Italian bid for Skaugen Italy's Navigazione Montanari yesterday launched an audacious NKr390m ($49m) hostile take over bid for Norwegian gas carrier and lightering group I.M. Skaugen.
Metro plots cruise shift Singaporean retail group Metro Holdings has said that with the sinking of its large cruise vessel, the Sun Vista, its cruise business would be re-aligned to focus on operations of two smaller vessels.
BHP loss forces US copper halt BROKEN Hill Pty has posted Australia's biggest ever corporate loss, but the market rewarded the steel, mining and oil group for turning its back on disastrous investments.
Van Ommeren introduces new chemical tankers Two new low superstructure, shallow draught shortsea chemical tankers are being taken into service by the Dutch group Royal Van Ommeren.
Departure of pilots 'will not affect canal' PANAMA Canal operations will not be affected even if all the pilots who are due to retire decide to leave, according to maritime operations director Jorge Quijano.
Minoan unit orders three Austal ferries MINOAN Lines subsidiary Minoan Flying Dolphins has ordered three new highspeed ferries from Australian shipyard Austal, an investment totalling Dr28bn ($89.3m).
Anvers veut relancer le conventionnel/breakbulk Les années se suivent et ne se ressemblent pas. Le port d'Anvers accusait à la fin mai un recul de son trafic maritime de l'ordre de 8%. Le score des 120 millions de tonnes de 1998 ne sera donc pas égalé, à moins d'un revirement spectaculaire des tendances. Les vracs sont faibles, mais beaucoup plus préoccupant est le recul enregistré dans le secteur des diverses, plus précisément du côté du conventionnel/breakbulk, le container restant orienté à la hausse.
Aviation: plaidoyer pour une saine concurrence entre hubs L'aviation, du point de vue des compagnies aériennes, subit des cycles avec des courbes très prononcées. Les marges opérationnelles étant étroites, le transport aérien ne peut pas se permettre une capacité excédentaire. La crise asiatique - et les lignes aériennes évoluant sur ce continent - sont là pour le démontrer. Le secteur est également confronté à des problèmes plus structurels, auxquels il est urgent d'apporter une réponse.
Anvers réclame un sérieux rattrapage pour résoudre le problème de la mobilité "L'infrastructure développée par le passé est utilisée à sa pleine capacité et les crédits actuels suffisent à peine pour assurer l'entrerien normal. L'accessibilité du port est menacée tant du côté de la mer que des terres. Il est plus urgent que jamais de rattraper notre retard sur nos concurrents étrangers. Vu que cette opération ne suffit pas pour trouver une solution à long terme aux besoins réels, la piste des investissements alternatifs, le partenariat entre les secteurs public et privé (PPP), devra à nouveau être réactivée pour certains dossiers de longue date. C'est inévitable puisqu'une première estimation du coût de la réalisation des priorités des priorités anversoises s'élevait déjà à 47 mia. de BEF." C'est ce qu'écrivent l'Entreprise portuaire d'Anvers et l'AGHA dans un memorandum remis aux présidents des partis flamands concernés par le tour d'information pour la formation du nouveau gouvernement flamand.
Transportation attorney Bill Mullins, former counsel to four Republican Interstate Commerce Commission members and a drafter of the ICC Termination Act, is the architect of a case that could become a dress rehearsal for the Federal Railroad Administration to succeed the Surface Transportation Board as the economic regulator of railroads. Given the inclination of many shippers to shoot and bury the STB and shift its quasi-judicial functions elsewhere, were the FRA to charm opinion leaders and decision-makers with its handling of this case, the FRA could wind up regulating both railroad safety and economics. FRA attorneys said they would make a recommendation by late July to Administrator Jolene Molitoris as to how the agency should proceed.
The problem of members of Congress lobbying regulators must be curtailed by restraining not the legislators but those who put the legislators up to it, said a former chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Reese Taylor, who chaired the ICC from 1981 through 1985, said attorneys who put lawmakers up to lobbying regulators on behalf of clients are engaging in "unethical behavior," and should be subject to bar association sanctions. Taylor said there is nothing to be done directly to members of Congress. If the process of improper lobbying is to be slowed, those who need to be restrained are not necessarily the lawmakers but "the motivators," whom he identified as attorneys practicing before the agencies being lobbied.
Ocean shippers and carriers are finding that adjusting to life in the new era of ocean shipping reform is akin to making one's way through an obstacle course in pitch-black darkness: they know they're on the right path but they can't see the chuckholes in front of them. The Agriculture Ocean Transportation Coalition's annual meeting in San Francisco was held on Day 49 since the Ocean Shipping Reform Act took effect May 1. Everyone at the meeting knew how long it had been - most likely they knew it down to the minute.
USFreightways soon will link its five regional LTL carriers to offer a long-haul service in addition to its meat-and-potatoes regional fare. The move will begin with a service running from the West Coast to the East Coast. It will be offered at a premium approximately 25 percent above USF's regional rates, according to analysts familiar with USF's plans. The move is similar to one by Con-Way Transportation Services, which finished linking its three regional units 15 months ago and has enjoyed much financial success from it.
The cost and quality of freight services raised the temperature of the debate at the International Refrigerated Transportation Association annual conference in Seattle. Plummeting freight rates in the transpacific trades are making it difficult for ocean carriers to invest in specialized equipment. "You can't afford to reinvest at these rates," Joel Greenberg, APL regional director refrigerated commodities, told delegates. Greenberg said rates across the Pacific are now less than a third what they were a year ago. The basic cost of a reefer box - between $35,000 and $65,000 - and high maintenance and overhead costs mean that falling freight rates are particularly hard to bear in these trades, he maintained.
The split-up of Conrail has sent shippers scrambling to find rail alternatives rather than risk the delays plaguing Norfolk Southern and CSX. Air freight has been a beneficiary of some of the flight to other modes. Emery Worldwide and Kitty Hawk saw a surge in requests for air charters in mid-June from rail shippers of many sorts and even the railroads themselves. UPS, a huge user of rail, pulled half of its daily volume from what used to be the Conrail system until things improve.
Is it too early to draw comparisons between the causes of the service problems on Union Pacific Railroad two years ago and the problems shippers are seeing on Norfolk Southern today? Possibly, but the signs are there nonetheless: stubbornness, arrogance and a lack of preparation. It's only been a month and captive shippers are already wondering how they will be able to recoup their losses. But there's also plenty of time for NS to regain its footing, and everyone—including the competition—is hoping it happens soon.
The Department of Transportation has hired its very first chief information officer. George Molaski had been on the job two weeks—he started June 6—when he took time out of his schedule to speak to Traffic World about his goals and plans for DOT. The position of CIO was established by the Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1996, but between 1996 and now DOT filled the position with a variety of acting CIOs. Molaski, who has 20 years of experience in computer sciences, want to make information readily available to the public and within DOT. His view is echoed in the department's five-year information technology plan, released in January, which specifically mentions Internet usage, security and web-enabled applications as areas of particular interest for the department.
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