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☆ Maersk Says Expanded Houthi Attacks Are Forcing More Delays
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-06 | by ( Peter Eavis | More About Peter Eavis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Global shipping lines have become increasingly strained as the Houthi militia in Yemen broadens its attacks on cargo vessels, one of the largest companies in the industry warned on Monday. “The risk zone has expanded,” Maersk, the second-largest ocean carrier, said in a note to customers, adding that the stress was causing further delays and higher costs. Since late last year, the Houthis have been attacking ships in the Red Sea, which cargo vessels from Asia have to travel through to reach the Suez Canal. But in recent weeks, the Houthis have been trying to strike ships making that longer journey in the Indian Ocean. Because going around Africa takes longer, shipping companies have had to add more vessels to ensure that they can transport goods on time and without cutting volumes.

Persons: ” Organizations: ” Maersk Locations: Yemen, Red, Asia, Suez, Europe, Africa

☆ New Bidder Aims to Save Bankrupt Trucking Firm, if Treasury Goes Along
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-27 | by ( Peter Eavis | More About Peter Eavis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When Yellow abruptly shuttered its operations in the summer and filed for bankruptcy protection, few thought that a buyer would emerge and try to revive the long-troubled trucking giant. The plan rests, however, on getting the Treasury Department to allow Yellow to postpone repayment of a $700 million rescue loan that it made to the company in 2020. But the Treasury may not accept the plan because there are legal obstacles to extending the loan. Some trucking analysts say reviving Yellow will be hard because many of its customers will have moved on to other trucking companies that are much better run than the old Yellow. But Sarah Riggs Amico, the trucking executive leading the deal, said only her plan could bring back thousands of jobs, adding that she had the experience to build a leaner company in partnership with the Teamsters and assemble an executive team that can win back customers.

Persons: Sarah Riggs Amico Organizations: International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Treasury Department, Teamsters Locations: Delaware

☆ WeWork’s Bankruptcy Tests Claims of a Co-Working Revolution
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( Peter Eavis | More About Peter Eavis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But the company never created a sustainable business or changed how most people worked. Flexible office space accounts for less than 2 percent of all office space in the 20 largest U.S. markets, according to Cushman & Wakefield, close to its share before the pandemic. WeWork filed for bankruptcy protection this week in an effort to quickly slim down its portfolio of office spaces. Many employers are paring back their office space because workers aren’t going in five days a week after growing accustomed to working remotely or on a hybrid schedule. WeWork’s bankruptcy will only make the situation worse by leaving landlords with more space to fill.

Persons: WeWork, aren’t Organizations: Cushman & Locations: Cushman & Wakefield

For years, landlords around the world clamored to get WeWork into their office buildings, a love affair that made the co-working company the largest corporate tenant in New York and London. Now, WeWork is perhaps days away from a bankruptcy filing — and its demise could not come at a worse time for office landlords. With fewer employees going into the office since the pandemic, companies have slashed the amount of space they lease, causing one of the worst crunches in decades in commercial real estate. Many landlords have accepted lower rents from WeWork in recent years to keep it afloat, but its bankruptcy would be an enormous blow. Some landlords might quickly accept lower rents from WeWork as part of a bankruptcy reorganization and keep doing business with any new entity that emerges, but others might have to fight in court to get anything.

Locations: New York, London, WeWork

In Panama, a lack of water has hampered canal operations in recent years, and some shipping experts say vessels may soon have to avoid the canal altogether if the problem gets worse. Before the water problems, as many as 38 ships a day moved through the canal, which was built by the United States and remained under its control until 2000. The canal authority in July cut the average to 32 vessels, and later announced that the number would drop to 31 on Nov. 1. Further reductions could come if water levels remain low. The canal authority is also limiting how far a ship’s hull can go below the water, known as its draft, which significantly reduces the weight it can carry.

Persons: Panama’s Locations: Panama, El, United States

☆ WeWork Declares Intent to Renegotiate Almost All Leases
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Peter Eavis | More About Peter Eavis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After WeWork warned last month that it might not be in business for much longer, its chief executive said on Wednesday that the co-working company was going to try to renegotiate nearly all of its leases and would probably pull out of underperforming locations. The actions, detailed in a letter from David Tolley, who took over as chief executive after the sudden resignation of Sandeep Mathrani in May, are intended to reduce how much WeWork spends leasing office space. WeWork, which has lost $15 billion since the end of 2017, has been negotiating lower rents for over three years — and has had some success doing so at a time when landlords are desperate to fill office towers that have been emptied by the work-from-home shift that started during the height of the pandemic. “We will seek to negotiate terms with our landlords that allow WeWork to maintain our unmatched quality of service and global network, in a financially sustainable manner,” Mr. Tolley said in the letter. “As part of these negotiations, we expect to exit unfit and underperforming locations and to reinvest in our strongest assets as we continuously improve our product.”

