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Trailer maker Utility Trailer Manufacturing Co. said Wednesday that its dealer, Allstate Sales & Leasing Corp., opened a new facility in Minnesota.

Wholesale sales rose faster than inventories rose in May, jumping 1.5%, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

The economy’s service sector growth rate grew at the fastest pace in more than a year in June, the Institute for Supply Management said.

Shell Limited, part of Shell Oil Co., broke ground late last month on a lubricants blending plant in southern China.

The Environmental Protection Agency proposed reducing the amount of ozone in the air, which trucking industry and manufacturing officials said could lead to retrofits of older trucks.

Diesel fuel taxes in Connecticut increased 11 cents a gallon to 37 cents from 26 cents on July 1.

The Ontario government will introduce legislation this fall to adopt a proposal put forward by the Ontario Trucking Association almost two years ago to make 65-mph speed limiters on trucks mandatory, OTA said last week.

 A key congressional Democrat said dire pronouncements about the state of the Highway Trust Fund are driven by the Bush administration’s antipathy to a fuel-tax increase and its affinity for tolls and privatization.

Shipments of new trailers to dealers and fleets fell 11.8% during the first five months of 2007, due in large part to the weaker economy, and will fall further this year, according to trailer manufacturers and analysts.