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Dagens Industri / June 5, 2019 The Volvo plant in Tuve reduces production rate after the holiday period. Around 150 temporary and staffing employees getting laid off. Production will decrease from 30 to just over 16 trucks on the evening shift. The reason is said to be the demand trend in Europe. "We adapt the production rate to the order intake that exists," says Claes Eliasson, press officer at Volvo, according to Göteborgs-Posten . In connection with this year's first quarterly report, Volvo reported a clearly lower order intake for trucks than expected. The focus was then directed towards the North American market, but also the European order intake fell, down 17 percent compared with the first quarter last year. However, the vehicle manufacturer repeated the full-year forecast for the total market for heavy trucks. "When we look at normal indicators such as the price of used trucks, the utilization rate of connected vehicles, we still see a high level of activity and that is also why we are repeating our market forecast for 2019, which is somewhat lower than in 2018, but still on a good level. Order intake trending around 300,000 now, ”said CEO Martin Lundstedt then to Di. Earlier this week , RBC highlighted Volvo's heavy exposure to Europe as a reason to wait for purchases in an analysis where the recommendation was set to sector perform. The Canadian major bank was also skeptical of developments in the North American market.

Dagens Industri / June 5, 2019 According to preliminary figure, order intake for heavy trucks in North America amounted to 10,800 units in May. This is a decline of 27 per cent compared with April and a full 70 per cent on an annual basis. The figure indicates the "worst net feed development since July 2016 for heavy trucks". A weak freight market and continued high order backlogs are behind the weak order intake. As recently as Tuesday , RBC Capital flagged that both the European and the North American market for heavy trucks will probably fall this year in connection with the Canadian bank launching the monitoring of Volvo with the recommendation sector perform. In connection with this year's first quarterly report, which was released at the end of April, Volvo reported a substantial decrease in the North American order intake, minus 77 per cent. However, CEO Martin Lundstedt toned down the figure. "The order intake in relation to deliveries was extremely positive for a long time and as we have communicated earlier, we continuously look over the quality of our order book in North America to ensure that we are not on poor orders," he said to Di.

Scania Group Press Release / May 23, 2019 Lots Group, an independent company within Scania, has been awarded a major contract for the transport of sugar cane in Brazil. Operating its own dedicated fleet of Scania G 540s 6×4 trucks, Lots will annually transport 1.5 million tons of sugar cane on behalf of Cocal, a leading Brazilian producer of sugar, ethanol and bioenergy. Cocal manages over 130,000 hectares of sugar cane and operates a fleet of approximately 300 heavy trucks to manage logistics from its fields to refineries. The outsourced transport arrangement to Lots is a first for Cocal as the company seeks new ways of improving its supply chain effectiveness. “This is a highly interesting project for us to further improve our operations,” says Renan Ludwig Paiva, Agriculture Manager at Cocal. “Transport constitutes a major expense in our operation and we need to look at every aspect to make it more efficient.” Lots will set up its control tower solution to manage the optimisation of production flow and dispatching. While Lots manages its own fleet and drivers, the transport will be carried out in close collaboration with Cocal’s other operations to ensure smooth and effective delivery. The contract represents a breakthrough into the agricultural sector for Lots and builds upon its existing operations in Asia, Europe and Latin America. .

Renault Trucks Press Release / May 29, 2019 .

Ford Blog / June 2019 We've all known the classic car collectors, one way or another. Sometimes in an event, sometimes in a documentary… Well, have you ever heard of a truck collector? We didn't hear either until our Uşak dealer told us about Ömer Gül, the operator of Gül Nakliyat. We decided to visit Gül Transport with our friends in the Ford Trucks Marketing team and meet with truck collector Ömer Bey. Dressed in a kernel two dirhams, he warmly welcomed us. And the moment when we first met his truck collection, we were all left open, eyes blazed. Over 30 Ford trucks lined up side by side, all Ford D-1210 models, all of which ended production in 1983. And each truck has a unique story When the cameras were set up, we were not able to make any sense about Ömer Bey's surprise, but we were surprised when he saw that he was not around when he came to plug the microphone. "There is a fear of the camera?" Indeed, exactly ten minutes later Ömer Bey was in front of the cameras; However, it was a nice beard trim at the market, and he brought his unsuitable father from the sick bed and introduced him to us. You can hear the story of the trucks from the mouth of Omer Bey himself. but we also want to talk about the details of the camera behind the camera that affect us. When we were shooting Ömer Bey on one side with his father and his son, all of us had the same thoughts. Ömer Bey was a bridge between the past and the future. And the youngest of our trucks, more than 35 years of age, was the proof of this thesis. If you come across one of the classic trucks in the fleet of Gul Nakliyat, you must also ring the ears of Ömer Bey. .

Ford Trucks International Press Release / May 29, 2019 FIA ETRC 2019 has started with the tour of the "Official Truck" F-MAX in the first stage of the season, Misano, last weekend. .

Ailish McBride sings the song well. .

Scania Group Press Release / May 28, 2019 Traditionally, Ireland’s troubadours have sung about strong men and daring deeds. Nowadays, they celebrate a rumbling legend from Sweden. This is the story of a poetic truck driver, the man with the V8 voice – and “The Scania 164”. In the late 1980s Eddie Crozier is driving haulage all over Europe. Like many other truck drivers, he’s a big Scania fan. Being Irish, Eddie is also musical and a wordsmith. Behind the wheel he hums an idea for a song praising Scania trucks; especially his favourite, the Scania 142. The song is never finished, and Eddie moves to the US. Meanwhile, back in Northern Ireland, a countryman changes career. After years working for bricklayers all over Northern Ireland, hod carrier Joe Moore decides to become a full-time country musician. As he plays pubs and clubs, Joe feels like this is life’s purpose. Soon his distinct deep voice and laid back personality makes him one of the most popular country acts on the local circuit. Introducing: The Scania 164 Then something happens in Södertälje, Sweden. Ever since launching the 14-litre V8 engine in 1969, Scania has dominated the high-output heavy truck segment. But now, in May 2000, a new 16-litre V8 is introduced. The Scania 164 makes a huge impact and becomes a landmark engine, combining exceptional performance and excellent operating economy. Eddie Crozier is back in Europe. The song writing trucker is almost hypnotised by the sound of this new, rumbling Scania 164 V8 truck he is driving. In the Alps, northern Italy and Scandinavia he meets other “Kings of the Road”. Listening to cassettes of American trucker songs, Eddie’s inspiration grows, and a soon-to-be-legendary song takes shape… “…You could hear that wagon coming, with her mighty engine roar, This big machine is strong and mean, drawing 40 tonnes or more, There was no machine could touch her with my shoe down to the floor, As I drove up the motorway in my Scania 164…” Eddie meets Joe Waiting for fish to be loaded in County Cork, Ireland, Eddie is asked for advice by some fishermen what trucks to buy. As Eddie answers the words start flowing, and in the back of his head the final verse of “The Scania 164” song is born… “If you ever think of trucking or buying a wagon big and strong, Have yourself some comfort as you go trucking on, When going to a dealer then let him know the score, That you just want to buy yourself a Scania 164.” A few years later Joe Moore is playing in a bar outside Belfast when Eddie, by now producing Country and Western CDs, walks in. Eddie is enchanted by the singer’s voice: it’s almost like a rumbling V8 engine, he thinks. After the gig, he asks Joe to record an album together with him. This eventually becomes five albums. “The Scania Man” album is by far the most popular, and one of the songs is “The Scania 164.” January 2019 The Theatre Royal in the Scottish town of Dumfries is packed when Joe Moore takes the stage. The audience has come for “The Legends of American Country,” one of Europe’s leading country music tours. On the posters Joe is presented as “Mr Country” and “The man with the deep voice”, but most of the audience know him as “The Scania man”. Joe plays classics by Kris Kristofferson, Kenny Rogers, Don Williams, and Johnny Cash, but soon the audience starts shouting, “sing The Scania 164!” He does, and his fans rejoice. A legendary song Back on the other side of the Irish Sea in Banbridge, Northern Ireland, K. Mackin Transport has grown from one vehicle to a fleet of 25 trucks and 40 trailers in 15 years. The company’s vintage Scania collection is extremely popular at truck shows across Europe. Owners Kevin and Carol Mackin even built their own museum, dedicated to Scania’s V8 trucks. This is where we meet Eddie, who once drove for K. Mackin. “The Scania 164 is my song giving praise to that mighty truck from Scania,” he explains, showing us the many rarities in the Mackins’ ‘V8 Room’. “The trucking community of Northern Ireland is special. Trucking isn’t just a job, it’s a way of life for many people, and their vehicles are their pride and joy. Here, commercial haulage and country music are one.” Many songs mention Scania trucks, such as “The Mighty 143”, “Keep ‘er Lit” and “The Scania Man”. But the most beloved is “The Scania 164”. “For years it has been one of the most requested country songs on radio here in Northern Ireland, and it’s legendary among European truckers,” says Crozier. Backstage with ‘The Scania man’… Backstage, at the Theatre Royal in Dumfries, Joe Moore wipes the sweat from his brow and slowly pulls off his tight cowboy boots. His laidback personality once made him one of the most sought-after acts on the circuit. Throat surgery meant he didn’t sing for several years, but now he’s back, more popular than ever. The audience calls for more. “You know,” he says, “after the surgery and the break I was afraid they had forgotten me, but as soon as I started singing again, the gigs started to pile up. And my voice was even deeper than before.” Nowadays, Joe mainly sings American country music, but the song Eddie wrote still looms large. Yet, he confesses, “The first time I heard the Scania 164 song, I didn’t believe in it. It wasn’t really country to me and it was a little bit too slow. But we worked on it, Eddie and me, and I got hooked.” All is forgiven… In Banbridge, Eddie tells us he is slightly embarrassed by the first verse of his homage to the Scania 164: “I used to drive a Scania Truck, Lord but she could go. She was built up in Sweden; in a place they call Malmo.” “I read somewhere that the company Scania was from Malmö in southern Sweden and I got it a little bit wrong. But I’m sure I’m forgiven…” In Dumfries, Joe and band are playing an encore, before packing up their gear for a long journey north. Tomorrow night they’ll play “The Scania 164” at Corran Halls in Oban. “Even though I never was a truck driver myself, I know a little about this world. Trucking and country music go hand in hand. And the Scania 164 is a magnificent truck, well worth its own song,” says Joe, before hitting the road. .

