P&O acquires Festival Continuing its expansion in the European cruise market, P&O is acquiring Festival Cruises in a deal worth a potential $400 million.
Trico sells liftboats to Superior Trico Marine Services, Inc. has sold its six liftboats to Superior Energy Services, Inc. of Harvey, Louisiana, for $14 million in cash.
European blitz on tankers EUROPEAN port states have announced an inspection blitz on oil tankers over 15 years old in response to the Erika oil spill last December.
Pariah toxic cargo heads for Pacific atoll A SHIPMENT of toxic US military waste that has been refused entry in Canada and the US has left Japan bound for remote Wake Island.
IPC teams up with Tufton INTERNATIONAL Product Tankers , the pool formed by OMI and Osprey Maritime, has unveiled two fresh developments which expand its membership and strengthen its geographic reach.
Deutsche Schiffsbank net profits go up 49% GERMAN specialist ship mortgage bank Deutsche Schiffsbank lifted net profits in 1999 by a strong 49% to Dm47m ($22.3m), due to higher interest margins, despite a drop in new business volume compared with 1998.
Broström tanker deal 'cancelled' SPANISH shipyard Factorias Vulcano in Vigo has reportedly cancelled an agreement with Swedish product and chemical tanker firm Broström to deliver a 18,800 dwt stainless steel, double-hull chemical tanker.
Solar-Powered Ferry The sun shines through the solar panels of Helio, the first international solar shuttle, at Radolfzell on Lake Contance. The solar-powered ferry connecting the Germany city of Gaienhofen and Steckborn on the Swiss shore carries up to 50 people and 25 bicycles.
Inmarsat to launch superfast network INMARSAT, the UK-based pioneer of mobile satellite communications, is to plough $700m into a new, high-speed data network in the sky and vowed to list about 25% of the group in 2001.
Carnival switches Fun quartet to Panama CARNIVAL Cruise Line has just switched four cruiseships from the Liberian to the Panama flag.
Ford va cesser de produire la Fiesta à Dagenham Ford Europe devrait confirmer aujourd'hui de façon officielle ce qui avait déjà été prédit à plusieurs reprises dans des documents internes officieux, à savoir que 1.500 postes supplémentaires vont disparaître dans son usine de Dagenham. Ford va "concrétiser" ces plans en arrêtant la production de la Fiesta à la fin de l'an prochain. Comme déjà annoncé, une des lignes d'assemblage de la Fiesta sera supprimée cet été, ce qui se traduira par la perte de 1.500 emplois. Vu que la production de l'Escort à Halewood sera également arrêtée à la fin de l'année et que l'usine sera transformée pour la production de petites Jaguar, plus aucune voiture Ford ne sera produite au Royaume-Uni. Cela signifiera aussi la fin des exportations vers notamment Zeebrugge. Pour Cobelfret Ferries, ce trafic a porté l'an passé sur 65.580 véhicules.
Le tunnel sous l'Escaut occidental à mi-chemin Les retards encourus dans les travaux de creusement du tunnel sous l'Escaut occidental sont pratiquement rattrapés. La machine de forage avance à une vitesse de 12 m par jour sous l'Escaut occidental entre Terneuzen et la rive nord, où le tunnel débouchera dans l'Ellewoutsdijk.
Anvers: comment freiner l'impact du container sur certains trafics? Si le port d'Anvers maintient sa position de leader en Europe du Nord dans le secteur du conventionnel/breakbulk, il n'en est pas moins évident que ledit secteur est en perte de vitesse. Certes, le premier trimestre de cette année a donné lieu à une très forte reprise, mais qu'il faut relativer car les chiffres en question sont à comparer avec un premier trimestre déplorable en 1999. La récente analyse des causes et effets du recul du conventionnel à laquelle s'est livré le service d'études de l'Entreprise portuaire anversoise et à laquelle nous avons déjà fait allusion dans un article précédent, est des plus intéressantes, dans la mesure où elle doit permettre aux diverses parties concernées de corriger le tir là où cela est nécessaire.
Le CA consolidé d'Air France a progressé de 13,5% Pour l'ensemble de l'exercice 1999/2000, qui s'est clôturé le 31 mars dernier, le groupe Air France a noté un chiffre d'affaires consolidé de 10,3 milliards d'EUR, en progression de 13,5%. Le CA des activités relatives au transport aérien représente 9,1 mia. d'EUR et est en hausse de 15,1%.
