Domestic News
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Chesapeake Energy Corp’s value has soared since its June bankruptcy filing, the U.S. judge overseeing the natural gas producer’s trial indicated, and is worth $5.13 billion, far above the shale gas pioneer’s estimate. Creditors have offered sharply different estimates of the firm’s enterprise value during its trial in U.S. bankruptcy court in Houston. |
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Reading & Northern Railroad (R&N) posted growth in carloads and revenue in 2020, despite facing the challenges of the pandemic, the Port Clinton, Pennsylvania-based railroad announced yesterday. During the year, the regional hauled over 34,000 carloads — a "slight increase" — and a near 4% increase in revenue compared with 2019's levels, R&N officials said in a press release. |
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Cargo volume at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) rose 23% to 738,885 20-foot equivalent units in November 2020 compared with the same period in 2019, port authority officials announced last week. November's cargo increase marked a new monthly record in TEUs, as retailers and consumers responded to additional pandemic-related regional shutdowns, PANYNJ officials said in a press release and on the authority's blog. |
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South Carolina Ports Authority finished 2020 with its strongest December on record, logging 209,606 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) at the Wando Welch and North Charleston container terminals, up 11.6% year over year. SC Ports handled 116,685 pier containers during the month, up 10.3%. |
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The number of help-wanted ads increased more slowly in December, evidence the labor market is losing momentum amid rising coronavirus cases. Available jobs posted online were down 10.6% at the end of December from a year earlier, according to job-search site Indeed’s measure of job posting trends. |
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The number of drilling rigs operating in the U.S. rose this week as crude prices crossed the $50 milestone. Oil companies added nine additional rigs, bringing the nation’s count to 360, according to oil-field services company Baker Hughes and Enverus, which provide the weekly tally. |
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The national average intermodal spot rate of $2.45 per mile fell 4.3% last week. However, the drop came off of an all-time high in our data series of $2.66 on Dec. 20, 2020. |
International News
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Ford Motor Co’s decision to close three plants in Brazil will cut its losses and allow it to focus on boosting profitability in its underperforming international segment, J.P. Morgan analysts said on Tuesday. The United States’ No. 2 automaker on Monday said it would take pretax charges of about $4.1 billion to close the Brazilian plants, under used for a while due to pandemic-related restrictions, affecting 5,000 jobs. |
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Financial subsidies divide into direct and indirect support. Direct support from local governments is paid out to operating companies. |