International Trucks Press Release / June 3, 2019 . .

"Cultural decay and declining standards of behavior" Every "indisputable" murderer apprehended alive would die within 24 hours by the exact same means he/she used on their victims. In these cases with indisputable evidence, there would be no trial. That, I feel, would send shock waves to those who have murderous thinking. I couldn't change them.....but I would put the fear of god into them.

Associated Press / June 4, 2019 COLUMBIA, South Carolina, USA — A jury found South Carolina father Timothy Jones Jr. guilty of murder Tuesday in the deaths of his five young children, allowing prosecutors to seek the death penalty. Prosecutors say Jones was a selfish, evil father who decided his children should die instead of stay with his ex-wife. Jones, 37, confessed to exercising 6-year-old Nahtahn until he died after an electrical outlet was broken in his Lexington home in August 2014. Prosecutors said Jones then considered what to do for several hours — watching a prison rape scene from a movie and heading to a store for cigarettes with his oldest child while leaving the others at home with the body — before deciding to kill them all. Jones would eventually strangle 8-year-old Mera and 7-year-old Elias with his hands and, in his confession, said he used a belt to choke 2-year-old Gabriel and 1-year-old Abigail because his hands were too big. Jones then wrapped the bodies of all five children in plastic and drove around the Southeast U.S. for nine days, running a few errands, buying synthetic marijuana, but mainly making erratic trips. Jones searched the internet for countries that don't extradite suspects back to the U.S. and took his passport. He researched how to disintegrate bodies faster. Jones dumped the bodies after putting them in garbage bags on a hillside near Camden, Alabama, and was arrested a short time later at a traffic checkpoint in Smith County, Mississippi, after an officer said he smelled the horrible odor of decomposition from the SUV. .

Navistar jumps 9.2% on Wall Street FreightWaves / June 4, 2019 On its earnings call, Lisle, Illinois-based truck manufacturer Navistar walked through its earnings outperformance and provided some highlights on the business and its increased guidance. The medium- and heavy-duty truck manufacturer reported that adjusted net income increased 57 percent year-over-year to $105 million in its fiscal second quarter 2019 compared to $67 million in the prior year comparable period. NAV's adjusted results exclude the company's $159 million class action settlement. On May 30, 2019, NAV agreed to settle class action complaints over defective MaxxForce engines and recorded a $159 million charge against second quarter earnings for settlement payouts as well as pending lawsuits not included in the settlement agreement. NAV raised its earnings guidance for fiscal 2019. Management said that the guidance raise is based on strong industry conditions. Management now expects 2019 full-year retail deliveries of Class 6-8 trucks and buses in the U.S. and Canada to be 425,000 to 445,000 units. The company is calling for Class 8 retail deliveries in the 290,000 to 310,000 range, which is in-line with ACT Research's 2019 forecast for 306,000 units. NAV raised its fiscal 2019 revenue guidance range to $11.25 billion to $11.75 billion ($0.5 billion higher on each end of the range) and adjusted EBITDA expectation to $875 million to $925 million ($25 million higher on each end of the range). Management said that higher gross margins will lead to improved EBITDA margins in the second half of 2019 compared to the first half. Management said that its new guidance does not include the potential impact from tariffs that may be implemented on goods crossing the Mexican border. Mexico represents approximately two-thirds of NAV's total truck manufacturing capacity. Further, management said that they expect 2020 to be another good year, but again excluded potential tariffs on Mexico from this assessment. On the call, management provided additional color on its new guidance. Management said that orders are down more than 60 percent and that its total backlog is down more than 22 percent, but that the company is taking market share in new orders placed. They said that they are still seeing large fleets buying equipment. Even those fleets that purchased heavily in the second half of 2018's record freight demand environment are inquiring about production plans in the back-half of 2019. Further, management said that they are taking market share in new orders without sacrificing price. Pricing is up 1 to 2 percent across all vehicle types and they believe that future pricing increases will continue to outpace materials costs for the rest of the year. Additionally, they said that day sales inventory on-hand, which measures total inventory throughout Navistar and its dealers, is 84 days, which is at the low-end of its historical range of 80 to 120 days. NAV reported increased market share across all vehicle types. Additionally, they said that the feedback on its newest line of trucks has been positive. Management said that on-board recorded data, as well as data from its dealers, on more than 400,000 trucks shows that the new line is performing well. "In the second half, we believe our growth in market share will translate to improved revenues and gross margins that will generate higher adjusted EBITDA margins than in the first half. Our marketplace progress, which has delivered our strongest backlog this decade, provides confidence that both 2019 and 2020 will be good years for Navistar," said Navistar's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Troy A. Clarke. NAV reported a 24 percent increase in revenue to $3 billion in the period, with higher Class 6-8 trucks and bus sales in the United States and Canada being the primary driver. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased 23 percent to $224 million. .

Reuters / June 4, 2019 Navistar International Corp, which produces some of its trucks in Mexico, said on Tuesday it was too early to assess the impact of possible U.S. tariffs on the country on its operations. The company is working with trade associations and continues to monitor situation regarding tariffs, Chief Executive Officer Troy Clarke said on a post-earnings call with analysts. Last week, President Donald Trump threatened to impose 5% tariffs on all Mexican imports starting on June 10 if the country does not halt the flow of illegal immigration across the U.S.-Mexican border. The tariffs would increase monthly to up to 25% on Oct. 1. For years, carmakers and auto parts suppliers have built vehicles and parts in Mexico, taking advantage of the country's cheap labor, trade deals and proximity to the United States, the world's second largest auto market after China.

