Ocean and NFC in £3bn merger OCEAN Group and NFC yesterday unveiled a £2.75bn ($4.38bn) merger which will position the combined company as the world's second largest logistics empire.
Minerva denies pool defection rumours MINERVA Shipping of Greece has countered market reports it is poised to quit panamax pool Star Tankers after just a few months of membership.
Profit surge fails to satisfy Statoil STATOIL of Norway yesterday unveiled a 1999 net profit of NKr3.4bn ($415m), 25 times the NKr134m reported a year ago, but said the latest figure was still unsatisfactory.
Navion losses accelerate as drillship writedown bites NAVION, Statoil's tanker and offshore subsidiary, sank to a 1999 net loss of NKr1.54bn ($188m), compared with a NKr437m deficit a year before, writes Rajesh Joshi, Oslo.
Damen deal on Schelde imminent DUTCH shipbuilder Damen Shipyards Group is on the verge of sealing a deal to buy the financially beleaguered Netherlands naval yard Koninklijke Schelde Groep from the Dutch government for a nominal one guilder.
The Maltese-registered tanker Polyxeni I The Maltese-registered tanker Polyxeni I, pictured leaving Valletta harbour, has reportedly been in a collision with the 7,428 dwt Conti Rosein in the Aegean Sea. Reports indicate that the collision left the 1972-built Polyxeni I holed in the mid-section above the loadline. Investigating authorities have raised questions over the effectiveness of lookouts on both vessels.
China Shipping set for CMA CGM partnership CHINA Shipping has formally signed a slot-sharing agreement with Compagnie Maritime d'Affretement and Compagnie Generale Maritime that presages a partnership between the two later this year.
Beijing relents on wholly-owned subsidiary firms THE Chinese government has promulgated new rules that will allow foreign shipping companies to establish wholly-owned operations in China, writes our correspondent.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., who says he opposes legislation to expand or tighten railroad regulation, three times co-sponsored such bills during the 1980s. And in 1988, McCain co-signed a letter to the Interstate Commerce Commission demanding it "preserve and provide competitive railroad transportation alternatives" and "assure that the captive shipper rate reasonableness process is not so complex, costly and time consuming that it fails to provide the protection intended by Congress."
It's just a single word in a scarce appendix mentioned at the bottom of an obscure paragraph deep within a 300-page proposed rule of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The word is worth at least $1 billion to railroads, however, because it would have exempted them from an intrusive and costly workplace safety rule affecting most other industries including trucking. The emphasis is on "would have." Because now that the word "exempt" next to railroads has been discovered in the OSHA rule before the March 2 deadline for filing comments, rail unions intend to demand that OSHA subject railroads to those new standards protecting workers performing heavy lifting and repetitive motion functions, said union attorney Larry Mann.
One of the largest U.S. chemical producers, Eastman Chemical Co., has teamed with Internet logistics software company Global Logistics Technologies to launch a new Internet logistics company for the chemical industry. Called ShipChem.com, the new company will be completely separate from its investing companies, Eastman and G-Log, said Barry Dale, president and chief operating officer. The new Internet-based logistics company will handle global multimodal, multileg shipments for the chemicals industry, said Dale. G-Log's software will provide the base for ShipChem, said Jerry Overcash, senior vice president, sales and marketing for Shelton, Conn.-based G-Log.
The need for comprehensive ocean shipping regulation is unquestioned - but not when the bureaucracies duplicate the work involved and needlessly divert crews from important operational tasks. It is becoming a hot-button issue at the London-based International Maritime Organization, the body responsible for much of the regulation that now blankets the shipping industry. At its worst, the red tape gets in the way of cargo operations and increases the burden on crews already straining to meet stringent sailing schedules.
Puerto Rico has high unemployment. The United States needs lots of truck drivers. One company is trying to blend the two problems into an innovative solution. World Net Solutions has a plan to train Puerto Ricans to drive commercial vehicles, send them out on the road for three weeks, then ship them home for a week and keep repeating that schedule month after month. While Puerto Rico is not seen as the silver bullet to end the U.S. driver shortage - an estimated 80,000 drivers are needed every year for the next five years - it is viewed as a good start. M.S. Carriers is committed to hiring the first 1,000 graduates of the training program.
After eight months of trying to negotiate a deal directly with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, corn processor shipper Roquette America Inc. is seeking relief from the Surface Transportation Board by filing a petition to reopen the BNSF merger. BNSF, the shipper claims, has not been able to provide the same level of service as it had before BNSF merged in 1995 when the shipper's plant was served by both BN and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. As a captive shipper, RAI asserts the remaining options available are unacceptable.
The 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City can't seem to escape controversy and the awarding of its freight forwarding contract is not exempt. The Salt Lake Organizing Committee awarded the contract to Circle International in September after a long and complex bidding process. Circle agreed to provide a certain level of in-kind services in exchange for the right to be an "official Olympic sponsor." Earlier this month, the organizing committee turned around and gave the contract to Schenker Inc. Schenker, along with providing in-kind service, made a cash donation, something Circle had refused to do. Circle provided freight forwarding and customs brokerage at the Atlanta, Norway and Barcelona games.
Past attempts at creating international electronic trading communities have stumbled on the complexity of global trade and an inherent mistrust of faceless communications. The Internet has changed all that. As a universal meeting place, the Internet allows any number of trading entities to converse at the same time. Capstan Systems has founded a virtual trading network for international e-traders on the Internet's collaborative power. The network enables companies to automate and integrate "the entire transaction life cycle," according to Ron Alvarez, president and CEO. It recently launched a series of product modules based on the network.
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