The White House is touting its effort to expand operations at Southern California’s jammed ports as a potential “game changer.” The companies that have to execute the plan are viewing it more cautiously. Operators say the effort aimed at helping clear the country’s biggest freight bottleneck still has big details to be worked out, the WSJ’s Alex Leary and Paul Berger report, and that gaps in the supply chain well beyond the port gates must be closed to make the plan work. The Port of Los Angeles says it will move toward joining the neighboring Port of Long Beach in offering 24/7 gate operations, with port chief Gene Seroka calling the commitment a “call to action.” Sal Ferrigno of SSA Terminals says its terminals are only getting 60% utilization for their 90 operating hours each week, suggesting there is still slack in the system to be worked out.

LaserShip wants to extend its regional parcel-delivery operations across the entire U.S. The specialist alternative to the big package carriers is buying Western rival OnTrac Logistics, the WSJ Logistics Report’s Jennifer Smith writes, putting the business on a path to offer two-day shipping to nearly three-quarters of the U.S. population. The expansion is being driven by the red-hot growth in e-commerce demand, which has flooded the FedEx and United Parcel Service networks and upended the traditional map for parcel delivery and competition. Regional parcel operators have flourished in recent years as a growing lineup of online startups and expanding retailers have sought delivery capacity beyond the major operators. LaserShip’s Josh Dinneen sees an opportunity to get bigger with an “aggressive expansion” plan next year that will fill in some areas like Chicago and Texas. That suggests more acquisitions are likely in the pipeline.

Semiconductor manufacturers are facing their own supply chain problem. Chip makers can’t ramp up production fast enough to meet unprecedented global demand because of short supplies of key materials and pandemic-driven factory shutdowns in Southeast Asia. The WSJ’s Dan Gallagher writes in a Heard on the Street column that the production constraints are slowing deliveries to customers and may cut into earnings at the manufacturers despite the clamor for chips. One analyst says the lead times between when semiconductors come in and when they are delivered to customers soared to an average of nearly 22 weeks in the third quarter, up from just over 13 weeks at the end of last year. One type of semiconductor used in automobiles has a lead time of 32 weeks. IHS Markit projects the chip market is unlikely to see supply and demand equilibrium before the middle of next year.

China’s fac­tory-gate prices rose 10.7% in Sep­tember, the steepest increase in 25 years. (WSJ)

A growing stream of data suggests supply-chain bottlenecks are taking a toll on economies around the world. (WSJ)

Inflation in the U.S. accelerated to 0.4% growth from August to September on rising logistics and raw-materials costs. (WSJ)

Boeing will mandate Covid-19 vaccination for its approximately 125,000 U.S. employees by Dec. 8. (WSJ)

France is accusing more than 100 companies of withholding information from consumers about a potentially harmful chemical in food packaging. (WSJ)

Delta Air Lines posted a $194 million adjusted third-quarter profit and cargo revenue jumped 39% to $262 million. (WSJ)

Alitalia, a symbol of Italy’s post-war boom and la dolce vita, is slated to fly its last flight today. (WSJ)

Electric-vehicle maker Lordstown Motors named Adam Kroll chief financial officer. (WSJ)

Apple is likely to slash its projected iPhone 13 production targets by as many as 10 million units because of problems getting enough chips. (Bloomberg)

Deere & Co. was in eleventh-hour negotiations to head off a strike by unionized production workers. (Des Moines Register)

Internal Amazon documents show the company systematically creates knockoffs and manipulates search results to boost its own product lines in India. (Reuters)

Steel maker Cleveland-Cliffs will buy scrap metal recycler Ferrous Processing and Trading for about $775 million. (MarketWatch)

India’s Tata Motors will invest more than $2 billion in electric-vehicle production. (Nikkei Asia)

Alphaliner says average delays on Asia-to-Europe shipping lanes are up to 18 days. (Journal of Commerce)

The U.K.’s Port of Felixstowe is struggling under enormous stacks of empty containers that are constraining cargo handling. (Lloyd’s List)

Chinese state-owned shipbuilder Tianjin Xingang Ship Heavy Industry is shutting down. (Seatrade Maritime)

Canadian Pacific Railway and Kansas City Southern expect to file their formal merger application with U.S. regulators later this month. (Argus Media)

The airline industry’s top global trade group started a certification program for lithium-battery shipping. (Lloyd’s Loading List)

XPO Logistics will pay nearly $30 million to settle class-action lawsuits over classification of port truck drivers in Southern California. (Los Angeles Times)

GXO Logistics plans to hire 9,000 supply-chain workers in North America ahead of the holidays. (Dow Jones Newswires)

Paul Page is editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Write to him at paul.page@wsj.com.

Follow the WSJ Logistics Report team: @PaulPage, @jensmithWSJ, and @pdberger. and @LydsOneal. Follow the WSJ Logistics Report on Twitter at @WSJLogistics.