Jim Park, Today’s Trucking / May 29, 2019 SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Seven years have passed since my first drive in a Peterbilt Model 579. That particular truck was built right around the time the model was being unveiled at the Mid-America Trucking Show in March 2012. It’s safe to say the truck has only improved with the passing of time. Designers added the Epiq aero-trim package in 2015, which included a roof fairing bridge to reduce the gap between truck and trailer; enhanced chassis fairings; rubber wheel closeouts on the front wheel wells; a bumper dam; and a bumper-to-hood seal to improve the frontal profile. At the time, Peterbilt said that version would be up to 8% more efficient compared to Epiq-less 579. In 2019, following a further few refinements, the Model 579 can now claim to be the most fuel-efficient truck to ever wear the Peterbilt badge. While the classic-styled Model 389 was top-of-the-heap back then — and still maintains a very strong following today — fleets and even owner-operator priorities have shifted to the more aerodynamic cab designs. The Model 579 was destined to become the company flagship from the moment it was introduced. This particular trip wasn’t as much a “new-features” test drive as an opportunity to get out and experience the latest and greatest from Peterbilt. The truck was in Scottsdale, Ariz. for a sales meeting, so public relations manager Nick Smith asked if I wanted to go for a ride and deliver it back to the factory in Denton, Texas. I flew out Thursday afternoon and picked up the truck Friday morning. Nick and I spent the next two days driving about 1,655 km from Scottsdale to Denton. Our route took us on AZ 87 from Scottsdale to Payson, then AZ 260 and AZ 377 up to Holbrook where we picked up I-40 eastbound. We ran I-40 east to Amarillo, Texas, where we swung southeast on US 287 and rode that practically right to the Peterbilt factory in Denton. I don’t know what the engineers had in mind when they spec’d the truck’s powertrain, but I suspect it was a fairly generic truckload application, operating on flat to rolling terrain with a cruise speed of 65-70 mph (105-115 km/h) at a gross combination weight of 80,000 pounds or less. At 65 mph, the engine turned 1,100 rpm, just 100 rpm above a seemingly hardwired downshift point. It turned 1,200 rpm at 70 mph, leaving 200 rpm before dropping out of peak torque. I found the transmission hunted a bit while at 65 mph in the rolling hills but held 12th gear nicely on flat ground. The 455/1,650 MX-13 did better than I expected it would on the 6% and 7% grades through the Mazatzal Mountains in central Arizona. I pulled the grades on AZ 87 in 8th or 9th gear at 30-40 mph (around 50-65 km/h) at a gross weight of about 77,600 lb. Coming down said grades, I ran 7th gear at 1,800-2,000 rpm, toggling the engine brake between first and second position. The 579 has disc brakes all around so I wasn’t worried about stopping. I just wanted to drive the descents as they should be done to see how well the 13-liter engine held me back. Overall, driving a Model 579 is a real treat. The visibility is fantastic. It’s really quiet (67.2 dB on my iPhone sound meter app), and the Peterbilt air-leaf suspension shakes out all the rough stuff before it gets to the cab and the driver’s seat. And I always give top marks to Peterbilt’s steering geometry. You can’t go wrong with a Sheppard steering gear, and this 579 was no exception. Firm and sure-footed on the highway and not too firm for maneuvering in tight quarters. The physical aspects of driving the truck are very good, with all the commonly used controls within easy reach. This one had steering-wheel mounted cruise and radio controls. Even the cup holders were in the right place, though the driver’s cup holder rattled a little. My only beef with the dash layout comes from reaching for the headlight switch. Call me old-fashioned, but I still like to flash the lights for a passing driver, and the headlight switch is down low on the left side of the A-panel. To reach it, you have to squeeze your hand between the turn-signal stalk and the grab-handle mounted on the forward door post. Not a deal breaker, just a little awkward. The UltraLoft’s living quarters While I did not spend a night in the truck, I did have a good poke around inside the 80-inch UltraLoft sleeper, and it’s all it’s hyped-up to be. We had the double-bunk version, and the upper bunk remained stowed except to pull it down a take a few pictures. It deploys easily and stows with a fairly light push as only about 1/3 of the upper bed flips down. In the up position with a single driver, that space turns into storage. Even with the upper bunk in the down position, the space above the lower bunk isn’t cramped or claustrophobic. The wardrobe cabinet on the right side is tall enough to begin with, but the hangar bar is mounted even higher in the cabinet. Drivers can even hang tall shirts in there without any worry about the garments dragging on the cabinet bottom. The microwave cabinet can accommodate a near-full-size appliance, not the little shoe-box sized ovens we sometimes find in trucks. And speaking of larger appliances, the right-hand wall can fit a 32-inch flat-screen TV. That’s huge. The other feature I really liked was the new thermal insulation package. While it’s said to maintain the internal temperature longer, it’s also a great noise attenuator. It’s quiet in there, even parked next to a roaring reefer. It also helps with the road noise generally, making the driving environment extremely quiet. In fact, the external profile of the sleeper, coupled with the aero cab and hood, nearly eliminates wind noise. I was doing some narration for a video with the driver-side window up and down at highway speed and you could barely tell the difference. That lack of wind noise is a hallmark of a well-designed aero-shaped cab and sleeper. This trip from Scottsdale to Denton was the longest run I’ve made since I stopped driving in 1998. With two 500-mile days, I probably deserved to be tired at the end of the shift, but I wasn’t. That’s a walk in the park for most drivers, but I’m fat and happy now behind my desk and rarely get anymore than a few hours in a test truck. The 579 is a very nice truck to drive and I turned my back on it wanting a little more, rather than kicking stones at it as I walked away. Spec’ Sheet 2019 Peterbilt 579 Epiq 80-inch Ultraloft sleeper (upper & lower bunk) platinum interior Peterbilt LX driver premium driver and passenger seats (leather) Premium sound system Thermal insulation package Premium pocket spring mattress Powertrain Paccar MX-13 455 hp @1,600, 1,650 lb-ft @900 (2017 emissions) Paccar 12-speed automated trans. 0.77 OD (11th gear direct) Meritor RPL 25 SD driveline Front end Meritor MFS+12E 12,500-lb. w/ 3.5″ drop Taper leaf springs, 12,500-lb., w/ shocks Sheppard HD94 power steering Air-disc brakes, pre-set aluminum hubs Bridgestone R 283A 16-ply 295/75R 22.5 Rear end Paccar 40,000-lb. drive axle, 2.64:1 ratio Peterbilt low air-leaf suspension 40,000-lb., 52-inch spread Air-disc brakes, pre-set aluminum hubs Bridgestone R 283A 14-ply 295/75R 22.5 Weight reduction and fuel savings Aluminum frame and crossmembers Holland no-lube aluminum 5th wheel AMT neutral coast enabled Aerodynamic 123-inch BBC aluminum cab Aero close-out under cab/sleeper sides Aero-optimized sun visor Roof fairing close-out and trailer bridge Aero bumper, cab fairings w/18-inch extenders Chassis fairings quarter fender to back of sleeper w/ rubber skirts, FlowBelow rear-axle fairings and wheel covers Wheelbase: 236 inches Dry weight: 17,600 lb. GCW as driven: 77,380 lb. Some phenomenal fuel mileage This truck was obviously spec’d for fuel efficiency with a downsped driveline, modest power, and a plethora of aero devices. The trailer was decked out in aero, too, with a mustache-type gap reducer, side skirts, a trailer tail and rib tires. Over a 505-mile (808 km) leg on the second day of the trip, the average fuel economy shown on the dash display was 10.2 mpg (23.1 L/100km). During that leg, I had the mileage up to 11.1 mpg (21.2 L/100km) for more than 150 miles. I ran that leg mostly without cruise control and kept the speed close to 65 mph (105 km/h) despite the 75-mph (120 km/h) speed limit. The gross combination weight of the truck was 77,380 lb. (35,100 kg), weighed upon our arrival at the factory in Denton with less than a quarter of a tank of fuel. The previous day, running through the mountains in Arizona and cruising on the highway at 70 mph (112km/h) and occasionally up to 75 (120) through New Mexico, my average for the day was 7.8 mpg (30.1 L/100 km). I’m not sure which had a greater impact on my fuel economy, the hills or the extra speed, but clearly the combination of the two had a detrimental effect. The terrain on the second day was mostly flat with sections of rolling hills. We descended from an elevation of 4,600 feet above sea level in Santa Rosa, N.M. to 675 feet in Denton, a drop of nearly 4,000 feet over 800 km. We also had a stiff tailwind of about 20-25 mph (30-40 km/h) for much of the first two-thirds of the trip, but the winds diminished in the evening over the final 240 km. Those conditions certainly didn’t hurt my fuel economy. I drove the truck pretty gently, taking my foot off the pedal on any downslope to gain some free, gravity-fed momentum and letting the truck slow down on the uphill side, backing off the throttle a little rather than powering up to maintain 65 mph (105 km/h). I like to think this driving style had some impact on the overall fuel economy, but without a side-by-side comparison there’s no way to determine how much. If I had to guess, I’d say about 1-1.5 mpg overall. We had ideal conditions to turn in some great fuel consumption numbers, and the truck rose to the occasion. You’ll find an extended story about my 11.1 mpg trek across west Texas here. .

