Ford Motor’s answer to the cheap Chinese electric vehicles that are gobbling up global market share starts with a $30,000 electric pickup.

The WSJ’s Sharon Terlep writes that the automaker plans to spend $2 billion to overhaul a Louisville, Ky., factory to build a new line of affordable, high-tech EVs including a pickup. Ford says its new EVs will be designed with fewer parts, lighter materials and a manufacturing process overhauled for efficiency.

EV sales have stalled in the U.S., but automakers say Americans still want EVs that are smaller and affordable but also fun to drive and stuffed with technology.

Chinese automakers such as BYD have mastered that model by leveraging a low-cost supply base, cheap labor and lean designs to undercut legacy automakers on price, while offering slick digital features.

Ford says its new EVs are aimed at rivaling Chinese designs. The vehicles will be made with 20% fewer parts and will be built differently. Large single-piece aluminum unicastings replace dozens of smaller parts. Instead of one long factory conveyor, three parallel, separate lines will run concurrently and then come together.

The automaker says the end result will be a process that will be 15% faster and require hundreds fewer employees.

A way around President Trump’s 50% tariff on imported aluminum might be sitting in your garbage can.

The duty on imported aluminum is walloping beverage, auto and manufacturing companies that use the material to make goods from cans and furniture to auto parts. The WSJ’s Ryan Dezember reports that metals executives and analysts say recycling used materials would help slash the need for imports.

More than $1 billion of beverage cans were dumped in U.S. landfills last year, according to the Aluminum Association. By weight, that was similar to all the primary aluminum produced by U.S. smelters. Much of the aluminum in junked cars, demolition debris and old electronics is thrown away as well.

If Americans significantly improve their recycling habits and more aluminum-recycling plants are built, the U.S. could reduce aluminum imports by as much as half, according to the Aluminum Association.

President Trump extended the deadline for higher tariffs on China to Nov. 9. (WSJ)

Goldman Sachs projects U.S. consumers will pay about two-thirds of the cost of new tariffs by October. (WSJ)

An explosion at a U.S. Steel facility in Pennsylvania killed two people and injured 10 more. (WSJ)

Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices agreed to give the Trump administration a portion of the sales from artificial-intelligence chips to China. (WSJ)

Vulcan Elements raised $65 million in a funding round to increase production of rare-earth magnets. (WSJ)

Shares of Israeli container line Zim surged after reports that management is mounting efforts to take the company private. (TradeWinds)

Finland's national prosecutor brought charges against the captain and two crew members of an oil tanker over the cutting of undersea cables in December. (Reuters)

The U.S. Postal Service reported a net loss of $3.1 billion for its latest quarter, compared with a $2.5 billion loss a year ago. (Logistics Management)

Less-than-truckload carrier Roadrunner is looking at acquisitions as it seeks to expand in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest. (Transport Topics)

Ohio plans to double truck parking capacity at sites maintained by the state’s Department of Transportation. (Trucking Dive)

Warehouse-automation provider Swisslog appointed Jan Zuurbier as global CEO. (Modern Materials Handling)

A warehouse worker allegedly stole $158,000 of jewelry from a facility at John F. Kennedy International Airport. (New York Daily News)

Mark R. Long is editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Reach him at mark.long@wsj.com. Follow the WSJ Logistics Report team on LinkedIn: Mark R. Long, Liz Young and Paul Berger.