...and what it means for US Freight and Cargo firms

On 1/12/10 the Baltic Exchange Dry Index (BDI) website quoted Reuters report that Dry bulk ship owners are insisting vessels go via the Cape of Good Hope on voyages from South Africa to Mediterranean ports to avoid pirates in the Gulf of Aden - adding 10 days to shipping times. Utilities in Italy, Greece and Israel which use coal shipped from Indonesia and South Africa are having to pay higher shipping costs for the longer voyages, utility sources said. Around 60 percent of South Africa's 60 million tonnes a year of coal exports goes to Europe. 

FURNITURE TODAY NEWS - Go After Globe Express' customers.. Barcalounger, American of Martinsville file Chapter 11 Companies could be sold to affiliate of current owner Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, May 20, 2010 WILMINGTON, Del. - Upholstery producer Barcalounger and its sister company, contract furniture source American of Martinsville, have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The joint filings, made a little more than a month after the two companies shut down their factory in Martinsville, Va., said parent company Hancock Park Capital already has agreed to sell the companies to another affiliate of Hancock for $1.5 million. The sale would have to be approved by the bankruptcy court, which would conduct an auction if another bidder surfaces...(more)