Chevy Details 2020 Silverado 1500's New Diesel Engine Heavy Duty Trucking (HDT) / June 3, 2019 The 2020 Chevrolet Silverado 1500’s available 3.0L Duramax inline-six turbo-diesel engine is the first-ever inline-six turbo-diesel offered in Chevrolet’s full-size light-duty trucks, according to General Motors. Chevrolet engineers started with a clean-sheet design and developed an all-new engine. It is priced identically to the 6.2L V-8 as a $2,495 premium over a 5.3L V-8 model or $3,890 over a 2.7L Turbo model. “From the moment the engine is started to its idle, acceleration, and highway cruising, the 3.0L Duramax performance will change perceptions of what a diesel engine can offer in refinement,” said Nicola Menarini, director for Diesel Truck Engine Program Execution. “With advanced technologies that draw on global diesel expertise, it’s a no-compromise choice for those who want the capability and driving range of a diesel in a light-duty truck.” Available on LT, RST, LTZ, and High Country models, the 3.0L Duramax diesel rounds out the new Silverado’s range of six propulsion choices. It is rated at an SAE-certified 277 horsepower and 460 lb.-ft. of torque delivering 95% of peak torque at just 1,250 rpm. Peak torque is sustained from 1,500 rpm through 3,000 rpm. The 3.0L Duramax is paired with GM’s 10L80 10-speed automatic transmission, featuring a centrifugal pendulum absorber torque converter that reduces vibrations to improve smoothness. This combination also offers exhaust braking, which uses the diesel engine’s compression to help slow the vehicle, requiring fewer brake applications by the driver when in Tow Haul mode. The inline six-cylinder’s lightweight aluminum block and cylinder head reduce overall mass, and Active Thermal Management enhances efficiency and cold-weather warm-up. Ceramic glow plugs also help with shorter heat-up times and a quicker cold start, meaning the engine block heater is not needed until -22 degrees F. Fleet drivers can gain additional confidence thanks to the exhaust brake available in tow-haul mode. The water charge air cooler, coupled with low-pressure EGR, reduces time to torque. The variable geometry turbocharger helps provide a greater balance of performance and efficiency, and an electronically variable intake manifold helps optimize performance across the rpm band. Compared to a DOHC V-6, the inline-six architecture offers greater efficiency from the reduced friction of operating only two camshafts and their associated valvetrain components. The I6 configuration offers the perfect balance of primary and secondary forces, without the need for balancing shafts. Along with supporting elements such as a tuned air induction system and other noise-attenuating elements, the 3.0L Duramax delivers exceptional quietness and smoothness at all engine speeds. The Duramax 3.0L utilizes new low-pressure Exhaust Gas Recirculation to optimize performance and efficiency. The EGR system diverts some of the engine-out exhaust gas and mixes it back into the fresh intake air stream, which is drawn into the cylinder head for combustion. That lowers combustion temperatures and rates. Traditionally, EGR systems in diesel applications recirculate exhaust gases between the two high-pressure points, the exhaust manifold(s) and intake manifold. However, it generally requires efficiency-robbing assistance from the turbocharger or other supporting elements to achieve the pressure differential required for sufficient EGR flow rates. The new low-pressure system adds to the high-pressure system, supporting continual adjustment of exhaust backpressure for more efficient operation. It recirculates gases between the low-pressure points in the exhaust system (downstream of the particulate filter) and after the compressor inlet. When the low-pressure EGR is activated by an electronically controlled valve, the engine burns exhaust gas that has already passed through the particulate filter. That increases the turbocharger’s efficiency, which helps overall vehicle efficiency without deteriorating the rate of particulate matter emitted by the engine. .

Hollywood takes on iconic racing story in ‘Ford v Ferrari' Danielle Szatkowski, Automotive News / June 3, 2019 Hollywood is taking on the true story of American car designer Carroll Shelby and British-born driver Ken Miles -- who teamed up to build a revolutionary race car for Henry Ford II -- with an upcoming feature film titled Ford v Ferrari. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. debuted the worldwide trailer for the film, starring Academy Award winners Matt Damon and Christian Bale, Sunday night during Game 2 of the NBA Finals on ABC. The nearly three-minute trailer shows Shelby, portrayed by Damon, work with Miles, played by Bale, to take on the dominating race cars of Enzo Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France in 1966. Former Ford Motor Co. executive Lee Iacocca, played by Jon Bernthal, approaches Shelby to build Ford II the "greatest race car the world's ever seen." Shelby says to Iacocca that winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans takes "something money can't buy." Iacocca responds: "Money can buy speed." "You need a pure racer behind the wheel of your car; that's Ken Miles," Damon's voice-over as Shelby says while Bale as Miles is seen putting his race car helmet on. Next, Miles and Shelby are sitting at a table in a diner talking about the race proposal. "You're going to build a car to beat Ferrari with a Ford?" asks Miles. "And how long did you tell them that you needed? Two-, three hundred years?" Shelby responds: "Ninety days." Next, Ford II, portrayed by Tracy Letts, says to Shelby in the Ford executive office, "This isn't the first time that Ford Motor's gone to war." During a night scene of the Ford race car, a voice-over of Letts as Ford II says, "We know how to do more than push paper. Go ahead, Carroll, go to war." The trailer continues with a sequence of gutsy, action-filled racing scenes before finishing with Shelby giving Ford II a ride around the track in the race car. Film's origin Shelby, who died in 2012 at 89, was known as an American automotive designer, racing driver and entrepreneur. His vehicles, such as the Ford-powered Cobra sports car, first-generation Shelby Mustang, Le Mans-winning GT40 and modern Mustang are among Ford's post-Word War II highlights. Shelby also had a hand in the development of the Dodge Viper sports car, various high-performance Chrysler products and his own sports car, the Shelby Series 1. Iacocca, Ford's general manager in the early 1960s, knew of Shelby and knew he was installing Ford engines into British sports cars. It's unclear whether Iacocca approached Shelby or vice versa about turning the Mustang into a performance car, according to an Automotive News account published in 2014. "It was Lee Iacocca who really stayed behind us all the way, encouraged us, and then got us into the Mustang program," Shelby wrote in Alex Gabbard's 1990 book, Fast Mustangs. Ford v Ferrari, directed by James Mangold, is set to hit theaters Nov. 15. .

