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  • Strike at Canada’s Pacific ports ends with tentative, 4-year deal

    Strike at Canada’s Pacific ports ends with tentative, 4-year deal

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    [1/5]Union members with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada (ILWU) remove strike signs from a picket line outside the despatch hall in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada July 13, 2023. REUTERS/Chris Helgren

    VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 13 (Reuters) – Dock workers at ports along Canada’s Pacific coast and their employers accepted a tentative wage deal on Thursday, ending a 13-day strike that disrupted trade at the country’s busiest ports and risked worsening inflation.

    “The British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) and International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Canada are pleased to advise that the parties have reached a tentative agreement on a new 4-year deal,” the BCMEA said in a statement.

    The ILWU also said there was an agreement, which must now be ratified by both sides. The union had made demands including wage increases and expansion of their jurisdiction to regular maintenance work on terminals.

    Some 7,500 dock workers represented by the ILWU walked off the job on July 1 after failing to reach a new work contract with the BCMEA representing the companies involved.

    The strike upended operations at two of Canada’s three busiest ports, the Port of Vancouver and the Port of Prince Rupert – key gateways for exporting the country’s natural resources and commodities and bringing in raw materials.

    Economists have warned that the strike could trigger more supply-chain disruptions and fuel inflation while the Bank of Canada tries to cool the economy.

    “The scale of the disruption has been significant,” Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said in a joint statement.

    “We do not want to be back here again. Deals like this, made between parties at the collective bargaining table, are the best way to prevent that.”

    On Tuesday, O’Regan said the differences between the parties were not sufficient to justify a continued work stoppage.

    He offered terms drafted by a federal mediator and gave the union and employers 24 hours to decide if they were satisfied. The deal was reached at 10:20 am PT (1720 GMT), 10 minutes before the deadline, the ILWU said.

    The parties, with help from federal mediators, had been negotiating a new contract since late April.

    More than half of Canadian small business owners in a survey released on Tuesday said the strike at the Port of Vancouver will affect their operations, according to preliminary results from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

    The strike is estimated to have disrupted C$6.5 billion of cargo movement at the ports, based on the industry body Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters’ calculation of about C$500 million in disrupted trade each day.

    Reporting by Ismail Shakil and Steve Scherer in Ottawa, editing by Deepa Babington, Alexandra Hudson

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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  • Deadly Indian rail crash shifts focus from new trains to safety

    Deadly Indian rail crash shifts focus from new trains to safety

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    • India’s train network seeing rapid expansion, modernisation
    • Experts say focus on safety has not kept pace with expansion
    • Government says data shows no major accident for years

    NEW DELHI, June 3 (Reuters) – India’s vast rail network is undergoing a $30 billion transformation with gleaming new trains and modern stations but Friday’s deadly train accident shows more attention should be paid to safety, industry analysts said.

    At least 288 people were killed in the country’s worst rail accident in over two decades after a passenger train went off the tracks and hit another in the eastern state of Odisha.

    State monopoly Indian Railways runs the fourth largest train network in the world. It transports 13 million people every day and moved nearly 1.5 billion tonnes of freight in 2022.

    Long considered the lifeline of the world’s most populous country, the 170-year-old system has seen rapid expansion and modernisation under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push to boost infrastructure and connectivity in the fast-growing economy.

    This year, the government made a record 2.4-trillion-rupee ($30 billion) capital outlay for the railways, a 50% increase over the previous fiscal year, to upgrade tracks, ease congestion and add new trains.

    A new, semi-high-speed train built in India and called the “Vande Bharat Express”, or “Salute to India Express”, is showcased as evidence of this modernisation, with Modi himself flagging off the first journeys of many of the trains around the country.

    But Friday’s crash has come as a jolt to this makeover, experts said.

    “The safety record has been improving over the years but there is more work to do,” said Prakash Kumar Sen, head of the department of mechanical engineering at Kirodimal Institute of Technology in central India and lead author of a 2020 study on “Causes of Rail Derailment in India and Corrective Measures”.

    “Human error or poor track maintenance are generally to blame in such crashes,” Sen said.

    The railways have been introducing more and more trains to cope with soaring demand but the workforce to maintain them has not kept pace, he said.

    Workers are not trained adequately or their workload is too high, and they don’t get enough rest, Sen said.

    The east coast route on which Friday’s crash occurred, is one of the country’s oldest and busiest, as it also carries much of India’s coal and oil freight, he said.

