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Trucking Startup Windrose Faces Scrutiny; Jones Act Suspension Spurs Debate; Humanoid Safety By Mark R. Long | WSJ Logistics Report

A missing electric big rig, payroll problems, unpaid debts, a lawsuit in federal court and scrutiny from U.S. safety regulators are among the headaches facing Windrose Technology, a Chinese-owned company aiming to disrupt the global trucking industry .

The WSJ Logistics Report's Paul Berger writes that Windrose's 36-year-old CEO, Wen Han, said the company had payroll issues, but has sufficient funding as it seeks to expand. He said Windrose has secured orders this year for more than 150 trucks and that the company is forging ahead with plants and assembly partners in Europe and the U.S. He also said he plans to take Windrose public via a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company this year.

The company has raised capital from venture firms and hedge funds in the U.S. and China, none of which returned requests for comment. Former employees question why Han has pursued aggressive expansion plans and made outside commitments while struggling to make payroll.

Han faces other questions. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is seeking information from Windrose about discrepancies in the Vehicle Identification Numbers and provenance of two trucks in the U.S. Meanwhile, two former employees fired in January say they are refusing to help Han track down a missing $285,000 truck until they receive unpaid wages and benefits.

Rivian delivered 12,194 electric vehicles in the second quarter, beating its guidance . (WSJ) Lucid Group announced a management overhaul as the EV maker reported lower-than-expected deliveries

in the second quarter. (Dow Jones Newswires) CONTENT FROM: PENSKE Gain Intel. Gain Ground with Penske.

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Ocean Shipping

One of the most drastic measures taken by the Trump administration to tame fuel costs during the Iran war: suspending the Jones Act to allow foreign ships to haul fuel

and other industrial commodities between U.S. ports.

Gas prices haven't declined from their wartime highs as quickly as President Trump would like, and that is spurring debate about the merits of the century-old Jones Act, which is likely to intensify ahead of Aug. 15, when Trump's 150-day suspension is set to lapse.

The Journal's Alana Pipe and Ryan Dezember write that more than 31 million barrels of fuel and chemicals were shuttled between U.S. ports by foreign vessels in the 90 days after the Jones Act was suspended. More than 70% of these shipments originated on the Gulf Coast. California, which depends on Persian Gulf imports, has been the most popular destination.

Refilling global oil stocks will take months or years even as prices fall and tanker traffic recovers , giving the amount of oil in storage a central role in U.S.-Iran power dynamics. (WSJ) Daily traffic through the Strait of Hormuz appeared to stabilize at between 30 to 60 crossings

last week, according to ship-tracking company Kpler. (WSJ)

Number of the Day Logistics Technology

Robots with humanlike attributes are getting bigger and heavier-approaching 200 pounds in some cases. That means de-risking humanoid workers may be a key

to the sector's aggressive growth goals, the WSJ's John Keilman writes.

Traditional industrial robots such as welders or loaders are deterministic: adhering to a fixed set of rules for a constant result.

Humanoids tasked with performing multiple jobs use AI and are probabilistic, meaning they operate on statistical likelihoods, not certainty. That will require the robots to have layers of safeguards before they can work shoulder to shoulder with human beings. Companies at the Automate conference in Chicago said many of those are already taking shape.

Swedish ball-bearing maker SKF will form a new joint venture with China's Leaderdrive to produce components for humanoid robots . (WSJ) Quotable In Other News U.S. employers added 57,000 new jobs in June, the Labor Department said, missing economists' expectations

for a gain of 115,000 jobs. (WSJ) Canada's manufacturing sector maintained growth in June , with its PMI rising to 53.0, marking a third straight month of expansion. (WSJ) The Canadian federal government and Alberta agreed to support a new crude-carrying pipeline

to the Pacific coast, aiming for a million barrels a day. (WSJ) South Korea's headline inflation hit a 30-month high of 3.2% in June , topping 3% for a second month. (WSJ) The UN Food and Agriculture Organization's food price index fell 0.3% in June from May , on cheaper cereals, sugar, and dairy, but an intense El Niño adds uncertainty. (WSJ) Norwegian fertilizer producer Yara International agreed to buy an ammonia production facility in Texas

for $1.3 billion. (WSJ) Florida's Brightline bought itself roughly two weeks

to continue negotiations with creditors competing to provide potential bankruptcy loans to the private passenger railroad. (WSJ) Air-freighter capacity from China to Europe dropped by more than a fifth in the two days after the EU scrapped duty-free imports

of low-value products on July 1, according to Rotate. (Journal of Commerce) Chinese automakers' sales in Europe surpassed those of Japanese brands

for the first time in May. (Nikkei Asia) A.P. Moller-Maersk's parent company confirmed it agreed to acquire all of ship lessor

Ocean Yield from KKR. (Lloyd's List)

In last week's Podcast: As millions of soccer fans travel across North America, banks and regulators are using financial intelligence to identify human trafficking networks. Also, Christmas is coming early for some U.S. retailers, whether they like it or not. James Rundle hosts. New episodes every Friday on Apple Podcasts , Spotify

and Amazon .

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.