The dispersal of Yellow’s sprawling real estate is turning into a battle for a competitive edge in the trucking sector. The top offer for Yellow’s terminals already exceeds the assessed value of the sites by some $400 million, with Estes Express Lines emerging as the stalking-horse bidder. That sets the minimum price for the sites in an upcoming auction in bankruptcy court, the WSJ Logistics Report’s Paul Berger writes, a sign of the high value that terminal capacity plays in a highly fragmented less-than-truckload sector. Terminal space has become harder to find and even harder to build in recent years as a push by carriers to get facilities closer to population centers has run into growing community opposition to industrial operations. The difficulty in adding doors, or handling capacity, has become a barrier to expansion for truckers. That makes the Yellow auction a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bulk up.

Parcel shippers are finding something they haven’t seen in several years: shipping discounts heading into the holidays. Package carriers are offering price cuts and other forms of cost relief to customers, the WSJ’s Esther Fung reports, in the latest sign of a slowdown in goods demand in consumer markets that is hitting every link in global supply chains. Carriers are bracing for muted demand that has already clipped seaborne trade to persist in the package delivery business, leading United Parcel Service and FedEx to bend on pricing. The U.S. Postal Service already says it won’t impose a holiday surcharge this year. ShipMatrix estimates carriers will deliver an average of 82 million parcels a day during the peak, down from 90 million parcels a day last year. The field has also gotten more competitive, with carriers including DHL and OnTrac pushing for parcels and Amazon Shipping back in the fray.

• Project44 says on-time delivery rates for parcel carriers rose in August to prepandemic levels. (Supply Chain Dive)

Countries looking to knock China off its perch as the world’s factory floor face formidable competition from within China itself. Low-cost manufacturing is expanding away from China’s bustling coast as companies hunt for cheaper land and labor in interior provinces. The WSJ’s Jason Douglas reports the migration has accelerated as U.S. tariffs push up costs for factories, and China’s coastal megacities focus on electronics, electric vehicles and other advanced industries. The shift adds a wrinkle to the restructuring of supply chains that has countries including Mexico, India and Vietnam gaining new manufacturing activity. But China’s inland provinces are enjoying an export boom that dwarfs the acceleration in overseas sales by other countries. Since the start of 2018, exports from 15 of China’s central and western provinces have rocketed 94% as factory production expanded beyond the Pearl and Yangtze river deltas that have driven China’s industrial economy.

• China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International is doing booming business with U.S. companies even after being blacklisted. (WSJ)
• Vietnamese automaker VinFast plans to build factories in India and Indonesia. (Nikkei Asia)
• Fast Retailing’s Uniqlo is seeking more suppliers in India amid surging sales in the country. (Bloomberg)

U.S. employers added 336,000 jobs in September, the strongest gain since January. (WSJ)

The United Auto Workers didn’t expand walkouts against Detroit automakers, citing progress in contract negotiations. (WSJ)

Exxon Mobil is nearing a deal to buy Pioneer Natural Resources, in a deal potentially worth roughly $60 billion. (WSJ)

Workers at two Chevron natural-gas facilities in Australia voted to resume their job actions. (WSJ)

Alaska Airlines will work with a venture-capital firm to nurture aviation technology startups. (WSJ)

Russia lifted a ban on seaborne diesel exports that had threatened to tighten global supplies. (Financial Times)

New evidence suggests Russia has started to use the occupied Ukrainian port of Mariupol for trade. (Lloyd’s List)

CMA CGM, Volvo and Renault will create a joint venture aimed at producing electric vans. (Dow Jones Newswires)

Belgian authorities are investigating potential intelligence risks at Alibaba’s hub operations at the Liège Airport. (The Guardian)

Amazon opened its first distribution center in Turkey. (Daily Sabah)

CMA CGM joined Maersk Line and Hapag-Lloyd in announcing fees for the extra costs of meeting Europe’s climate quota system. (ShippingWatch)

Rates for dry-bulk’s largest capesize vessels jumped to their highest level since May 2022. (TradeWinds)

Qantas suffered a catastrophic failure when the airline tried to switch on a cloud-based freight management system, leaving cargo stuck at airports. (Sydney Morning Herald)

Aviation startup Novadev plans to develop a hydrogen-powered jet freighter. (Air Cargo Next)

Trafigura secured a $400 million credit line insured by the U.S. Export-Import Bank to move more liquefied natural gas from the U.S. to Europe. (Platts)

India’s direct-to-consumer market is expected to reach up to $35 billion in gross merchandise value by 2027. (Business Standard)

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

Follow the WSJ Logistics Report team: @PaulPage, @bylizyoung and @pdberger. Follow the WSJ Logistics Report on X at @WSJLogistics.