A ‘Bridge’ to China, and Her Family’s Business, in the Trump Cabinet By Michael Forsythe, Eric Lipton, Keith Bradsher and Sui-Lee Wee, The New York Times / June 2, 2019 Elaine Chao has boosted the profile of her family’s shipping company, which benefits from industrial policies in China that are roiling the Trump administration. The email arrived in Washington before dawn. An official at the American Embassy in Beijing was urgently seeking advice from the State Department about an “ethics question.” “I am writing you because Mission China is in the midst of preparing for a visit from Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao,” the official wrote in October 2017. Ms. Chao’s office had made a series of unorthodox requests related to her first scheduled visit to China as a Trump cabinet member. Among them: asking federal officials to help coordinate travel arrangements for at least one family member and include relatives in meetings with government officials. In China, the Chaos are no ordinary family. They run an American shipping company with deep ties to the economic and political elite in China, where most of the company’s business is centered. The trip was abruptly canceled by Ms. Chao after the ethics question was referred to officials in the State and Transportation Departments and, separately, after The New York Times and others made inquiries about her itinerary and companions. “She had these relatives who were fairly wealthy and connected to the shipping industry,” said a State Department official who was involved in deliberations over the visit. “Their business interests were potentially affected by meetings.” The move to notify Washington was unusual and a sign of how concerned members of the State Department were. David H. Rank, another State Department official, learned of the matter after he stepped down as deputy chief of mission in Beijing earlier in 2017. “This was alarmingly inappropriate,” he said of the requests. The Transportation Department refused to explain the trip’s cancellation. A spokesman claimed there was no link between Ms. Chao’s actions as secretary and her family’s business interests in China. Ms. Chao has no formal affiliation or stake in her family’s shipping business, Foremost Group. But she and her husband, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, have received millions of dollars in gifts from her father, James, who ran the company until last year. And Mr. McConnell’s re-election campaigns have received more than $1 million in contributions from Ms. Chao’s extended family, including from her father and her sister Angela, now Foremost’s chief executive, who were both subjects of the State Department’s ethics question. Over the years, Ms. Chao has repeatedly used her connections and celebrity status in China to boost the profile of the company, which benefits handsomely from the expansive industrial policies in Beijing that are at the heart of diplomatic tensions with the United States, according to interviews, industry filings and government documents from both countries. Now, Ms. Chao is the top Trump official overseeing the American shipping industry, which is in steep decline and overshadowed by its Chinese competitors. Her efforts on behalf of the family business — appearing at promotional events, joining her father in interviews with Chinese-language media — have come as Foremost has interacted with the Chinese state to a remarkable degree for an American company. Foremost has received hundreds of millions of dollars in loan commitments from a bank run by the Chinese government, whose policies have been labeled by the Trump administration as threats to American security. The company’s primary business — delivering China’s iron ore and coal — is intertwined with industries caught up in a trade war with the United States. That dispute stems in part from the White House’s complaints that China is flooding the world with subsidized steel, undermining American producers. Foremost is responsible for a large portion of orders at one of China’s biggest state-funded shipyards, and has secured long-term charters with a Chinese state-owned steel maker as well as global commodity companies that guarantee it steady revenues. In a rarity for foreigners, Angela and James Chao have served on the board of the holding company for China State Shipbuilding, a state-owned enterprise that makes ships for the Chinese military, along with Foremost and other customers. Angela Chao is also on the board at the Bank of China, a top lender to the shipbuilder, and a former vice chairman of the Council of China’s Foreign Trade, a promotional group created by the Chinese government. Though Foremost worked in the late 1960s on American government contracts to ship rice to Vietnam, according to James Chao’s biography, it has almost no footprint left in the United States, save for a modest corporate headquarters in Midtown Manhattan. It registers its ships in Liberia and Hong Kong and owns them through companies in the Marshall Islands. Since Elaine Chao became transportation secretary, records show, the agency budget has repeatedly called to cut programs intended to stabilize the financially troubled maritime industry in the United States, moving to cut new funding for federal grants to small commercial shipyards and federal loan guarantees to domestic shipbuilders. Her agency’s budget has also tried to slash spending for a grant program that helps keep 60 American-flagged ships in service, and has tried to scale back plans to buy new ships that would train Americans as crew members. (In China, Ms. Chao’s family has paid for scholarships and a ship simulator to train Chinese seamen.) Congress, in bipartisan votes, has rejected the budget cuts, some of which have been offered up again for next year. One opponent of the cuts has been Representative Alan Lowenthal, a California Democrat whose district includes one of the nation’s largest cargo ports. “The Chinese government is massively engaged in maritime expansion as we have walked away from it,” he said. “There is going to come a crisis, and we are going to call upon the U.S. maritime industry, and it is not going to be around.” Ms. Chao, 66, was born in Taiwan to parents who had fled mainland China in the late 1940s and later settled in the United States when she was a schoolgirl. She worked at Foremost in the 1970s but has had no formal role there in decades. As her political stature has grown — she has served in the cabinet twice and has been married to Mr. McConnell for 26 years — Beijing has sought to flatter her family. A government-owned publisher recently printed authorized biographies of her parents, releasing them at ceremonies attended by high-ranking members of the Communist Party. On a visit last year to Beijing , Ms. Chao was presented with hand-drawn portraits of her parents from her counterpart in the transportation ministry. The Chao family’s ties to China have drawn some attention over the years. In 2001, The New Republic examined them in the context of the Republican Party’s softening tone toward the country. When Ms. Chao was nominated as transportation secretary, ProPublica and others highlighted the intersection of her new responsibilities with her family’s business. And in a book published last year, the conservative author Peter Schweizer suggested the Chaos gave Beijing undue influence. The Times found that the Chaos had an extraordinary proximity to power in China for an American family, marked not only by board memberships in state companies, but also by multiple meetings with the country’s former top leader, including one at his villa. That makes the Chaos stand out on both sides of the Pacific, with sterling political connections going to the pinnacle of power in the world’s two biggest economies. Ms. Chao’s father, a founder of Foremost in 1964, has for decades cultivated a close relationship with Jiang Zemin, a schoolmate from Shanghai who rose to become China’s president. As the schoolmates crossed paths again in the 1980s, the Chaos reaped dividends from a radar company linked to Mr. Jiang that targeted sales to the Chinese military, documents filed with the Chinese government show. Though Ms. Chao’s financial disclosure statements indicate she receives no income from Foremost, she made at least four trips to China with the company in the eight years between her job as labor secretary during the George W. Bush administration and her confirmation as transportation secretary in January 2017. And her father accompanied her on at least one trip that she took as labor secretary, in 2008, sitting in on meetings, including with China’s premier, one of the country’s top officials. Public records show that she has benefited from the company’s success. A gift to Ms. Chao and Mr. McConnell from her father in 2008 helped make Mr. McConnell, the Republican majority leader, one of the richest members of the Senate. And three decades worth of political donations have made the extended family a top contributor to the Republican Party of Kentucky, a wellspring of Mr. McConnell’s power. “This is a family with financial ties to a government that is a strategic rival,” said Kathleen Clark, an anti-corruption expert at Washington University in St. Louis . “It raises a question about whether those familial and financial ties affect Chao when she exercises judgment or gives advice on foreign and national security policy matters that involve China.” A Family Business on the Rise Four enormous gantry cranes rise on the banks of the Yangtze River near the East China Sea. In their shadow thousands of workers assemble cargo ships, each about as long as three football fields. It is here, at the Shanghai Waigaoqiao shipyard, that Foremost Group’s newest ship, the Xin May, was built. Six similar ships are set to be built in the next several years, all part of an order by Foremost announced in December 2017 at the Harvard Club in New York. Foremost first placed an order with the state-owned company in 1988 and over the decades has been its biggest North American customer. The relationship is so tight that Foremost’s offices in Shanghai are in the shipbuilder’s 25-story tower. “We are committed to continuing to build ships in China,” Angela Chao said at the Harvard Club announcement, which was attended by the top official in China’s New York consulate. “My father was a pioneer in internationalizing the Chinese shipbuilding market, and it has been over 30 years that he has continuously ordered ships in China.” Foremost has relied on the Export-Import Bank of China, or China EximBank, to finance at least four ships in the past decade. Its loans often come with lower interest rates and more generous repayment schedules than those made through some commercial lenders. As of 2015, the bank had made at least $300 million available to Foremost, it said at the time. The Chao family’s connections run deep with the Chinese leadership, documents in China show. As civil war raged across the country in the 1940s, Mr. Chao attended Jiao Tong University in Shanghai. A schoolmate was Mr. Jiang, who stayed in China after the Communist victory and ultimately became president. Mr. Chao went with the defeated Nationalists to Taiwan, where he became the youngest person to qualify as a ship’s captain, according to his biography. Mr. Chao left for the United States in 1958, but a thaw in relations sparked by President Richard