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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mishedlo who wrote (8499)	2/23/2004 6:16:31 PM
From: russwinter	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

Speaking of transportation bottlenecks, sure seems to be a lot of strikes, considering it's supposedly a "weak labor market". Dow Jones Business News Canada Rail Strike Crimps Ford's Car-Assembly Operations -CP Monday February 23, 5:43 pm ET NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Ford of Canada plants told 1,450 workers to go home on Monday because of the strike by Canadian National Railway Co. (NYSE:CNI - News) workers, the Canadian Press reported. Spokeswoman Lauren More said 1,200 day workers at a car assembly plant in St. Thomas, Ont., were sent home, as well as 250 workers on one assembly line at an engine plant in Windsor, the report said. More said the strike interfered with components arriving by train. "We're assessing the feasibility of temporarily using other modes of transportation, and we have moved to truck shipments where feasible," More said, according to the CP. GM Canada spokesman Stew Low didn't confirm Canadian Auto Workers statements that GM had also diverted shipments to trucks but said "a lot of scrambling has gone on behind the scenes in order to keep vehicles moving to our customers, CP reported. "There's a limited capacity in each (transport) sector, you can only divert so much," said Low. GM Canada uses trains to carry most of its new vehicles from a truck and two car plants in Oshawa, Ont., while trains carry only 10% of the parts coming to the plants, CP said. The CAW claims there are train delays across the country and that the company cannot carry on for long using non-union staff, the report said. The most vulnerable area for CN appears to be intermodal shipping yards, rather than bulk shipping. "CN is hurting because there are delays, mostly on trucks coming into its intermodal terminals," CAW spokesman Abe Rosner said, CP reported. He added that locomotive engineers have filed reports with Transport Canada about air systems not properly connected on trains, "and of course the people connecting the air systems are the people replacing our (union) members," CP reported. "Auto companies have transferred a big part of their shipments away from CN to truck so whether there are delays there or not, it certainly means CN has lost business on that front," Rosner said, according to CP. Domtar Inc. (NYSE:DTC - News) spokesman William George said the forest company began to order trucks for some of its products before the strike by the 5,000 workers began last Friday, the report added. A spokeswoman for Hudson's Bay Co. said its rail shipments go by CP Rail, while Home Depot Canada said it has not been affected so far by the CN strike. The same goes for Aluminerie Lauralco Inc., a major Quebec aluminum refinery and CN customer. CN spokesman Mark Hallman acknowledged there were some delays Monday but said operations at the inter-continental railway "remain near normal levels," CP reported. Hallman said court orders restricting picketing at entrances to its four main intermodal yards are ensuring that truck traffic flows in and out smoothly, the report said. They are in Montreal, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Brampton, Ont. CN trains carried 1.3 million containers and truck trailers in 2003, which tend to carry a lot of imported consumer goods from Asia, CP said. The Canadian Labor Department has appointed two mediators to try to bring the two sides together to talk, CP reported. The CAW members turned down a three-year contract that provided for annual wage increases of 3%.

To: mishedlo who wrote (8499)	2/23/2004 6:32:21 PM
From: Cogito Ergo Sum	Respond to of 110194

Yes I still lean that way.. hope I don't get blown over :o) investorshub.com

To: mishedlo who wrote (8499)	2/23/2004 6:57:56 PM
From: TheSlowLane	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 110194

mish - I'm glad you liked it but I think you're shortchanging Don. He has been dead on concerning the base metals for over a year now. I made about 120% on my base metal investments in 2003, so if that's "missing the point", I can only pray that he continues to do so. To be fair, he has missed some calls. For example, he thought that the NFC would win the Super Bowl. There's no way I would have bet against the Patriots anyway, so that call didn't cost me a dime. Paul