Stellantis in talks to sell Brampton plant to Roshel as union declares impasse

LA/Long Beach August loaded container imports fell 1.1% from July

Stellantis is in talks to sell its idled Brampton, Ontario, factory to Roshel, a Canadian maker of armored vehicles, the Wall Street Journal’s Paul Vieira reported. The discussions prompted the union representing over 9,000 of the automaker’s Canadian employees to declare an impasse on talks toward a new labor deal.

The potential sale is the latest development involving the Stellantis factory in Brampton, which has not operated since 2024 to undergo retooling, the Journal reported.

Stellantis last year unveiled plans to shift production of its next-generation Jeep Compass to Illinois from Brampton after the Trump administration imposed steep tariffs on foreign-made cars. The decision prompted the Canadian government, which had provided Stellantis with hundreds of millions of dollars for work at the plants in Brampton and Windsor, Ontario, to threaten a lawsuit over the shift.

In a separate logistics development reported in the same WSJ newsletter, combined loaded container imports into the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in August, measured in 20-foot equivalent units, fell 1.1% from July but rose 1.22% from a year earlier, the Journal reported.

The newsletter also addressed fuel markets. The US average price of a gallon of diesel crossed $6 on Friday for the first time, the Journal’s Shradha Dinesh reported, having risen 14% in the past month and more than 60% over the past year. The increase reflects American exports filling a gap in global supply left by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries, the Journal reported.

Gasoline prices have climbed in parallel. The national average price of gasoline was $4.295 a gallon, according to AAA, more than 40% above where it stood when the Iran war began, the Journal reported. US gasoline prices rose 3.9% from July to August, accounting for more than a third of the monthly increase in prices for all consumer items, according to the Labor Department.

Beyond the fuel pump and airline terminal, however, the Journal reported few signs yet that these soaring fuel costs are filtering into the broader economy. The open question is whether and when the fuel increases will start boosting prices for other goods and services, the Journal’s Konrad Putzier reported.

“Diesel prices right now are a major concern for us,” White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said.