M. Nixon drew him back to his homeland in 1972, the first of a flurry of trips that established him as a successful member of the Chinese diaspora. Mr. Chao got exceptional access. In 1984 he was invited to Beijing to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the People’s Republic and meet with the country’s top leader, Deng Xiaoping, according to materials at a museum in Shanghai dedicated to Mr. Chao’s wife, Ruth Mulan Chu Chao, who died in 2007. Also in 1984, as China emerged from decades of political and economic turmoil, Ruth Chao bought a stake in a Chinese company that manufactured marine equipment, including radars, in partnership with Raytheon, the American defense contractor, according to Chinese corporate documents. The investment, not previously reported, was held by a Panamanian company. The Chinese company, documents show, praised the “support for the construction of the nation” shown by Ruth Chao, identifying her as James’s wife and both of them as American citizens. The now-defunct company targeted the Chinese military for sales of some of its gear, and a principal partner was a state-owned factory under the Ministry of Electronics Industry, which was led at the time by Mr. Jiang, according to corporate documents and a former employee. The employee, Zheng Chaoman, recalled the involvement of “the father of Elaine Chao.” Within months, it generated enough revenue for Mr. Chao to donate profits to a foundation he had established in Shanghai, according to an announcement by the local government. The foundation sponsors training scholarships for merchant seamen, his wife’s biography said. In the aftermath of the deadly suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations on Tiananmen Square in June 1989, the Chaos asked to divest their 25 percent stake in the company. Two months earlier, Elaine Chao had been confirmed by the Senate to a senior political appointment, as deputy transportation secretary under President George H. W. Bush. The Transportation Department spokesman said Ms. Chao did not know anything about the venture. Angela Chao said her father did not “remember any ownership, and we can’t find anything on it.” The family’s other business ties in China remained, including work that year by China State Shipbuilding on two new cargo ships for Foremost. That August, Mr. Chao met with Mr. Jiang, who had been named general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, the country’s most powerful position. Their hourlong meeting inside the leadership compound adjacent to the Forbidden City, together with the head of the state shipbuilding company, was described as “friendly” in the official People’s Daily newspaper. The two former schoolmates would meet at least five more times during Mr. Jiang’s tenure as general secretary, according to a review of publicly available documents. A Celebrity Face for the Company As the first Chinese-American to serve as a cabinet secretary — eight years as labor secretary — Elaine Chao became an instant celebrity in China during the George W. Bush administration. Her family was a beneficiary of her newfound fame. During a trip to China in August 2008 to represent the United States at the closing of the Olympic Games, Ms. Chao took her father to several official meetings with Chinese leaders, including one with the country’s premier, Wen Jiabao, according to diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks. At the time, Mr. Chao was chairman of Foremost and a board member of China State Shipbuilding. When she left government during the Obama years, she continued to put her celebrity status to use on behalf of the family business. In 2010, she traveled to Shanghai with her father for the delivery ceremony of a cargo ship, the Bao May. The ship soon became a workhorse for Foremost, hauling raw materials to China from around the world under a seven-year charter with a subsidiary of a state-owned steel maker. Foremost paid for the Bao May and another ship with up to $89.6 million in loans from China EximBank, corporate records in Hong Kong show. The next year, Ms. Chao was back in Shanghai for the launch of another ship, and in 2013, she traveled to Beijing with her father and her sister Angela for a meeting with the chairman of China State Shipbuilding, according to a company announcement. Ms. Chao joined her family two years later at the signing of a loan for Foremost at China EximBank’s grand hall in Beijing. The loan, for $75 million, was made jointly with a Taiwanese lender to build two cargo ships. The Transportation Department spokesman said it was “entirely appropriate” for Ms. Chao to take her father to meetings in 2008 as her “plus-one,” and said her visits between her government posts were done as a private citizen. Angela Chao said her sister attended Foremost events “as a family member.” “Foremost was founded in 1964; the company is 55 years old,” she added. “We were around and we were well respected well before Elaine was in anything. We predate her; she doesn’t predate us.” The flurry of visits coincided with Foremost’s growing contributions to China’s globalized steel and shipping industries. Today, Foremost’s fleet, like many, primarily serves the Chinese market, hauling bulk cargo such as iron ore, coal and bauxite. Of the 152 voyages made by its ships between Jan. 1, 2018, and April 12, 2019, 91 have been to or from China, accounting for 72 percent of Foremost’s total tonnage during that period, according to figures compiled by VesselsValue, a company that tracks shipping data. Angela Chao said that its ships were chartered to commodity companies such as Cargill, and that Foremost did not “control where the ships go, so we’re like a taxicab.” During her eight years out of government, Elaine Chao extended her connections in China, according to a review of Chinese websites and other public materials. For example, she was appointed in 2009 to an advisory group in Wuhan, where the steel maker with the Foremost charter is based. Such appointments are largely ceremonial, but they can be sought after for the access they sometimes provide to local leaders. That same year, she was granted an honorary professorship at Fudan University, and in 2010, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Jiao Tong University. With Mr. Trump’s election, Ms. Chao was asked to join the administration. During her confirmation hearing she did not discuss her family’s extensive ties to the Chinese maritime industry, and she did not disclose the various Chinese accolades she had received. The Senate’s written questionnaire requires nominees to list all honorary positions. “It was an oversight,” the Transportation Department spokesman said. A Budget at Odds With Congress Ms. Chao has spoken repeatedly about her commitment to the American maritime industry, including during her confirmation hearing in 2017. “I’m of an age where I have seen two wars in pivotal areas of the world,” she told the Senate Commerce Committee, with her father seated behind her. “If we did not have the merchant marine assets to assist the gray hulls on these campaigns, the military naval campaigns, our country would not have been able to supply our troops, bring the necessary equipment.” But without Congress putting up roadblocks, some of the Trump administration’s budgetary actions proposed during her tenure would have reduced federal funding for programs that support the shipbuilding industry and ships that operate under American flags. Plans drafted during the Obama administration had called for building up to five new, state-of-the-art ships big enough to train 600 cadets each to help the American military move equipment and supplies worldwide, especially during wartime. But after Ms. Chao became secretary, the agency’s budget proposed buying old cargo ships instead and renovating them. Congress balked at the cost-cutting measure — one Democratic lawmaker mocked the agency’s plan to “buy a bunch of rusty old hulks” — and restored the funding. More recently, the agency budget pushed to shrink the size of one of the new ships, again provoking bipartisan protests from Congress. “Given the administration’s strong commitment to American manufacturing and to being sure that we can adequately control the seas, the targeting of programs that help the maritime industry remain strong doesn’t make sense to me,” said Senator Susan Collins of Maine, the Republican who leads the panel overseeing the Transportation Department budget. “It seems inconsistent with the administration’s overall goals.” Ms. Collins added that the driving force behind these cuts had been the White House, not Ms. Chao, whom the senator called a “strong advocate” for the maritime program. The agency budget in 2017 and 2018 also proposed reducing annual grants for the Maritime Security Program, which help American ships pay crews and cover the cost of meeting safety and training requirements. It also moved in the last three years to eliminate new funding for a grant program that helps small shipyards stay in business, as well as a program that provides loan guarantees for the construction or reconstruction of American-flagged vessels. Agency officials noted that many of the cuts were forced on the department by the White House, and that some of the same programs had been previously targeted, only to see the money restored by Congress, as happened with the Trump cuts. Ms. Chao has supporters in the industry, citing her work to defend a federal program that allows only American-flagged ships to make deliveries between American ports, as well as the effort to replace training vessels, which has boosted the maritime unit’s overall budget. “We have a secretary who comes from the maritime industry — and that has translated into an understanding of the importance of the maritime academies,” said Jerry Achenbach, superintendent of the Great Lakes Maritime Academy in Michigan. But objections continue, including questions about why, despite repeated promises, Ms. Chao has not issued a detailed strategic plan for stabilizing the United States’ shrinking fleet. Fair Kim, a retired Coast Guard deputy commander who works at an association that promotes the American shipping industry, said Ms. Chao and the Trump administration had a disappointing maritime record. “If you preach America first, why not promote the U.S.