FuelClub Discount

Construction on the Yeongjong new city within the Incheon Free Economic Zone has stopped after dump truck drivers walked off the job demanding fee raises. Self-employed truckers are striking down in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, while unionized cargo truck drivers are thinking about holding a nationwide strike next month, raising worries of serious logistics problems. There has been a 30 percent drop in the number of fishing vessels going out into the East Sea this year, leading to a 20 to 30 percent rise in prices of fishery products. Each inter-city commuter bus is racking up between W3 million to W4 million (US$1=W1,037) in losses and half of the 100 or so operators of such transport services are in the red. The source of all these troubles is a 60 percent rise in the price of diesel fuel.

Diesel is the preferred means of energy for Korea’s working class. The transportation industry accounts for 80 percent of Korea’s total diesel consumption. Self-employed Korean cargo and dump truck drivers, operators of commuter buses and merchants selling products on the backs of small trucks, farmers and fishermen all rely on diesel.
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Hey, if you were in the business of manufacturing products that some of your biggest customers could no longer afford to operate, you’d be scrambling for options, too.

The Berlin Air Show kicked off yesterday, and not surprisingly, much of the focus is on alternative fuels. The show takes place every two years and is a big deal: over 1,000 exhibitors from 37 countries gather at Berlin’s Schönefeld Airport to show off planes, cut deals, and talk about the state of the aerospace business.

Yesterday the two commercial jet giants took the stage to talk up some of their latest alternative fuel innovations.
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Britain sought a slight increase in oil production from its North Sea fields on Wednesday, but Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned that only coordinated global action could help rein in spiralling oil prices.

A day after British truck drivers caused road chaos with protests against rising fuel bills, Brown said he understood the impact on families across the country but that only an international strategy could help bring oil prices down.
“A global shock on this scale requires global solutions,” Brown wrote in the Guardian newspaper, pledging to put international action on oil prices at the top of the agenda at the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Japan in July.
“In advance of the G8 summit, I will be proposing further work internationally to achieve a better dialogue on supply possibilities and trends in demand,” he wrote.

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The rise in fuel prices is unjust and straining family finances, but it will not force car-reliant Brits from their vehicles.

Over half (55%) of 2,663 Sky News Panel members said they had been forced to cut back on their general spending because of the soaring prices at the pumps.

But under a third (32%) said they were making up for the climbing petrol cost by driving less.
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The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says it spent $800m (£400m) last year, but rising food and fuel prices are pushing up costs.

Millions of people already suffering because of armed conflict were hard hit by the increases, says the report.

Africa remains the largest area of Red Cross spending.

The ICRC, based in Geneva, said spending in African nations accounted for 45% of the organisation’s field budget in 2007.
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Hundreds of lorry drivers converged on London yesterday to protest at rising fuel costs. Police closed a section of the A40 — one of the capital’s main arteries — so that it could be used as a massive lorry park.

From there the drivers made their way to a rally at Marble Arch, where they told of jobs under threat, severe belt-tightening and family companies facing closure.

Early yesterday morning, as the convoys set off from Kent, Essex and all points north and west, they were greeted with spontaneous applause from motorists, who are also feeling the pinch with petrol prices rising to an average of about 114p a litre and diesel to 126p.
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