Fne News

German liner company Hamburg Sud said it expects to seal the acquisition of the container shipping operations of Chilean shipping group Compania Chilena de Navegacion Interoceanica [CCNI] by the end of March. Earlier, Hamburg Süd has confirmed the long-awaited signing of its purchase agreement for the container line business of CCNI. The takeover includes the general agency functions of Agunsa Agencias Universales on behalf of CCNI. Subject to approval by antitrust authorities, the transaction is scheduled to be closed at the end of March. Hamburg Süd initially planned to complete the takeover before the end of 2014 but it offered no explanation why the process had taken longer. Nor would it confirm the final takeover price that has been agreed.

Brazil's National Federation of Stevedores, known as FNE, on Wednesday scrapped a plan for a nationwide strike over hiring and pension practices in peak soy exporting season. "We have suspended the strike in order to give the government more time" to make an offer, FNE President Wilton Barreto told Reuters by phone from Brasilia. He said the union had not decided on a date to reconsider a strike. Stevedores walked off the job on several occasions last year to protest a law Congress passed that allows the sale of port terminals to private companies because they feared union jobs could be jeopardized.