stay a federally imposed 15-month rail merger moratorium include one whose Supreme Court nomination was scrubbed because he smoked pot, a cowboy-boot wearing prot'g' of arch-conservative Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., and a third who views economics and the law as Siamese twins and admits to "nudging the law" in directions he considers "sensible." They also possess the keenest intellects on the federal bench. And despite their disparate backgrounds, they frequently express libertarian ideas and share a notable abhorrence for government agencies that step beyond congressional mandates.
Nestle Nespresso has found the Internet is the right place to sell its coffee and espresso machines. The deal to sell its own machines on a housewares website is part of Nestle Nespresso's strategy to distribute direct, a direction the company would have taken with or without the Internet. Selling via an online marketplace allows the company to reach any independent retailer in the United States without having to ramp up a big sales force. A number of promotional campaigns are planned. For example, the company is offering free freight on five or more units purchased during the introductory offer period.
The explosion of e-commerce has changed the way trucking companies do business even more than deregulation did in 1980. Because 18-wheelers don't make house calls, trucking executive are searching for ways to compete for a piece of the business-to-business sector touted to reach $7.3 trillion by 2004. Truckers like ABF Freight System and Viking Freight are looking to their customers for guidance on where to go down the e-commerce road. All this talk of a new business paradigm will come at a cost that some carriers will take on and others won't. Some believe the hype is over-blown and truckers should stick to their niche.
Kitty Hawk filed for Chapter 11-bankruptcy protection last week with the hopes of restructuring the company into something viable. The first unit to meet the axe was Kitty Hawk International, the backbone of American International Airways before its 1997 acquisition by Kitty Hawk. All 550 employees were fired, including 200 pilots. The fear is that bloodletting won't be contained to just the international/big airplane operation but will spread to Kitty Hawk's domestic network. Kitty Hawk Cargo, while its network has been pared back and has eliminated Friday night service for now, continues to operate as normal with the support of most forwarders.
Millionaires aren't only in the high-tech industry. If you happened to be a steady employee at Kansas City Southern Railway over the last twenty years, there's a good chance you can count yourself among the new rich - thanks to parent company Kansas City Southern Industries' financial holdings. The downside, however, is a loss of employees who know how to run the railroad, which the railroad says was a contributing factor to the company's weak financial results. But the railroad is confident those troubles are far behind.
Pirate attacks are up in the Pacific and a group of Asian nations want to stop them in their tracks. Piracy attacks surged 40 percent to 285 last year with Indonesian waters and the Singapore Straits fairing the worst. Japan, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea all met in Tokyo last month and agreed to begin sharing information and consider the use of international patrols. The trend does not seem to be abating. In the first quarter there were 56 attacks in Pacific with 23 crewmembers taken hostage. Countries are imposing tougher sentences, even executing those pirates caught in the act.
Welcome to the e-generation. Business-to-business electronic-commerce - it's not only hip, it's a business imperative. AMR Research's "Report on E-Commerce Applications for April" released last week predicts big numbers - B2B e-commerce reaching $5.7 trillion by the end of 2004, 29 percent of the dollar value of commercial transactions - and big business changes along with all that money. "The actual number projected is not as important as what it indicates as a measurement of change in the way business is conducted," said the report based on Department of Commerce data. "The potential for wealth redistribution among winners and losers is gargantuan; $500 million e-commerce transactions are routinely conducted today. No company, of any size, can afford to miss out on transactions of this stature."
The Suez Canal Authority has announced that it will introduce surcharges on transit tariffs through the Egyptian canal for most major cargo vessels, effective July 15.
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