The British Empire is gone, but don't tell The British Post Office, which is making moves officials say will make it a "major player" in world distribution. Of course, most of the noise from Europe has been from Deutsche Post buying up pieces of what it views as a world distribution network. But the BPO quietly has been buying up parcel companies, distribution concerns and overnight delivery firms worldwide. Most recently it spent $125 million for Geodis Group's French express parcel unit Extand. It's the 11th acquisition in the past 15 months. The British Post Office and Singapore Post established a joint venture mailing partnership in March to serve 200 countries.
The Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Canadian National railroads are calling the Surface Transportation Board's 15-month merger moratorium a "shell game" that is illegal and anti-competitive. The railroads, which are seeking approval to create North America's largest railroad in a $19 billion merger, charge the STB is ignoring the "explicit" congressional directive that the STB hasten the handling of railroad merger cases. Others filing in support of overturning the STB merger moratorium were the National Industrial Transportation League, the Transportation Intermediaries Association, the Fertilizer Institute, Gaylord Container Corp., Schneider National, the Western Coal Transportation League, Wisconsin Central Railroad and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.
Reverse logistics is growing and many e-tailers are outsourcing the management of those returns to specialists in the business. It's difficult to tell how much of the $3.1 billion business-to-consumer market is marked return to sender. But what is clear is that dealing with returns efficiently and seamlessly is hard. The number of providers specializing in reverse logistics is growing as finicky consumers are finding that baby blue sweater on the website is actually olive green when it arrives.
Myron P. "Mike" Shevell, chairman of the Shevell Group that includes New England Motor Freight, is the third trucking executive to win the prestigious Salzberg Medallion from Syracuse University. The 65-year-old Shevell rescued NEMF out of bankruptcy in 1977 and now presides over a growing, highly profitable $200 million premium Northeast regional LTL carrier. Shevell joins truckload entrepreneurs Donald J. Schneider and J.B. Hunt as the only trucking executives to receive the Salzberg award, which began in 1949. It goes annually to outstanding practitioners, advocates, academicians or researchers in the field of transportation, distribution and logistics. This year's co-recipients are George D. Warrington, president and CEO of Amtrak, and Raymond C. Burton, president and CEO of TTX.
The air cargo folks got a heavy dose of "dot-com fever" at the Cargo Network Services Partnership Conference in La Jolla, Calif. Nearly 50 dot-com startups are currently trolling for business in all sectors of transportation. Fat yields from air freight are serving as bait for a lot of these startups seeking fast cash. But it's all a work in progress, as most air freight executives admit this young industry has yet to fully digest the fast-moving scene. The dot-coms are fundamentally changing the way forwarders, airlines and shippers do business. Besides the semantics of "whose customer is it?" air cargo executives are at once apprehensive and appreciative of the Internet's lure.
Rail shipper Roquette America Inc., which recently filed to dismiss its request to reopen the merger that formed the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, must first deal with another party to the case: shortline Keokuk Junction Railway. RAI is resisting KJRY's request to keep the case open at the Surface Transportation Board, contending that it planned all along to allow the shortline to see its settlement agreement with BNSF - KJRY's main concern, and the reason for filing its request. But if what the shortline wants is more time to negotiate, RAI maintains, it should open its own proceeding.
Does the nation really need a deeper Delaware River? The port of Philadelphia and Camden thinks so, arguing it needs a deeper channel to stay competitive. But Sen. Robert G. Torricelli, D-N.J., and Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J., want the General Accounting Office to review the $311 million dredging project with a detailed cost-benefit analysis. Environmental groups are aghast at the plan, which does not call for financial aid from businesses that would benefit. The Taxpayers for Common Sense ranked the Delaware dredging plan the second most wasteful water project in the country, accusing the ports of a "race to the bottom." The Delaware River Port Authority counters by arguing that if the river's 40-foot channel is not deepened, within a few years it will have the shallowest draft of any port on the East Coast.
The long-distance truck of tomorrow is almost a reality today. Truck manufacturers are testing automatic devices such as miniature, lipstick-tube television cameras to help warn drivers when their rigs are about to veer out of the lanes. Devices such as automated collision avoidance systems also are being tested. Besides warning the drivers, some advanced systems can actually take over to "steer" the truck when it is in a dangerous driving situation.
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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