    “These tracks are very old … the load on them is very high, if maintenance is not good, failures will happen,” Sen said.

    ‘GOOD SAFETY RECORD’

    Indian Railways maintains that safety has always been a key focus, and points to its low accident rate over the years.

    “This question (on safety) is arising because there has been one incident now. But if you see the data, you will see that there have been no major accidents for years,” a railways ministry spokesperson said.

    The number of accidents per million train kilometres, a gauge of safety, had fallen to 0.03 in fiscal 2021-22 from 0.10 in 2013-14, the spokesperson said.

    A 1-trillion-rupee, five-year safety fund created in 2017-18 has been extended for another five years from 2022-23, with a further 450 billion rupees of funding, after the first plan led to an “overall improvement in safety indicators”, he added.

    “Some malfunction has happened and that the inquiry will reveal,” he said, referring to Friday’s crash. “We will find out why it happened and how it happened.”

    Srinand Jha, an independent transport expert and author at the International Railway Journal, said the railways have been working on safety mechanisms such as anti-collision devices and emergency warning systems but have been slow to install them across the network.

    “They will always tell you that accidents are at a very manageable level because they talk about them in terms of percentages,” Jha said, adding that in recent years the focus has been more on new trains and modern stations and not as much on tracks, signalling systems and asset management.

    “This accident brings out the need to focus more on these aspects,” he said.

    Reporting by YP Rajesh
    Editing by Mark Potter

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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  • India’s worst train crash in decades kills at least 288

    India’s worst train crash in decades kills at least 288

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    BAHANAGA, India, June 3 (Reuters) – At least 288 people have died in India’s worst rail crash in over two decades, officials said on Saturday, after a passenger train went off the tracks and hit another one in an accident a preliminary report blamed on signal failure.

    One train in Friday’s accident also hit a freight train parked nearby in the district of Balasore in Odisha state in the east of the country, leaving a tangled mess of smashed rail cars and injuring 803.

    The death toll has reached 288, said K. S. Anand, chief public relations officer of the South Eastern Railway.

    Dead bodies are still trapped in the mangled coaches and the rescue operation is continuing, a Reuters witness said, while the death toll is expected to rise.

    A preliminary report indicates that the accident was the result of signal failure, Anand said.

    “The Coromandel Express was supposed to travel on the main line, but a signal was given for the loop line instead, and the train rammed into a goods train already parked over there. Its coaches then fell onto the tracks on either side, also derailing the Howrah Superfast Express,” he said.

    Surviving passenger Anubha Das said he would never forget the scene. “Families crushed away, limbless bodies and a bloodbath on the tracks,” he said.

    Video footage showed derailed train coaches and damaged tracks, with rescue teams searching the mangled carriages to pull the survivors out and rush them to hospital.

    Dead bodies were lying on the bloodstained floor of a school used as a makeshift morgue, and police helped relatives identify the bodies, covered with white cloths and placed inside chained bags.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at the scene, talked to rescue workers and inspected the wreckage. He also met the survivors at hospitals.

    “(I) took stock of the situation at the site of the tragedy in Odisha. Words can’t capture my deep sorrow. We stand committed to providing all possible assistance to those affected,” Modi said.

    A witness involved in rescue operations said the screams and cries of the injured and the relatives of those killed were chilling. “It was horrific and heart-wrenching,” he said.

    Families of the dead will receive 1 million rupees ($12,000), while the seriously injured will get 200,000 rupees, with 50,000 rupees for minor injuries, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said. Some state governments have also announced compensation.

    [1/20] Rescue workers search for survivors at the site of a train collision after the accident in Balasore district in the eastern state of Odisha, India, June 3, 2023. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

    “It’s a big, tragic accident,” Vaishnaw told reporters after inspecting the accident site. “Our complete focus is on the rescue and relief operation, and we are trying to ensure that those injured get the best possible treatment.”

    At least 261 people died in an accident involving two long-distance passenger trains in eastern Indian state of Odisha on June 2.

    DISMEMBERED BODIES

    “I was asleep,” an unidentified male survivor told NDTV news. “I was woken up by the noise of the train derailing. Suddenly I saw 10-15 people dead. I managed to come out of the coach, and then I saw a lot of dismembered bodies.”

    Video footage from Friday showed rescuers climbing on one of the mangled trains to find survivors, while passengers called for help and sobbed next to the wreckage.

