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US, CHINA INK MARITIME ACTIVITIES DEAL

WASHINGTON, DC - The US and China have signed a five-year bilateral maritime agreement giving US - registered shipping companies the legal flexibility to perform an extensive range of new business activities in China, including logistic operations, and providing services for their own vessels and alliance partnerships.

According to the US Department of Transportation, the agreement offers US companies similar privileges to those that Chinese companies already enjoy in the US.

The agreement was signed in Washington by Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta and China's Minister of Communications, Zhang Chunxian.

More cargo containers move between China and the US than between any other two countries in the world with an average 3.2 million containers moving eastbound and westbound every year.

OAKLAND AIRPORT CONTRACT AWARDED

OAKLAND - Turner Construction and Turner's Aviation Group have been awarded a contract for the Oakland International Airport Terminal Expansion (TEx) Program.

Turner is the Construction Manager at Risk (CMR) on the project. Scope of work includes two projects, construction of Terminal 2, consisting of an approximately 300,000-sq.-ft. renovation and extension, and the design and construction of a seven-level, 6,000-car garage and Customer Service Building.

The architects for the Terminal 2 project are Carter Burgess, Greg Roja & Associates and MWM / YHLA (JV). Completion is scheduled for 2006.

Based in Dallas, Turner completed $6.2 billion of construction during 2002.

The company was founded in 1902 and was acquired in 1999 by Germany-based HOCHTIEF AG, one of the world's leading international construction companies.

INTERMODAL TRAFFIC SOARS, WHILE CARLOAD NUMBERS SAG

WASHINGTON, DC - Intermodal traffic on the nation's railroads registered another strong gain in comparison with last year during the week ended December 20, but carload freight was down from a year ago, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reports.

Intermodal traffic totaled 200,336 trailers or containers, up a full 9%from the comparable week last year. Container traffic registered a 9.2% gain, while trailer volume rose 8.7% from last year.

Carload freight, which does not include the intermodal data, totaled 330,999 cars, down 3.2% from last year with volume down 4.3% in the East and 2.2% in the West.
 
Total volume was estimated at 29.9 billion ton-miles, down 1.3% from last year. The carload reduction could be attributed largely to declines in loadings of metallic ores and coal, which were off 26.8% and 7.0%, respectively.
 
Overall 11 of 19 carload commodity groups registered gains from last year, with nonmetallic minerals up 18.7%; crushed stone, sand and gravel up 17.9%; and coke up 11.0%.
 
The AAR also reported the following cumulative totals for US railroads during the first 51 weeks of 2003: 16,679,185 carloads, virtually the same as last year; intermodal volume of 9,809,761 trailers or containers, up 6.7%; and total volume of an estimated 1.48 trillion ton-miles, up 1.4% from last year's first 51 weeks.

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