Word: freight
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...grounds at the bottom of their cups. In recent years, the grounds have spelled out nothing but good news. Since the Six-Day War of June 1967 closed the Suez Canal, shipowners everywhere have been riding the crest of a seemingly endless wave of profits. Last winter freight rates rose so high that many owners of bulk carriers and tankers became millionaires almost overnight...
This summer the coffee grounds have been telling a different tale. Since January, freight rates have dropped to their lowest levels in 14 years, sending many shipowners scrambling just to keep even with loan payments on their vessels. Off Piraeus, 250 merchant ships lie at anchor, mute testimony to the inability of their owners to find cargoes. Similar scenes of placid but unintended idleness can be found at anchorages throughout Europe...
Since 1965, Japanese steel production and the corresponding coal and iron-ore imports have grown at an average 11% per year. Unable to meet the coal and ore import needs of the mills, Japanese steamship companies began chartering extra tonnage from foreign shipowners. As a result, almost all freight rates were pushed skyward. At the peak of the boom in 1969, the steamship companies were chartering Greek and Norwegian vessels to haul coal from Hampton Roads, Va., to Japan for the hungry steel mills at rates that gave the shipowners profits of as much...
...spending and a rise in interest rates, Japanese steelmen would suddenly encounter rough weather. In January, they revised their forecasts: no increase in production for either fiscal 1971 or 1972. Almost immediately, the shipping companies were left with millions of tons of excess ships that they had chartered, and freight rates plummeted. To cut their losses, companies offered to recharter their vessels to other shipping firms at bargain-basement prices. One company in a large Japanese commercial group, for example, chartered a 54,000-ton bulk carrier late in 1970 at $3.75 per ton per month; in June, the company...
...Payoff Zero. Meanwhile, the boomer spirit has given way to despair. Near Anchorage, construction of the new Forum Hotel has halted. At the Anchorage airport, the Red Dodge Aviation Co. has abandoned its partially finished $2,000,000 freight terminal and has filed for reorganization under the bankruptcy law. Interior Airlines has also gone to court to stave off creditors. Alaska Airlines is in dire financial straits, as are several construction companies. Many corporations have overextended themselves. Bankers have begun to dry up financial pipelines that were once easily accessible to entrepreneurs. The Alaskan unemployment rate is 13.8%. The state...