    “We rescued at least 30 people, and some of them managed to survive, but three or four of them died,” said Sanjeev Rout, an electrician. A few metres away, rescue workers tried to cut their way into a damaged red-coloured coach.

    The collision occurred at around 7 p.m. (1330 GMT) on Friday when the Howrah Superfast Express from Bengaluru to Howrah in West Bengal collided with the Coromandel Express from Kolkata to Chennai.

    Indian Railways says it transports more than 13 million people every day. But the state-run monopoly has had a patchy safety record because of ageing infrastructure.

    Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik described the crash as “extremely tragic”.

    Opposition Congress party leader Jairam Ramesh said the accident reinforced why safety should always be the foremost priority of the rail network.

    Modi’s administration has launched high-speed trains as part of plans to modernise the network, but critics say it has not focused enough on safety and upgrading ageing infrastructure.

    Experts said Friday’s train accident came as a blow to Modi’s makeover plans for railways.

    India’s deadliest railway accident was in 1981 when a train plunged off a bridge into a river in Bihar state, killing an estimated 800 people.

    Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron expressed condolences over the accident.

    ($1 = 82.40 rupees)

    Additional reporting by Akriti Sharma, Subrata Nag Choudhury, Mayank Bhardwaj, Sakshi Dayal, Anirudh Saligrama, Baranjot Kaur, Nandini S, Adnan Abidi and Sunil Kataria; Editing by Edwina Gibbs, William Mallard, Mark Potter and Giles Elgood

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  • Exclusive: Venezuela’s oil tankers at risk of sinking, fires, spills, report finds

    Exclusive: Venezuela’s oil tankers at risk of sinking, fires, spills, report finds

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    PUNTO FIJO, May 4 (Reuters) – More than half of the 22 oil tankers in Venezuela’s fleet are so run down that they should be immediately repaired or taken out of service, according to an internal report from state-run oil company PDVSA that was shared exclusively with Reuters.

    The report by PDVSA’s maritime branch, entitled “Critical deficiencies and risks of PDV Marina’s tanker fleet,” said years of deferred maintenance had left the entire fleet with “low levels of reliability,” at risk of spills, sinking, fires, collisions or flooding.

    “The ships currently lack seaworthiness classification and certifications by flag nations,” the report said.

    PDVSA and PDV Marina did not respond to requests for comment.

    The report, dated March 2023, was among eight documents shared with Reuters describing the state of PDVSA’s tanker fleet from the oil company’s corporate office, trading division and maritime branch, as well as Venezuela’s maritime authority. The existence of the documents has not been previously reported.

    Dated from Jan. 2022 to March this year, the documents detail the condition of the company’s tankers; the costs of chartering third-party vessels and the status of shipbuilding contracts with companies in Argentina and Iran.

    The deterioration of the fleet has forced PDVSA to charter tankers to move its oil, which provides the bulk of Venezuela’s hard currency, the analysis by PDVSA’s trade division said.

    PDVSA and the oil ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

    The reports were prepared amid a wide-ranging anti-corruption probe ordered by Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro last October after the discovery of billions of dollars in missing payments for petroleum exports. More than 60 people have been arrested and PDVSA’s chief executive and the nation’s oil minister have been replaced.

    The report from PDV Marina recommended withdrawing five tankers from active use; sending seven to shipyards for major repairs and installing transponders, fire extinguishers and communication equipment in others. No actions have been taken as the audit on the company’s operations continues.

    Five of PDVSA’s tankers are at least 30 years old, past their recommended lifespan, according to the PDV Marina report. The last major maintenance work on the fleet was five years ago, the report said.

    “The tanker fleet is showing a decline in the quality of its operations due to advanced physical deterioration, which implies higher maintenance and repair costs. Planning for sending the tankers to dry docks has been very affected by lack of payment to shipyards and providers,” the PDV Marina report said.

    Reuters has previously reported on an increase in tanker collisions, spill risks and fires in Venezuela.

    PDVSA leased 41 vessels last year, the documents said, paying about double the market rate, between $14,000 and $36,500 per day, to tanker owners willing to work with Venezuela despite U.S. sanctions imposed in 2019.

    DELAYED SHIPS

    At least four tankers ordered from foreign shipyards have been held up because of payment delays, cost increases and sanctions, according to the documents reviewed by Reuters.

