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Market observers are still predicting a drop in the price of diesel fuel despite two consecutive weeks of rising prices.

Canadian National Railway Co. says its plan to purchase the Wisconsin Central Transportation Corp. at a cost of $1.2 billion should be seen by the Surface Transportation Board as a “minor transaction..

More than 12,000 jobs have now been eliminated in the slumping truck-manufacturing industry since October 1999 as two more manufacturers announced new production cuts.

Market observers are still predicting a drop in the price of diesel fuel despite two consecutive weeks of rising prices.

Shipments of truck trailers in November continued to follow heavy truck sales on a downward spiral, with vans — the most popular kind of trailer — still leading the descent.

Rising demand triggered by fears of refinery production cuts and the cost of natural gas pushed the retail price of diesel fuel up by nearly two pennies a gallon last week, wiping out three weeks of decline.

In a somber news release that echoed four issued previously, OTR Express Inc., a nationwide truckload dry van carrier, predicted net losses for the fourth quarter of 2000 and the first quarter of 2001.

Shipments of truck trailers in November continued to follow heavy truck sales on a downward spiral, with vans — the most popular kind of trailer — still leading the descent.

The national average price of diesel fuel fell by 1.1 cents a gallon last week to stand at $1.509 a gallon on Jan. 15, the lowest point since late August and the sixth price drop in the past seven weeks reported by the Energy Information Administration.