WASHINGTON—The White House last Friday laid out objectives for trade talks with Japan, setting the clock for them to begin as early as Jan. 20, as the administration seeks to slash the United States' $69 billion trade deficit with the world's third-biggest economy. According to the document, the United States is aiming to secure duty-free market access for American industrial products and reduce or eliminate tariffs for U.S. agricultural goods.
SPRINGFIELD, MA—The first pair of the 404 next-generation rail vehicles built in the U.S. factory of Chinese rail car manufacturer CRRC here will soon be delivered to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority for further tests before entering into service by the city of Boston in the coming months. The cars are set to replace the decades-old ones running on Boston's Orange Line.
LAS VEGAS—BKT USA Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of India-based Balkrishna Industries Ltd., announced during the Specialty Equipment Market Association Show here that the off-highway tire specialist company is planning to soon build a U.S. tire plant. The $100 million factory will be BKT's first outside of India and fifth tire plant overall.
BOCA CHICA, TX—Last Saturday SpaceX CEO Elon Musk revealed that construction of a prototype for a Mars spaceship, called Starship, is now underway, and that the first round of its experimental launches may be completed by early spring.
Engineers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) recently developed carbon-fiber composites that can monitor their own structural health. The technology could be used in future aerospace and automotive applications.
Global demand for robots shows no signs of stopping. A recent report by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) claims that a record 381,000 units were shipped globally in 2017. That’s a 30 percent increase over 2016.
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