-flagged fleet at the expense of foreign-flagged ships?” he asked. “This administration should be very friendly to us.” A China-Friendly Approach The Trump administration has made the rivalry with China a core tenet of American foreign policy, concluding that decades of accommodation has reinforced the country’s authoritarian rule and undermined the interests of the United States. “Beijing is employing a whole-of-government approach, using political, economic and military tools, as well as propaganda, to advance its influence and benefit its interests in the United States,” Vice President Mike Pence said during a speech in October. None of that, however, has kept Ms. Chao from maintaining China-friendly relations, including engaging with the Chinese media about her family’s shipping business and multiple other subjects. During a televised interview, one prominent Chinese reporter, Tian Wei, described Ms. Chao as “a bridge” between Beijing and the Trump administration. Ms. Chao’s official calendar, obtained by The Times through a public records request, shows at least 21 interviews or meetings with Chinese-language news organizations in her first year as transportation secretary. In November 2017, she met for lunch at her office with Ma Jing, then the top official in the United States for CGTN, the China state television network. The network has been under growing pressure from the Justice Department to detail its ties to the Chinese state as part of a stepped-up enforcement of foreign influence laws, and in March, Ms. Ma and a dozen other CGTN employees in Washington were reported to have been recalled to China. In an interview in April 2017, Ms. Chao was photographed with her father next to a Transportation Department flag. Her father told the reporter how he had traveled on Air Force One and discussed “business” with the president. He also took the opportunity to talk up his daughter’s new role in the administration. “It’s not just an honor for us Chinese,” Mr. Chao said to The China Press, a publication in the United States. “It’s an honor for Americans.” The interview was first highlighted by Politico, which noted that Ms. Chao had made multiple media appearances with her father. Ms. Chao’s schedule also shows that she attended an August 2017 event in New York celebrating the signing of a Foremost deal with Sumitomo Group, a Japanese company with mass transit projects in the United States, including California and Illinois, that fall under her oversight. The spokesman said she attended in a personal capacity and did not discuss agency business. Marilyn L. Glynn, a former general counsel at the Office of Government Ethics, questioned Ms. Chao’s proximity to Foremost, saying she should recuse herself from decisions that broadly impacted the shipping industry. “She might be tempted to make sure her family company is not adversely affected in any policy choices, or it might even just appear that way,” Ms. Glynn said. The agency spokesman said that was not necessary because there was no conflict. “The family business is not in U.S.-flag shipping,” he said. “The trade routes are completely different; the ships are completely different.” Ms. Chao’s first trip to China as transportation secretary was made last April amid an escalating trade war, six months later than originally planned. The original trip had been described by the department as a “bilateral meeting” with Ms. Chao’s Chinese counterpart to discuss disaster response, infrastructure and related subjects. Eight days before the planned start of the October 2017 trip, when contacted by The Times, Ms. Chao’s office said it could not provide a list of who would accompany her. But the embassy in Beijing had received requests to accommodate Ms. Chao’s family members, according to interviews with State Department officials involved in the planning, as well as a redacted email obtained by The Times through a public records lawsuit. Angela Chao said in the interview that she was already planning to be in Beijing to attend a Bank of China board meeting, and that her husband, the investor Jim Breyer, also had business in the Chinese capital. But she said she was unaware of her sister’s travel plans. Angela Chao was among the family members mentioned in the State Department discussions about the visit, according to a United States official. The email, with the subject “ethics question,” had come from Evan T. Felsing, a senior economic officer for the State Department in Shanghai . Mr. Felsing, now based in India , declined to comment. Other correspondence also signaled unease among American diplomats over whom Elaine Chao intended to take on the trip and the topics they would discuss with Chinese officials. Emails indicate that ethics lawyers in both the State and Transportation Departments weighed in. “They would not have raised a question like this about a cabinet secretary unless it was something really serious,” said Mr. Rank, the former deputy chief of mission in Beijing, who resigned in protest over the Trump administration’s environmental policy. The agency spokesman confirmed a request on behalf of Ms. Chao’s relatives, but did not say in his written response to questions whether they were scheduled to attend official government events. When Ms. Chao finally traveled to China last April, no relatives were present. She met with top leaders, including the premier, Li Keqiang. While there, she sought to soothe hard feelings between China and the Trump administration in an interview with a government-run broadcaster. She suggested some of the tensions resulted from cultural differences. “America is a very young country — it’s very dynamic — it doesn’t have a long period of history,” she said in an interview with CGTN. “So there are not so many rules and regulations in terms of behavior, whereas some other countries that have long histories, it may be a little bit more different. We have to understand the Chinese and how they see things, and I think the Chinese need to understand how America sees things.” Even this trip did not proceed entirely by the book. Ms. Chao broke with the standard practice for government employees and flew on a Chinese state airline instead of an American carrier. Ms. Chao’s economy-class round-trip ticket with Air China cost $6,784, according to information obtained through a public records request. The flight was booked through a code-share arrangement with United Airlines. A less expensive ticket was available on a nonstop United flight, according to an airline official. The agency spokesman would not say what class Ms. Chao flew in, only that the ticket was booked in economy. The flight, he said, complied with federal law. A Windfall for Mitch McConnell When a delegation of local Chinese Communist Party leaders visited Washington in 2017, Ms. Chao’s office arranged for them to be photographed with Ms. Chao and her father. Her aides pulled another string. “U.S. Capitol Tour for VIP Guests,” read the subject line of an email sent by Ms. Chao’s aides to the staff of her husband, Mr. McConnell. The senator’s staff obliged, arranging an “off limits” tour for Ms. Chao’s guests, who were visiting from the home region of her mother. “The delegation was thrilled to get the VIP treatment by your office and were particularly excited to hear that the leader’s office was normally off limits to normal guests,” an aide to Ms. Chao later wrote to Mr. McConnell’s staff. It was a small favor, but one that reflected the political partnership at the center of the marriage between Ms. Chao and Mr. McConnell. In 1989, shortly after their first date (at the Saudi ambassador’s home near Washington), Mr. McConnell was preparing for a re-election campaign. Greetings from Ms. Chao came in classic Washington fashion: a string of campaign donations, totaling $10,000, from Ms. Chao, her father, her mother, her sister May and May’s husband, Jeffrey Hwang, according to Federal Election Commission records. Over the next 30 years, the extended Chao family would be an important source of political cash for Mr. McConnell, himself one of the most formidable Republican fund-raisers in American politics. The extended Chao family is among the top donors to the Republican Party of Kentucky, giving a combined $525,000 over two decades. One of Ms. Chao’s sisters, Christine, the general counsel at Foremost, was the second-biggest contributor to the super PAC Kentuckians for Strong Leadership in 2014. She gave $400,000 to the organization, which identified Mr. McConnell’s re-election as its highest priority that year. In all, from 1989 through 2018, 13 members of the extended Chao family gave a combined $1.66 million to Republican candidates and committees, including $1.1 million to Mr. McConnell and political action committees tied to him, according to F.E.C. records. “I’m proud to have had the support of my family over the years,” Mr. McConnell said in a statement. The family’s wealth has also benefited Mr. McConnell personally. In 2008, Ms. Chao’s father gave the couple a gift valued between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal disclosures. Mr. McConnell, never a wealthy man, vaulted up the moneyed rankings in the Senate; as of 2018 he was the 10th wealthiest senator, according to Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper. David Popp, a spokesman for Mr. McConnell, said the gift from Mr. Chao was in honor of Elaine Chao’s mother. Over the years, Mr. McConnell has also participated in Chao family events and trips related to the family’s business and charitable giving. In 1993, he and Ms. Chao traveled with her father to Beijing at the invitation of China State Shipbuilding and met top officials. He celebrated Foremost’s 50th anniversary in 2014 at the Harvard Club in Manhattan, witnessing the signing of a contract with a Japanese shipbuilder. And he attended the dedication in 2016 of a building at the Harvard Business School named after Ms. Chao’s mother. Ms. Chao and three of her sisters had attended the school. Mr. McConnell’s connection to the family was hard to miss when a reporter recently visited the Foremost headquarters in Manhattan. There, in the reception area, were two gray pillows emblazoned with the seal of the United States Senate. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elaine Chao, the transportation secretary, has been a steadfast booster of her family’s shipping business, which transports raw materials to fuel China’s heavy industries. In January 2017, as the Senate voted to confirm Ms. Chao, a bulk carrier ship sailed from Canada with a shipment of iron ore. The ship, the Bao May, is owned by her family’s business, Foremost Group. Its destination: an iron ore transfer terminal on Liangtan Island, south of Shanghai. Two weeks later, after unloading its cargo in China, the Bao May set sail for Brazil to collect another shipment of iron ore, weaving through the Strait of Malacca and crossing the Indian Ocean. The size of three football fields, the Bao May is too big to pass through the Suez or Panama Canals, so it must sail around the southern tip of Africa on its voyages to Atlantic Ocean destinations. For the last two years, the Bao May has repeatedly made the round-tip journey between China and ports in Brazil and Canada. On this trip, it arrived in Brazil in May 2017, docking at the Ponta da Madeira Maritime Terminal in São Luís, where ships load up with iron ore from Brazil's interior. The Bao May was built in a Chinese shipyard and financed with loans from the Export-Import Bank of China, owned by the Chinese government. At the launch ceremony in Shanghai in 2010, the guest of honor was Ms. Chao. For years, the ship has been chartered by a state-owned Chinese steelmaker, giving Foremost a steady supply of revenue. It is one of 19 ships owned by Foremost, which was founded by Ms. Chao’s father, James S.C. Chao, and is now run by her sister Angela. While Foremost has its headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, its fleet is overwhelmingly focused on China. About 72 percent of the raw materials it has shipped since the beginning of 2018 has gone to China, according to figures from VesselsValue, a London-based firm that analyzes global shipping data. Each year, Foremost ships transport hundreds of millions of tons of iron ore, coal and bauxite to China from ports around the globe. The shipments feed China’s industrial engine, especially its steel mills, whose products are part of an escalating trade dispute between China and the United States. .

