Makers of delivery drones have proven they can make the technology work but still face a major hurdle in wider adoption in the parcel market. The cost of airlifting small shipments remains sky-high, experts say, providing an obstacle to regular use in distribution operations. The WSJ Logistics Report’s Liz Young writes that consulting firm McKinsey last year pegged the cost of delivering a single package by drone at $13.50, compared with $1.90 a package using a delivery van. The unit-cost measure is a crucial gauge of efficiency in package delivery, and experts say it remains a challenge even as regulators open up more airspace to drones. That’s in part why high-value like healthcare supplies, in which demand can outweigh delivery costs, make the best sense right now. The cost calculations will also change when workers can expand the number of drones they can manage at a single time.

• A Chinese company successfully completed tests of drone delivery on Mount Everest. (South China Morning Post)

Japan is fighting to hold its place as a quiet but crucial part of global semiconductor supply chains. Tokyo is pumping billions of dollars into the country’s menagerie of obscure suppliers, viewing its dominance there as important to the country’s national security. The WSJ’s Peter Landers and Yang Jie write that Japanese companies account for nearly half of the world’s six crucial semiconductor materials, including chemicals, packaging materials and tools. Japan now feels its pole position is under threat as the U.S. and its allies try to redraw the map for global chip production and distribution, potentially unraveling the broad ecosystem of suppliers in the high-value supply chains. Types of semiconductor expertise tend to cluster in single countries or regions, and Japan is the origin of many specialized materials used in chip making. Still, U.S. companies are wary about chokepoints and are pressing Japanese suppliers to diversify their production.

• NXP Semiconductors and a company partly owned by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing will jointly build a $7.8 billion wafer chip plant in Singapore. (Straits Times)

The European Central Bank lowered interest rates by a quarter point, its first rate cut since 2019. (WSJ)

German manufacturing orders unexpectedly fell in April. (WSJ)

Initial unemployment claims in the U.S. hit a four-week high. (MarketWatch)

Global investment in clean-energy technology and infrastructure is set to hit $2 trillion this year, almost double the amount spent on fossil fuels. (WSJ)

Flooding across Germany has halted a big share of freight traffic on rivers and wreaked havoc on Europe’s inland waterways. (The Loadstar)

Numerous companies in the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas have shuttered factories or curbed operations due to a severe drought. (Bloomberg)

South Carolina authorities closed a bridge outside the Port of Charleston after crew on a Mediterranean Shipping containership lost control of the engines. (Associated Press)

Libra Group exited the container shipping market with the sale of the last of nearly 100 vessels that it has offloaded for more than $2 billion. (Reuters)

Tanker operator Union Maritime ordered 34 ships with rigid sail technology from Bar Technologies. (Seatrade Maritime)

Profits at commodities trader Trafigura tumbled more than 70%, signaling improved market stability. (Financial Times)

Retailer Big Lots lost $205 million last quarter as comparable-store sales fell 10%. (Dow Jones Newswires)

Regulators certified a passenger-to-freighter conversion for small jets from Brazil’s Embraer. (Air Cargo News)

• Companies can’t seem to quit decades-old spreadsheet tools. Some say that’s making it harder to use AI.
• A law firm’s private-equity work cost it a chapter 11 assignment—and threatens an arrangement other top firms use to tap into the lucrative bankruptcy business. (🔒)
• Transport and logistics operators are looking to break a logjam in public stock offerings, following a fallow period marked by tight funding and weak freight demand.
• The surge in U.S. government debt has reached levels that threaten to have a big impact on the rest of the world. (🔒)
• Buyout firms are turning away from buying up smaller medical businesses as antitrust authorities step up scrutiny of such acquisitions.

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.