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NEW ZEALAND LAUDED FOR CARGO SECURITY MOVES
 
WASHINGTON, DC - US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner (CBP) Robert Bonner has recognized the government of New Zealand and "its dedication to the supply chain security effort."

CBP officials and New Zealand Customs delegation members met recently in Washington to discuss measures that they are taking to secure the global supply chain.
 
"New Zealand Customs Service is a close partner with CBP in the fight against terrorism. New Zealand is making significant investment to automate their systems and purchase some of the best technology available to screen goods traveling through containerized sea traffic against exploitation by terrorists," CBP Commissioner Bonner said.

The New Zealand delegation made presentations to CBP regarding pending legislation and their recent measures to improve the security of containerized exports, including the development of a robust program with the trade to increase supply chain security beginning with the producer.
 
"From what I've seen, New Zealand has developed and is implementing some of the world's best practices to partner with the trade and take a leading role in ensuring the integrity of their export system. These types of initiatives, when fully implemented, will help ensure the low risk nature of goods coming from New Zealand to the US - and keep New Zealand goods flowing in international commerce in times of heightened security," said Bonner.
 
UNION PACIFIC ORDERS 175 LOCOMOTIVES FROM GM

DETROIT - General Motors Corp.'s train locomotive unit has won an order to build 175 locomotives for Union Pacific Corp., while a top union official said that talks to sell the GM business has cleared a major hurdle, reports Reuters.
 
"We have been communicating internally with employees and suppliers about (the deal with Union Pacific) this week," Curt Swenson, a spokesman for GM's Electro-Motive told Reuters. Delivery of the locomotives is scheduled to start in the second quarter next year, he said.

Swenson and UP spokesman John Bromley declined to reveal terms of the contract for the SD70M diesel locomotives.

The deal is the largest between the two companies since GM won a contract to supply 1,000 train locomotives to Union Pacific in 1999, spokesmen for the companies said. A GM spokesman said that deal, which was the largest contract ever for both the GM unit and Union Pacific, was worth at least hundreds of millions of dollars.

"It'll raise some eyebrows," Jeffrey Kauffman, a railroad analyst with Fulcrum Global Partners, told Reuters. "Rails haven't added a lot of locomotive equipment in the last couple of years because of the economy."

But rather than reflecting optimism of economic growth, Kauffman noted that Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (BNSF) and Union Pacific recently placed orders for new locomotives to take advantage of tax breaks.

Meanwhile, a top official with the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union, which represents workers at a GM Electro-Motive plant in London, Ontario, told Reuters that efforts by GM to sell the train unit to a private equity firm had cleared a hurdle.

"We heard yesterday that one of the major stumbling blocks had been overcome," said John Scanlan, the CAW's national representative for GM workers.

CAW President Buzz Hargrove and a person close to the talks told Reuters in September that GM is in discussions on a joint bid by Greenbriar Equity Group, a $700 million private equity fund led by former Chrysler Corp. Vice Chairman Gerald Greenwald and Berkshire Partners, a $3.5 billion buyout fund.

Scanlan said some issues in the sale talks that remain to be settled include concerns by the United Auto Workers union, which represents workers at Electro-Motive in LaGrange, IL.

"There was some outstanding issues at LaGrange between the UAW and the potential buyer," he said, declining to comment further on the problems.

Officials at the local UAW and Greenbriar were not available for comment. Electro-Motive's Swenson declined to comment on any sale talks.

Scanlan said Berkshire has made it clear that it is not interested in Electro-Motive unless it can buy both the Ontario and the Illinois plants.

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