Persons: WeWork, David Tolley, Sandeep Mathrani, Mr, Tolley

Hawaiian Electric has known for years that extreme weather was becoming a bigger danger, but the company did little to strengthen its equipment and failed to adopt emergency plans used elsewhere, like being prepared to cut off power to prevent fires. Before the wildfire on Maui erupted on Aug. 8, killing more than 100 people, many parts of Hawaiian Electric’s operations were showing signs of stress — and state lawmakers, consumer groups and county officials were saying that the company needed to make big changes. In 2019, Hawaiian Electric itself started citing the risk of fires. The company said that year that it was studying how utilities in California were dealing with similar threats. Two years later, in a report about Hurricane Lane in 2018, the Maui County government warned of the potential that “aboveground power lines that fail, short or are low-hanging can cause fire ignition (sparks) that could start a wildfire, particularly in windy or stormy conditions.”

Organizations: Electric, Hurricane Locations: Maui, California

In the hunt to determine what caused the fire that consumed Lahaina, the focus has increasingly turned to Hawaii’s biggest power utility — and whether the company did enough to prevent a wildfire in the high winds that swept over Maui last week. Lawyers for Lahaina residents suing the utility, Hawaiian Electric, contend that its power equipment was not strong enough to withstand strong winds, and that the company should have shut down power before the winds came. Wildfire experts who have studied the catastrophic fires in California over the past two decades also see shortcomings in Hawaiian Electric’s actions. Nearly a week after the wildfire tore through the island town of Lahaina, state and local officials have not determined a cause for the blaze that killed at least 99 people. That is why utilities in California and other states have at times shut down power in recent years before strong winds arrive.

Organizations: Wildfire Locations: Lahaina, Maui, California, United States

“As I said back in the summer of 2020, in my judgment, the loan was inadequately secured to the taxpayers,” he said. Yellow has paid about $67 million in interest on its $700 million loan and just $230 of the principal owed. Yellow owes more than $700 million because, under the terms of the loan, some of the interest is not paid annually but gets added to the principal. Yellow used the first portion of its federal loan, about $300 million, to pay for operational expenses, including labor costs and to lease equipment. Bankruptcy experts said it would be very hard for the Treasury to find collateral that could be sold to repay this part of the loan.

Persons: Hill, ” Organizations: Republican, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Treasury Locations: Arkansas, Nashville

☆ WeWork Cites ‘Substantial Doubt’ That It Can Stay in Business
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-08 | by ( Peter Eavis | More About Peter Eavis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

WeWork, which lost billions of dollars building and operating a global empire of co-working spaces, warned investors on Tuesday that it might not be in business for much longer. “Substantial doubt exists about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern,” the company said in a financial filing. The announcement did not come as a surprise. WeWork’s stock has been trading for pennies for months as investors concluded that the company’s financial obligations and losses had become overwhelming. WeWork’s stock lost nearly a fourth of its value in trading after the announcement on Tuesday, which was issued after market hours along with the company’s quarterly earnings.

Persons: Sandeep Mathrani

☆ A Trucking Giant Is Bankrupt, and Finger-Pointing Begins
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-07 | by ( Peter Eavis | More About Peter Eavis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

ArcBest, he said, took in $529 per shipment in the first quarter, versus $339 at Yellow. Mr. Jindel said Yellow was a laggard “largely because of mismanagement.”Yellow did not respond on Monday to a request to speak about its management record. One company hoping to pick up business from Yellow is Saia, a less-than-truckload company near Atlanta. The company’s stock has more than doubled this year, and is up 25 percent just since the end of June. The trucking industry plays a critical role in the U.S. economy, transporting nearly three-fourths of all freight tonnage in the United States, according to the American Trucking Associations, a trade group.

Persons: Satish Jindel, Jindel, “, ” Frederick Holzgrefe Organizations: Yellow’s, SJ Consulting, American Trucking Associations Locations: Atlanta, U.S, United States

New York is doing better than San Francisco — Manhattan has a vacancy rate of 13.5 percent — but it can no longer count on the technology industry for growth. More than one-third of the roughly 22 million square feet of office space available for sublet in Manhattan comes from technology, advertising and media companies, according to Newmark. The company has opted not to renew leases covering 250,000 square feet in Hudson Yards and for 200,000 square feet on Park Avenue South. Twitter, Microsoft and other technology companies are also trying to sublease unwanted space. The large amount of space available for sublet is also driving down the rents that landlords are able to get on new leases.

Persons: Newmark, ”, Ruth Colp, Haber, Colp Organizations: sublet, New, New York State, Spotify, Trade Center, Twitter, Microsoft, Wharton Property Advisors Locations: York, Francisco —, Manhattan, New York, Hudson Yards

Freight trains frequently stop and block the roads of York, Ala., sometimes cutting off two neighborhoods for hours. Emergency services and health care workers can’t get in, and those trapped inside can’t get out. “It’s not fair.”Residents have voiced these complaints for years to Norfolk Southern, which owns the tracks, and to regulators and members of Congress. Freight trains frequently block roads nationwide, a phenomenon that local officials say has grown steadily worse in the last decade as railroads run longer trains and leave them parked on tracks at crossings. The blockages can turn school drop-offs into nightmares, starve local businesses of customers and prevent emergency services from reaching those in distress.

Persons: can’t, ”, Amanda Brassfield, Grant City, “ Organizations: Norfolk, Freight Locations: York, Ala, Grant, Norfolk Southern

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