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Self-Driving’s Lower Gear; China’s Bumpy Recovery; Resetting Jeeps
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A Navistar International autonomous-capable truck at a TuSimple facility in Tucson, Ariz. PHOTO: REBECCA NOBLE/REUTERS
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Self-driving trucking company TuSimple is hitting the brakes on its aggressive growth plans. The company plans to cut potentially at least half of its workforce this week, the WSJ’s Heather Somerville reports, a retrenchment that follows upheaval at a firm that also faces regulatory scrutiny. The autonomous-truck business removed its CEO in October after a board examination of TuSimple’s relationship with a Chinese startup, and it faces multiple federal investigations. Now the company is scaling back its work on building autonomous systems and testing self-driving trucks on public roads in Arizona and Texas. TuSimple is also eliminating operations in Tucson, Ariz., where it does much of its test driving, and
paring back its work on the algorithms for the self-driving software. Instead, the company is focusing on building out software that matches self-driving trucks with shippers that have freight to haul, driving into a busy load-matching space.
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PepsiCo plans next year to roll out 100 Tesla Semis it reserved for deliveries to customers. (Reuters)
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Tesla is weighing plans to place an assembly plant in the Mexican state of Nuevo León. (Mexico News Daily)
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A JD Logistics delivery worker at a residential compound under lockdown in Shanghai in April. PHOTO: REUTERS
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The recovery of China’s logistics sector following the country’s exit from zero-Covid policies is proving bumpy. E-commerce giant JD.com is dispatching 1,000 workers to Beijing to clear a backlog of deliveries, the WSJ’s Austin Ramzy reports, one sign that the impact of China’s sweeping lockdowns in recent weeks is still reverberating across an uncertain economy. Images on social media showed mountains of packages piled up on some streets as delivery drivers fell ill, while residents have described widespread infections across populations. The recovery in the nation’s supply chains is significant for the global economy after China’s exports fell in November at the steepest pace since February
2020. New data shows domestic output took a significant hit from pandemic restrictions last month. Economists now say the country will have to overcome a new wave of Covid cases before it can fully rebound.
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A Jeep Wrangler outside Beijing. PHOTO: THOMAS PETER/REUTERS
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Automotive supply chains in China may be in for fresh upheaval. Car maker Stellantis plans to shrink its factory footprint in the country, the WSJ’s Ryan Felton reports, amid increasingly stiff domestic competition and complications with a local partner that built and distributed Jeep SUVs in the country. The bigger long-term concern may be rising geopolitical pressures that Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares says are stoking worries that the company could be kicked out of China. Stellantis and other car makers have pinned big growth hopes on the Chinese market, but local brands have garnered more attention from domestic buyers, especially in the country’s fast-growing electric-vehicle market.
Volkswagen, General Motors and other brands have also lost ground in recent years. Stellantis now will bring its vehicles in from abroad. That will subject Jeep to tariffs and draw scrutiny over whether an import-focused strategy can gain any traction.
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Toyota’s president says a silent majority of auto-industry people question whether electric vehicles should be pursued exclusively as the future of cars. (WSJ)
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74,095
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Truck trailers moving in U.S. intermodal rail transport in November, down 32.3% from November 2021, according to the Association of American Railroads.
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Inflationary pressures on businesses are easing as shrinking demand takes the pressure off supply chains. (WSJ)
Federal authorities issued citations to Amazon for failing to adequately report injuries at six of its warehouses. (WSJ)
Law enforcement authorities say a powerful European drug smuggling cartel infiltrated Mediterranean Shipping crews over many years, leading to an ongoing investigation of the shipping line. (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)
Singapore’s non-oil exports tumbled 14.6% in November. (Straits Times)
South Korean conglomerate Hanwha will pay $1.52 billion to take over Daewoo Shipping and Marine Engineering. (Nikkei Asia)
Container lines plan to cancel about half their sailings out of Asia around the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday. (The Loadstar)
Sea-Intelligence is projecting an imminent collapse in trans-Atlantic container rates. (Maritime Executive)
Turkey’s Yasa Shipping added three vessel orders as part of a rapid expansion of its dry-bulk fleet. (TradeWinds)
Federal regulators and shippers are questioning Union Pacific’s limitations on shipments as part of its effort to clear congestion. (Associated Press)
Industrial parts supplier Grainger’s e-commerce platform surpassed $1 billion in annual sales for the first time. (Modern Distribution Management)
Indianapolis-based Heritage Transport acquired rival hazardous materials specialist Frank’s Vacuum Truck Service. (Commercial Carrier Journal)
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