Briefs
Staff -- Purchasing, 8/14/2003
- The U.S. Department of Justice is charging Richard Wingfield, an executive from Norwegian chemicals shipping firm Stolt-Nielsen S.A., for allegedly collusive behavior. Wingfield, who heads Stolt-Nielsen's tanker trading group, has been suspended from his job, the company said in a news release. U.S. authorities are already investigating whether the company violated trade embargoes. The Justice Department is charging Wingfield with a violation of part of the Sherman Act regarding alleged collusion in the parcel tanker industry, Stolt-Nielsen said. "The Department of Justice has advised the company that it no longer considers Mr. Wingfield to be covered by the conditional amnesty granted to the company," Stolt-Nielsen said in its news release.
- Top executives from European automotive suppliers say they are on the verge of crisis if automotive OEMs continue to force suppliers down on price due to low demand for product. "We cannot [continue with] this opportunism because we will leave behind a pile of dead bodies and the manufacturers do not get their supplies from dead bodies," said Volker Barth, head of Europe, Middle East and Africa at the world's biggest car parts firm Delphi at a conference in Paris recently. Delphi slashed its profit targets while Visteon and Europe's largest listed car parts firm Valeo are cutting jobs to shield margins from a weak market and pricing pressure. "We have arrived at the point where some suppliers are not making any money on deals but are going ahead with them just to get some cash flow," Barth told Reuters.
- Freight rate increases came out from LTL carriers in June. FedEx Freight implemented a 5.9% general rate increase effective June 30 at the company's two operating units, FedEx Freight East and FedEx Freight West. Company officials cited increased costs for healthcare and insurance as well as compliance with new regulatory requirements as reasons for the increase. LTL carrier Old Dominion Freight Line also adopted a rate increase of 5.8% effective July 1. ABF Freight System increased rates 5.85% on average, effective in July.
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