    The audits ordered by PDVSA’s new CEO Pedro Tellechea as part of Maduro’s anti-corruption probe could bring further delays, a PDVSA executive said.

    “All contracts are frozen,” the executive said on condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation. PDVSA’s legal and supply and trade departments are asking PDV Marina for documentation on the contracts, he added.

    Venezuela has paid shipyards in Iran and Argentina at least $300 million for six new vessels ordered as far back as 2005.

    It has taken delivery of only two of them, according to the documents.

    PDVSA has paid almost 80% of the $160 million due for two tankers from Rio Santiago shipyard in Argentina, the documents showed.

    Rio Santiago said it was not authorized to give information about that particular contract.

    In addition, PDVSA paid almost 157 million euros (about $173 million), or 63% of a 248 million euros contract (about $272 million) to U.S.-sanctioned Iran Marine Industrial Company (Sadra) for four tankers, according to the documents.

    Two of the four vessels were delivered after payment delays, difficulties with parts supplies and problems with insurance and certifications, according to the documents.

    The payment delays generated extra costs for demurrage, the documents said.

    Sadra did not reply to a request for comment.

    Reporting by Mircely Guanipa; Additional reporting by Marianna Parraga in Houston, Eliana Raszewski in Buenos Aires and Parisa Hafezi in Dubai; Editing by Gary McWilliams and Suzanne Goldenberg

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  • Another Norfolk Southern train derails in Ohio, railroad says no toxins aboard

    Another Norfolk Southern train derails in Ohio, railroad says no toxins aboard

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    March 4 (Reuters) – A Norfolk Southern (NSC.N) train derailed in Ohio on Saturday, the second such incident involving the railroad in that state in about a month, prompting local officials to order residents living near the site of the accident to shelter in place.

    Norfolk Southern said the train that derailed near Springfield was not carrying any hazardous materials and that no one was hurt. Local authorities said first responders on the scene were working to confirm that no toxins were involved.

    The accident follows the Feb. 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio, 180 miles (290 km)northeast of Springfield. The East Palestine derailment sent millions of pounds of toxic chemicals into the environment and forced thousands of people to evacuate.

    Norfolk Southern said in an emailed statement that Saturday’s derailment of about 20 cars of a 212-car train happened as it was traveling southbound near Springfield. The statement did not give any cause for the derailment.

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    “No hazardous materials are involved and there have been no reported injuries,” Norfolk Southern said. “Our teams are en route to the site to begin cleanup operations.”

    U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on Twitter he had been briefed by the Federal Railroad Administration on the latest derailment and that they would closely monitor the situation.

    Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said President Joe Biden and Buttigieg had called him to offer any assistance needed with the latest accident. “We don’t believe hazardous materials were involved,” he said.

    U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday morning that he was not satisfied with the company’s response to the latest derailment and questioned if communities in Clark County could have been affected by any potential contaminants left in the mostly empty cars.

    Ohio has seen four derailments in the past five months, he noted.

    “The railroads got a lot of questions they’ve got to answer, and they really haven’t done it very well, yet,” Brown said.

    Clark County officials asked residents living within 1,000 feet (300 meters) of Saturday’s derailment to “shelter-in-place out of an abundance of caution,” according to a statement on the county’s Facebook page.

    It said there were power outages in the area due to downed power lines resulting from the accident and that it was not clear how long it would take to restore electricity.

    Reporting by Brad Brooks in Lubbock, Texas; Editing by Paul Simao, William Mallard and Marguerita Choy

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  • Adani crisis ignites Indian contagion fears, credit warnings

    Adani crisis ignites Indian contagion fears, credit warnings

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    • Both houses of parliament adjourned amid row
    • Flagship Adani firm plunges 35% at one point
    • Moody’s warns will find it harder to raise capital

    NEW DELHI, Feb 3 (Reuters) – Financial contagion fears spread in India on Friday as the Adani Group’s crisis worsened, with ratings agency Moody’s warning the conglomerate may struggle to raise capital and S&P cutting the outlook on two of its businesses.

    Chaotic scenes in both houses of India’s parliament led to their adjournment on Friday as some lawmakers demanded an inquiry after a dramatic meltdown in the stock market values of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani’s companies.

    The crisis was triggered by a Hindenburg Research report last week in which the U.S.-based short-seller accused the Adani Group of stock manipulation and unsustainable debt.

