Key Currency Exchange Rates for Friday, 3/15/24

American Trucking Associations’ Technology & Maintenance Council and Decisiv Inc., said parts and labor expenses dropped during the second quarter of 2023, according to data released in the latest Decisiv/TMC North American Service Event Benchmark Report. “With rising build rates for new equipment and less mileage reducing the need to operate aging trucks, fleets are finally seeing a definite improvement in parts and labor costs,” said Decisiv President and CEO Dick Hyatt. “The data that Decisiv collects and analyzes for TMC on Vehicle Maintenance Reporting Standard system level codes points to a return to normalized trade cycles and more predictable service and repair costs. Along with greater stability, the highly detailed data and reporting enabled by Decisiv SRM allows fleets and service providers to focus on ways to continue to drive down expenses.”

Turkey agrees to deal only with Iraq’s central government for all crude that the OPEC nation exports through a Turkish pipeline, the Iraqi prime minister said, days after Iraq’s self-governed Kurds, who ship their own oil via the same network, approved a referendum on independence. The comments suggest the Turks may be reviewing their policy of letting Iraq’s landlocked Kurds export oil independently through the Turkish-controlled pipeline. Crude was flowing normally through the network on Thursday. The Kurds export less than 600,000 barrels a day, according to a tweet by the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Natural Resources on Sept. 24. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim asserted his country’s support for “restricting oil exports to the federal authorities” in Iraq, he said in a phone call with his Iraqi counterpart, Haider Al-Abadi, according to an emailed statement on Thursday from Al-Abadi’s office in Baghdad. Click Read More below for more of the story.

Brent oil prices firmed on Thursday, hovering near 3-1/2-month highs as U.S. refiners restarting after Tropical Storm Harvey increased their crude processing and the U.S. dollar declined. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were up 28 cents at $54.48 a barrel by 1143 GMT, close to their highest since May 25. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 eased by 11 cents to $49.05 a barrel, near a four-week high.