Commercial Motor / May 31, 2019 Find out about the lightweight savings being made to help operators in the tipper and tanker industry. .

FORD'S GALHOTRA: 'We have a lot of great product this year' Automotive News / June 2, 2019 DETROIT — For a glimpse into Ford Motor Co.'s expectations for the growth of its North American business, look no further than Kumar Galhotra's office space. Roughly 15 months after he was named Ford's president of North America, Galhotra and his team have moved from Ford World Headquarters to more spacious digs in nearby Regent Court, a two-tower building that houses, among other teams, Ford's marketing and sales units. The team previously operated out of makeshift "franchise rooms" dedicated to individual nameplates that were slapped together from former executive offices and meeting spaces on the 11th floor of Ford's Glass House in Dearborn, Mich. The office upgrades come at a pivotal time in North America, the company's longstanding moneymaker. Ford is aiming to have the industry's freshest lineup by 2020 and hoping that product, focused on profitable pickup and utility segments, will help improve margins. "We have a lot of great product this year," Galhotra, who led Lincoln before taking his current post, told Automotive News. "A lot of product momentum should help both provide great vehicles for our customers and for our bottom line." Galhotra, 53, spoke with Staff Reporter Michael Martinez and Chief Content Officer Jamie Butters in May about Ford's outlook for its North American business, including plans for some upcoming products. Here are edited excerpts. Q: Ford has set a 10 percent North American profit margin target. Where is the company in terms of achieving that? A: We just had an excellent [first] quarter. This is the third consecutive quarter of year-over-year improvement, so the signals are clearly there that what we are doing is working. We intentionally haven't put a strict timeline on 10 percent because there are way too many variables that impact the business. The overall trajectory needs to be toward 10 percent. Will there be ups and downs? Absolutely. There are multiple macroeconomic, regulatory levers that would impact that. Is the 10 percent goal a full-year average? Or do you expect to consistently hit 10-plus every quarter? My view is, in our industry, we should emphasize the full year more than each quarter because of multiple factors that can provide quarter-to-quarter variability. Weather impacts it. There's seasonality in our fleet business. Then there's quarter-to-quarter variability in our costs. We're a capital-intensive business, so if you launch a particular product in third quarter vs. fourth quarter, that's going to have a big impact. I want to see improvement in every quarter, but I'm very aware that quarter-to-quarter variability is a fact of life. What's the biggest threat to North America? There are multiple headwinds that we manage every day. It's not one particular threat. A particular headwind from the customer side could be interest rates. They've gone up, so that's something that needs to be managed very carefully, providing the customers what they want and what they can afford. The environment in terms of tariffs continues to be volatile. We're doing a lot of work on quality and fully expect improvement between 2018 and 2019. Let's not forget the competition; nobody's standing still. All day, every day, we're all fighting for share and volume, and how we react to each other's actions is a daily part of work. It's not one threat. It's managing all parts of the business. Last year, Ford axed plans to bring the Focus Active wagon to North America. Are tariffs impacting other product plans? Generally, we need the steel and aluminum tariffs to go away as part of [the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement]. That was a very substantial headwind from 2017 to 2018. The impact is about flat '18 to '19, but it's still there. We do import parts from China, and those are impacted; those will be more expensive as they're coming here. We do ship substantial Lincoln volumes from the U.S. to China. As those volumes are impacted by higher tariffs on the China side, we have to make adjustments in the U.S. plants. That has an obvious impact of scale for us; those plants being set up to serve two markets now have a lot less volume. It's a very complex situation. Relief on metals tariffs has been announced. Have you accounted for that? I think it's a very great first step, but we need to keep in mind it still needs to be ratified, and that's very important. In our forecast, it does not include elimination of 232 tariffs for steel and aluminum until it's secured. It's been a year since Ford announced plans to cut sedans. Will you lose market share as you exit those segments? No. We believe we will make it up through multiple actions. Managing the timing is complex. Because we are a capital-intensive business, a product cycle for us is years, not days. Retooling a plant takes time. With Bronco and the small rugged utility coming, expansion of Expedition and Navigator capacity, with a fresh Explorer and Escape, if you combine all that, at a run-rate level, we think we'll be fine in making up the market share. Would it be the same every month? You can't be that precise about it. Is there concern about losing sedan customers to some of your rivals? There will be lots of customers also, the flip side, in vehicles that we weren't providing previously. The question really is, where are our strengths, and where is our capital best deployed? That's something we take very seriously now. Automotive News has reported that Ford is considering the Bronco and its other off-roaders as a "family" of vehicles. Would you consider it as its own subbrand? I can't go into the details, but I can say the Bronco brand name is so strong, we're looking at all kinds of possibilities. It's a very emotional product. Along with that love for that brand name comes the responsibility of how you execute that product. If the Bronco is going to be a Bronco, it has to deliver on capability and feel and emotional pull that customers have for that brand. We have to be really good stewards of that brand name. We have to look at all opportunities that are out there. We're studying very carefully not just where we want to go, but where can the customer allow us to go with that name? Is Ford considering having more than one product with the Bronco name? We're studying possibilities. I can't be any more specific than that. Can Ford beat Jeep in the off-road segment? I feel that looking at it from that broad a lens — off-road only — is just the starting point. But then you need to look at, what is unique about Bronco vs. other similar vehicles in the marketplace functionally, emotionally and from a design-language perspective? Getting those things right is going to be very, very important. We know there is a lot of love for that nameplate in the marketplace. It goes beyond the name itself; it's what it represents. Because some of our customers are spending $200,000 or more restoring their Broncos, and there are hundreds of Bronco clubs all over the U.S. The passion for the product, from our customers, dealers and employees, is incredible. The market research we do, both on the concept and research with prototypes, has been very well-received. You put all those together, we're very confident there's a substantial opportunity for us, both in terms of volume and pricing. Is there space out there? Yes. Can we make a strong business case about that? Absolutely. Does Ford plan a charging network for electric vehicles? Would it be Ford- branded or part of a consortium? If you're going to put EVs on the market, you need a very strong and well-thought-out charging strategy. And we do; we're working on it. I don't think we're close enough to declare [possible collaborations]. It is going to involve several stakeholders to execute it properly. First and foremost, we're looking at it through the lens of the consumer, to provide great options for charging at home. But then, we need to have a very broad network that helps them charge away from home. The fundamental issue is to solve range anxiety. Other competitors have tried and failed to sell electric pickups. Why electrify the F series? It goes back to our ethnographic research. Our F-series team go to where they use those vehicles. It wasn't just the vehicle itself, it was the vehicle in its environment. They noticed, in multiple construction sites, there was always a generator, and it was always noisy and smelly. Then the question is, what's the insight there? Could you just remove all that noise and smell? It's not just a fuel economy play, it's s a totally different experience play. The next-generation F-150 launches in 2020. Ram has had success in part because of its interior. How much will the interior of the F-150 evolve? This was our philosophy at Lincoln, and this is our philosophy more and more here leaning into human-centered design. The interior space provides an experience for our customers. We're very thoroughly looking at what experiences to provide those customers. Both work and personal-use customers have different needs. We know what those needs are and what those experiences ought to be. We're designing an interior that's going to meet those functional needs and also provide surprises and delights for our customers. Interiors are important for all vehicles, but especially for that vehicle. . Video - https://www.autonews.com/2019galhotravideo .

I love everyone here like a brother. We're good.

So every person should carry a gun at all times in all places? I myself am not going to. If things are so bad that the need to carry a gun is mandatory, then I will live elsewhere. Life is too short. If I was king of USA Inc for a time, every "indisputable" murderer apprehended alive would die within 24 hours by the exact same means he/she used on their victims. In these cases with indisputable evidence (cameras, ect.), there would be no trial (a trial for what purpose?). That, I feel, would send shock waves to those who have murderous thinking. I couldn't change them.....but I would put the fear of god into them.