    Adani Group, one of India’s top conglomerates, has rejected the criticism and denied wrongdoing in detailed rebuttals, but that has failed to arrest the unabated fall in its shares.

    In the latest sign of the crisis widening, India’s ministry of corporate affairs has begun a preliminary review of Adani Group’s financial statements and other regulatory submissions made over the years, two government officials told Reuters.

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    Although shares in Adani companies recovered after sharp falls earlier on Friday, the seven listed firms have still lost about half their market value, totalling more than $100 billion since Hindenburg published its report on Jan. 24.

    Moody’s warned the share plunge could hit the Adani Group’s ability to raise capital, although fellow credit ratings agency Fitch saw no immediate impact on its ratings.

    “These adverse developments are likely to reduce the group’s ability to raise capital to fund committed capex or refinance maturing debt over the next 1-2 years. We recognise that a portion of the capex is deferrable,” Moody’s said.

    For Adani, a former school drop-out from Gujarat, the western home state of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the crisis presents the biggest reputational and business challenge of his life, as his firm struggles to assuage investor concerns.

    Amid fears the turmoil could spill over into the broader financial system, some Indian politicians have called for a wider investigation, and sources have told Reuters the central bank has asked lenders for details of exposure to the group.

    “Contagion concerns are widening, but still limited to the banking sector,” Charu Chanana, a market strategist with Saxo Markets in Singapore, said on Friday.

    The Reserve Bank of India said the country’s banking system remains resilient and stable. State Bank of India said it was not concerned about the exposure to Adani Group, but further financing to its projects would be “evaluated on its own merit”.

    Adani Enterprises shares closed 1.4% higher, after earlier slumping 35% to hit their lowest since March 2021. That low took its losses to nearly $33.6 billion since last week, a 70% fall.

    Shares fell 5% in Adani Total Gas (ADAG.NS), a joint venture with France’s TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA), which said its exposure to Adani companies was limited.

    Traffic moves past the logo of the Adani Group installed at a roundabout on the ring road in Ahmedabad, India, Feb. 2, 2023. REUTERS/Amit Dave

    Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSE.NS) was up 8%, while Adani Transmission (ADAI.NS) and Adani Green Energy (ADNA.NS) were both down 10%.

    “There is a risk that investor concerns about the group’s governance and disclosures are larger than we have currently factored into our ratings,” S&P said, as it cut its outlook on Adani Ports and Adani Electricity to negative from stable.

    India’s divestment secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey told Reuters that Life Insurance Corp (LIC) shareholders and customers should not be concerned about its exposure to the Adani Group.

    State-run LIC (LIFI.NS) has a 4.23% stake in the flagship Adani Enterprises, while its other exposures include a 9.14% stake in Adani Ports.

    Reuters Graphics

    ‘ONE INSTANCE’

    Adani, 60, has in recent years forged partnerships with, and attracted investment from, foreign giants as he pursued global expansion in industries from ports to power.

    The market and financial crisis means foreign investors, many already underweight on India as they consider its stock market overpriced, are reducing exposure.

    “One instance, however much talked about globally it may be … is not going to be indicative of how well Indian financial markets are governed,” Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told Network18 when asked about the market weakness.

    Reuters Graphics

    Hindenburg’s report said key listed Adani companies had “substantial debt” and shares in the seven listed firms had a downside of 85% due to what it called sky-high valuations.

    The Adani Group has called the report baseless and said over the past decade, its companies have “consistently de-levered”.

    The listed Adani firms now have a combined market value of $107.5 billion, versus $218 billion before the report.

    That has forced Adani to cede the crown of Asia’s richest person to Indian rival Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries Ltd (RELI.NS), and he has slid to 17th in Forbes’ list of the world’s wealthiest people.

    He had ranked third, behind Elon Musk and Bernard Arnault.

    Reporting by Aditya Kalra, Chris Thomas, Ankur Banerjee, Bansari Mayur Kamdar, Shivam Patel, Tanvi Mehta and Rae Wee in Singapore; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Mark Potter and Alexander Smith

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  • White House says no new deadlines on reconciliation bill

    White House says no new deadlines on reconciliation bill

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    WASHINGTON, Oct 22 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden does not have any new deadlines as the administration continues to negotiate with Democratic lawmakers on the framework of a massive spending bill aimed at social programs and tackling climate change, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday.

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    Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw

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