ABS boss to unveil scrutiny proposals Proposals intended to tighten classification society scrutiny of ageing vessels, particularly tankers, in the wake of the Erika disaster, have been unveiled by Frank Iarossi, chairman and chief executive officer of the American Bureau of Shipping.
Hapag-Lloyd sells off loss-making Rickmers GERMANY's Hapag-Lloyd has sold Rickmers-Linie, including its four owned multipurpose cargo ships. The sale will become effective retroactively from January 1 and, as revealed in Lloyd's List on January 21, the buyer is Hamburg-based Rickmers Reederei, which is controlled by shipowner Bertram Rickmers. The deal sees Rickmers-Linie return to family ownership.
Star victory turns into pantomime NCL Holding's extraordinary general meeting in Oslo turned out to be a farce late on Friday, with Star Cruises walking away the victor.
Royal Caribbean declares 26th common stock dividend Royal Caribbean Cruises has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.11 per share for common stock shareholders of record at the close of business on March 1, 2000, payable on March 30.
Fewer ships planned in Atlantic shake-up A FIGURE of eight rotation that will reduce the number of ships is being planned by the Grand Alliance and Americana Ships for a joint transatlantic service scheduled to begin in the summer.
Italian yacht Prada Italian yacht Prada is escorted back to the Viaduct Basin, Auckland, by a flotilla of spectator boats for the official trophy presentation following her win over AmericaOne in the final of the Louis Vuitton Cup yesterday. Prada won the series 5-4 and now meets Team New Zealand for the Americas Cup.
Haniel CL groupe ses services containérisés sous un seul dénominateur Haniel Container Line GmbH (HCL), le groupe de transport industriel allemand, a groupé tous ses services containérisés fluviaux à Anvers sous un dénominateur commun. Ainsi, le groupe poursuit sa tendance à la concentration, qu'il avait entamée mi-1999 en intégrant les services containérisés à Duisbourg et à Rotterdam dans une seule compagnie. La représentation des services containérisés dans l'hinterland sera maintenue sous le nom de marque existant.
Le trafic containérisé en progression de 22% à Lille L'an dernier, 67.997 TEU ont été transbordés au terminal à containers du port de Lille. En comparaison avec l'année précédente, cela représente un bond en avant de pas moins de 22%. Le fait marquant est toutefois que la part de la navigation fluviale a fortement progressé dans ce segment de trafic.
CSX is making a bullish move away from contract pricing and toward more of a supply-and-demand pricing system. The timing of the change is strange: the Conrail merger hiccups aren't ironed out and shippers are still waiting for competition among the rails to force improved service. While CSX is not planning a drastic new pricing scheme, it is hinting at increases where it can get them. Shippers, meanwhile, scoff at the plan unless the increases come with the promise of improved service.
Norfolk Southern is doing everything in its power to stop the proposed merger between Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Canadian National. NS wants the Surface Transportation Board to ask for an operating plan about what the merged railroad would look like in Canada even though its jurisdiction stops at the U.S. border. The proposed merger is raising eyebrows of legislators on Capitol Hill who worry that Canadian shippers may gain unfair pricing and equipment advantages over U.S. counterparts. The addition of a Canadian operating plan may not derail the merger but it could certainly delay it.
Move over just-in-time; there's a new kid in town and the name is build-to-order. This new logistics buzzword is a leaner, speedier model better suited to competing in the fast-paced world of e-commerce, according to management consultant David Anderson. Building on the model Dell Computer Corp. has made famous, these new high-octane models may revolutionize supply-chain management. The dot-com companies opting to use warehouse-based fulfillment are taking a step back in time, warns Anderson. The answer is to find manufacturers that can make products on demand and skip the costs of holding any inventory at all.
Overnite Transportation and the Teamsters union head back to the bargaining table this week for their first face-to-face negotiations since Sept. 17. The union's unfair labor practice strike, which is in its 16th week, is continuing while the two sides negotiate. The talks take place in Chicago without the presence of a federal mediator, which had been a goal of the Teamsters prior to the strike. This will be at least the 151st bargaining session and the two sides are not close to a final agreement to cover Overnite workers who have voted for representation by the Teamsters.
United Parcel Service was given a Wall Street welcome that sent the company's stock price sinking after reporting record fourth-quarter earnings. While UPS posted $661 million in net income for the fourth quarter and showed significant gains in all service offerings, particularly Next Day Air and international exports, the results were not good enough for some investors hooked on Internet speed. Airborne Express, meanwhile, did not have bright news to report. Thanks to zero package growth and high fuel costs, the air express company watched its net income fall to $17 million from $37 million last year.
Companies happy about their software integration experience! Maybe this is a trend of the future, at least with hosted software applications. As the World Wide Web gets wider, more companies are finding web-based computing an attractive option. We're talking about a shift toward application service providers, in which companies use the Internet to access software programs run on remote servers. The proponents of the ASP model claim it can significantly cut customers' implementation costs and make information available to users around the clock, anywhere they can tap into the Internet.
Amtrak Mail & Express is looking to get in the meat market - the $10 billion refrigerated meat market that has been dominated by trucks for 20 years. The company has signed a "memorandum of understanding" with a new company called American Refrigerated Express, headed by former railroad execs Art Shoener (of UP) and John Anderson (of CSX). The new service will rely on new loading and packing designs to trim costs and allow rail service to compete for this freight in the Midwest-to-Northeast market.
Environmentalists are up in arms over taxpayer money going to fund port improvement activities. In its sixth annual report, the Green Scissors Campaign is trying to shed environmentally wasteful projects from the U.S. budget. The group says if the 77 projects they've pinpointed were axed, taxpayers could save $50 billion. Five of those projects are port projects where the group believes the federal government is paying too much of the burden. While shipping groups disagree with the group's findings, the environmentalists maintain that while U.S. ports are fighting to attract shipping lines with deeper ports, the shipping industry is consolidating and there are fewer ships to go around.
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