A COMBINATION of rate pressure, trade imbalance and the prospect of US deregulation has forced both transpacific rate conferences to cease operations on April 30.
Touch down The Breitling Orbiter 3 balloon touches down in the desert of south west Egypt yesterday after a 21 day flight during which pilots Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland and Brian Jones of Britain became the first to fly non-stop around the world by hot air balloon.
Lower levels prevail for containership charters EARLY signs of some stability in the containership charter market in recent weeks cannot disguise the fact that ships are still being fixed at rates way below levels of a few months ago.
Keppel arm in 17% profits slide in 1998 Keppel Philippines Marine, formerly known as Kepphil Shipyard, reported a 17.3% decline in profits to Peso55.1m ($1.4m) last year from Peso66.6m in 1997.
Ageing Coast Guard yard faces scrutiny A comprehensive study to determine whether the US Coast Guard's ageing shipbuilding and repair facility is more cost-effective than commercial yards has been called for by the US General Accounting Office.
Newport News in strike threat NEWPORT News Shipbuilding, embroiled in fending off an unsolicited acquisition offer by General Dynamics, while rushing to finalise its own acquisition of Avondale Industries, may face a strike by its hourly workers on April 4, writes Joel Glass, Washington Correspondent.
Stamp out this menace next millennium When your think about it, there are parallels between the theft of motor cars and ships. At the lower end of both scales one finds opportunist thieves, and at the higher end those who carefully plan their theft and the disposal of the goods they steal.
Bundesrat urges government to ratify shipowner liability deal Germany's Bundesrat is to push the federal government to ratify recent conventions increasing shipowner liability following accidents.
L. Delwaide: la concession du 4e terminal à marée fera également l'objet d'un appel d'offres "Il n'est pas impossible que des tarifs différents soient établis pour le transit via le tunnel du Liefkenshoek et que l'option zéro soit retenue pour les containers maritimes en mouvement dans le contexte intraportuaire, c'est-à-dire devant passer de terminaux à containers de la rive gauche à ceux de la rive droite et vice et versa". C'est ce que nous a déclaré l'échevin du port le baron L. Delwaide lors d'un entretien.
Katoen Natie investit dans une usine à Teesside Le groupe anversois Katoen Natie poursuit son expansion internationale et ne se limite plus au secteur de l'entreposage et du traitement, dont le groupe est un des chefs de file incontestés. Le président Fernand Huts et son épouse se sont personnellement déplacés à Wilton (Teesside) pour la pose de la première pierre d'une unité de production pour le secteur chimique. Katoen Natie construira et exploitera lui-même l'usine et en assurera l'organisation logistique.
Réunion d'urgence entre le gouvernement et les transporteurs britanniques Le ministre britannique des Transports John Reid devrait rencontrer les transporteurs routiers britanniques dans les toutes prochaines heures afin de tenter de désamorcer la bombe qui risque d'éclater outre-Manche et qui n'est ni plus ni moins que l'exode massif de transporteurs vers le Continent. Le conflit porte sur l'augmentation draconnienne des accises sur le diesel et de la taxe de circulation. Londres risque d'être paralysé lundi.
Forte progression des résultats de Géodis en 1998 Le grope français de transport et de logistique Géodis (dominé par la SNCF) a enregistré l'année passée une progression de son chiffre d'affaires de 4,9% à18,56 mia. de FRF (2,83 mia. d'EUR). Le résultat d'exploitation a progressé de 27,3% à 431,2 mio. de FRF (65,7 mio. d'EUR) et le résultat net de 281% à 135,2 mio. de FRF (20,5 mio. d'EUR).
Progress reported in AIMPE talks The Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers is making slow but steady progress towards resolving its enterprise agreement differences with two of the country's major ship operators, ASP Ship Management and BHP Transport. Following talks in Melbourne last week between the institute and ASP Ship Management, 57 items which are in dispute have been identified. The parties are expected to take some time to clear those differences with informal discussions continuing this week.
Mayne in port business push Logistics group Mayne Nickless is moving to substantially strengthen its port cartage and container handling business, through a multi-million dollar acquisition and development program believed to be planned for Melbourne and Sydney. While the company on Friday could not comment on industry suggestions it is preparing to establish a major new port base in Melbourne, a spokesman confirmed it had acquired the Sydney-based Port Botany Container Park group in January this year for an undisclosed sum, in a bid to expand its container business.
Burnie brawl over govt dividend The Burnie Port Corporation will not know until the end of this financial year whether the Tasmanian government can actually claim a dividend equal to 70 per cent of its profit before tax. Following an outbreak of hostilities over the issue last week between the board's chairman John Pease and Deputy Premier Paul Lennon, Mr Pease told the DCN yesterday that the matter had not been resolved.
BHP-IMT offloads Americas service BHP Transport's IMT division is to withdraw from the intra-Americas trade, selling its US Gulf-West Coast South America service to competitor Seaboard Marine. The decision, which does not affect IMT's Australia/New Zealand-US West Coast services, will become effective on 15 April and see Miami-based Seaboard take over IMT's three time-chartered semi-container ships.
Burnie pushes faster ferry route Proponents of a fast ferry service across Bass Strait have selected a Stony Point-Burnie route following consideration of 15 potential routes between Victoria and Tasmania. A spokesman for the Burnie City Council told DCN that according to feasibility studies undertaken by consultants, Thompson Clarke Shipping, the proposed two-return-crossings-a-day fast ferry service would be a much more efficient proposition than the Devil Cat service now operated between TT-Line. (The Tasmanian Government has said it will seriously reconsider TT-Line's peak season charter of Incat's fast ferries, following indications of a second year of substantial losses on the operation.)
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