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Component and raw-material shortages have spread to some of the largest key suppliers in the heavy-duty truck manufacturing industry, cutting potential big-rig production by about 10% this year, the head of the nation’s largest truck manufacturer said.

Think of it as better trucking through chemistry. In the near future, industry experts said, truck tires could well offer improved tread wear thanks to closely guarded refinements to the tires’ synthetic rubber content.

With another 90% reduction in particulate matter from diesel engines due by 2007, the freight-hauling industry soon will be fielding new soot-filtering technology for both heavy- and medium-duty power plants.

TROY, Mich. — ArvinMeritor Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Larry Yost said annual U.S. and Canadian sales of his company’s current lineup of commercial-vehicle emissions controls would grow from “modest” amounts now to “at least” $500 million and “hopefully” $700 million by 2008.

USF Corp. said it plans to re-emerge in the Northeast with a new “service product,” but it offered no timetable for the rollout following its surprise decision in late May to shut down USF Red Star, its unionized less-than-truckload operation that served the region.

U.S. retail sales of Class 8 trucks in April climbed 33.3% from a year earlier to 16,416 units. At the same time, buyers reportedly placed orders for new trucks at the fastest pace in more than six years and the second-highest total on record.

The United States Postal Service said it would replace its fleet of about 2,000 Class 8 tractors in 2005 and that its normal eight-year replacement cycle would enable the federally owned corporation to bypass the Environmental Protection Agency’s next two deadlines for additional emissions restrictions on heavy-duty diesel engines.

U.S. retail sales of Class 8 trucks rose to their highest level in nearly four years in March, soaring 90.4% over the volumes of a year earlier.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Peter Karlsten, chief executive officer of Volvo Trucks North America, said he supported incentives to help spur sales of model-year 2007 heavy-duty engines that will have more stringent emissions controls than current models.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — With more than half their 2004 truck production slots already accounted for and more orders piling up, top executives of two major original equipment manufacturers said the industry has entered an era of strong sales that could last for several years.