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EV Weakness Stalls Battery Plant; Startup Pitches Border 'Guideway'; Fight Brews for GMS By Mark R. Long

A massive new-and empty-battery plant in Kentucky shows how slack demand and the trade war are disrupting the electric-vehicle supply chain, and dimming local economic hopes.

The WSJ's Christopher Otts writes that three years ago, Bowling Green was celebrating the biggest-ever industrial investment in the city of 72,000 . In August of 2022, Chinese-owned Automotive Energy Supply Corp., or AESC, broke ground on a sprawling, $2 billion EV-battery plant. Output was supposed to start this year, but today, a massive metal shell of a building sits with no equipment inside. Since the groundbreaking, EV demand has stalled , GOP lawmakers are targeting clean-energy subsidies and clean-air rules , and tariffs are making it pricier to equip factories. The plant's main customer is among several automakers that plan to make fewer EVs in the U.S. AESC quietly stopped working on the Kentucky plant-which got $100 million in state funds-in September. It also paused construction of a similar $1.6 billion plant in South Carolina. A third plant in Tennessee for EV batteries now makes them for industrial energy storage.

AESC says it remains committed to completing the Kentucky and South Carolina plants, which together would employ 3,600 people. At least a portion of the Bowling Green facility will be dedicated to energy-storage systems.

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An Austin startup has a novel, $10 billion plan to help ease chronic congestion at the busiest U.S. land port. The company, Green Corridors, says its design for a 165-mile-long, elevated "guideway" would complement truck and rail operations at Texas's Port of Laredo , which handled more than 3 million truck crossings from Mexico into the U.S. last year. If the plan, approved by President Trump earlier this month, comes to fruition, truck drivers hauling freight would drop off their 53-foot dry van trailers, which would then be loaded onto autonomous diesel-electric hybrid shuttles. At the other end of the guideway, truckers would pick up a trailer and carry the goods farther into the U.S. or Mexico. The permit Trump signed expires in five years if construction hasn't begun. The company has several other permits to secure, and is working to acquire the real estate it needs to complete construction and start testing the system, as planned, in 2031. Building Materials

Serial logistics dealmaker Brad Jacobs might have a fight on his hands over GMS, a distributor of interior-construction products his QXO proposed to acquire for about $5 billion. Home Depot also made an offer for the Tucker, Ga., company , people familiar with the matter tell the WSJ's Lauren Thomas. GMS has a network of over 320 distribution centers selling wallboard, ceilings, steel framing and other construction items. It also runs about 100 tool sales, rental and service centers for residential and commercial customers. Both Home Depot and QXO want a larger share of the fragmented market for construction supplies and tools. The U.S. housing shortage and other secular trends bode well for growth, despite tariff and economic weakness that hit GMS. Earlier this year, QXO clinched an $11 billion deal , including debt, for Beacon Roofing Supply, while Home Depot last year struck an $18.25 billion acquisition for roofing- and building-product seller SRS Distribution.

Number of the Day Global Trade

This week's G-7 meeting was seen as a chance for national leaders to try to break impasses in trade talks with the U.S. , ahead of a July 9 deadline for Trump's global slate of "reciprocal" levies. But aside from signing a previously announced U.K. trade pact , the U.S. reached no other deals before Trump-who this week doubled down on his support for tariffs-left a day early to deal with the Middle East conflict. (WSJ)

Canada unveiled policies to support its steel sector , including a curb on imports, as the sector faces financial duress due to Trump's hefty 50% tariffs. (WSJ) Nippon Steel completed its acquisition of U.S. Steel after securing a national-security pact giving Trump and his predecessors broad authority to regulate the Tokyo company's operation of the Pittsburgh firm. (WSJ) Ireland's economy faces heightened uncertainty as a result of changing U.S. trade policies that could see its economy grow more slowly than expected, the nation's central bank said. (WSJ) In Other News

U.S. Federal Reserve officials left the door open to cutting interest rates in the second half of the year when they agreed to hold rates steady on Wednesday. (WSJ)

The Bank of England left its key interest rate unchanged , mirroring the Fed, as policymakers face a rise in oil prices that could push inflation further above their target. (WSJ)

U.K consumer prices rose 3.4% in May compared with a year earlier, keeping inflation well above the Bank of England's target. (WSJ)

Japan's exports fell 1.7% in May, the first drop in eight months, with exports to the U.S. declining 11.1% with car, auto-part and chip-making machinery shipments showing weakness. (WSJ)

Switzerland's central bank cut interest rates to zero as it hopes to rein in the rapidly appreciating franc, which has acted as a safe haven for investors. (WSJ)

Hasbro laid off 3% of its global workforce , about 150 employees, as the toy company gets hit by tariffs and aims to trim about $1 billion in costs in the next few years. (WSJ)

Keyera is buying Plains All American Pipeline's natural gas liquids business in Canada for $3.76 billion. (WSJ)

Germany's Rheinmetall and U.S. startup Anduril Industries will jointly develop defense systems for Europe. (WSJ)

Rio Tinto will pay over $138 million to settle, without admitting wrongdoing, a class-action suit alleging it misrepresented facts about the expansion of Mongolia's Oyu Tolgoi copper mine. (WSJ)

DAT Freight & Analytics settled a legal dispute with a former partner, freight-factoring firm OTR Solutions, which sued DAT for allegedly violating a non-compete agreement by acquiring a competitor. (Journal of Commerce)

Police in India filed criminal charges against the owner, captain and crew of the Wan Hai 503 containership that caught fire after an explosion on June 9. (Splash 247)

French water and waste-management company Veolia launched its largest plant yet to clean PFAS, commonly known as forever chemicals, from drinking water in Delaware. (WSJ)

Brazil said it was free from bird flu , opening the way for the world's largest chicken supplier to return to international markets. (Bloomberg)

Supply-chain software company Blue Yonder acquired the remaining shares of returns specialist Inmar Post-Purchase Solutions, a joint venture between Blue Yonder unit Doddle and Inmar. (DC Velocity)

The Frontline oil tanker that collided with another tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Tuesday was one of 1,000 vessels hit by satellite jamming since Israel struck Iran, Windward and Kpler data show. (TradeWinds)

The Nigerian Navy seized 76 vessels and at least 242 suspects to combat oil theft, also destroying more than 800 illegal refining sites in a two-year operation. (gCaptain)

CMA CGM's Osiris transited the Suez Canal on Wednesday, the first of the world's biggest containerships to do so since March of last year, following the introduction of a toll-discount incentive. (World Cargo News)

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded a $95.4 million contract to the JAG Alaska shipyard to upgrade and maintain the fisheries survey vessel Oscar Dyson. (MarineLog)

Died: Philippe Louis-Dreyfus, 80, chairman of the supervisory board of French shipping company Louis-Dreyfus Armateurs and former chair of national and international maritime organizations.

Here is our weekly roundup of stories from across WSJ Pro that we think you will find useful.

Private equity accounts for about half of the companies in the "shadow IPO pipeline," setting the stage for what could be a busy second half of companies going public. An Israeli startup is rethinking how to tackle two of the planet's most stubborn environmental threats-toxic algae that can lead to dead zones in oceans and rising carbon levels. The ad world is obsessed with industry news videos from two 27-year-old guys. About Us

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 .

This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.

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June 20, 2025 07:17 ET (11:17 GMT)

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