BRAZILIAN SEAFARERS' STRIKE DAMAGES OIL EXPORTS

  A strike by Brazil's 40,000 seafarers
  who want pay rises of up to 180 pct may have cost the
  state-owned oil company Petrobras 20 mln dlrs in lost export
  orders, the company's commercial director Arthur de Carvalho
  was quoted as saying in press reports.
      More than 170 ships in Brazil, and about nine more in
  foreign ports, have been halted by the strike, which began on
  February 27.
      Marines began blockading the ships on Friday after the
  strike was ruled illegal, and some strikers are running short
  of food, National Merchants Marine Union president Edson Areias
  said.
  

