Consolidated Freightways Warns About Profit

Consolidated Freightways Corp. warned that its second-quarter earnings will be about even with the year-earlier period as some freight-shipping customers switched to nonunion carriers during contract talks. The company had said earlier that its first-quarter business was hurt by lower tonnage and the talks with its Teamsters union drivers. Analysts had expected Consolidated to earn 36 cents a diluted share in the quarter. In the same period last year, the Menlo Park-based firm earned $6.9 million, or 31 cents a share. Rival Roadway Express Inc. said last month that its second-quarter earnings will fall as much as 40% below the year-ago period because of a shipping slowdown and fallout from contract talks. The union contract affecting both shippers was settled in February. Consolidated operates 350 terminals in the U.S., Canada and Mexico and provides international freight service between the U.S. and more than 70 countries. Consolidated shares fell $1 to close at $13.75 on Nasdaq.

* Lafayette-based Pacer International Inc., a shipping services provider, filed for the sale of 35% of its common shares in an initial public offering for as much as $38.7 million. Pacer, formerly a unit of Union Pacific Corp., provides shipping services through a national network of trucking and railroad subcontractors, rather than its own trucks and trains.