The peak-season pressure is starting to reach pricing in container shipping’s spot market. Costs to ship boxes from Asia to the U.S. West Coast have surged this month, the WSJ Logistics Report’s Paul Berger writes, as container lines try to reverse a monthslong slide in rates that has hit carrier earnings and raised alarms about a bigger financial hit later this year. Xeneta says rates have jumped 34%, or $425, over the past two weeks. That suggests the market has accepted a big part of the $600 general rate increases that shipping lines rolled out at the start of the month. Experts say the carriers are trying to get U.S. importers to sign peak-season contracts rather than sitting back to see if spot rates will keep dropping. Their bigger hope is probably that importers follow through by boosting their shipping volumes in the coming months.

Volatile energy transport markets are due for another jolt as Europe moves to turn off one of the last significant supplies of Russian fossil fuels. The continent is targeting seaborne shipments of liquefied natural gas, a step that would mark one of the final acts in Europe’s sharp pivot away from dependency on Russian energy. The WSJ’s Will Horner reports that the shipments are relatively small in quantity but the business has surged as shipments of crude have halted and flows of natural gas by pipeline have slowed to a trickle. The EU’s energy policy chief has told European companies to refrain from signing new contracts with Russian suppliers. The Netherlands, a big importer, says it has already banned new contracts to import Russian LNG. Russia’s crude tankers have been expelled from European ports, but tankers hauling LNG dock at EU ports almost every day, according to tracking data.

• Greek ship owner Dynamo signed deals for up to 14 product tankers from a Chinese shipyard. (TradeWinds)
• U.S. regulators rejected a request for a permit to transport liquefied natural gas by rail from Pennsylvania to a proposed terminal in New Jersey. (Star-Ledger)

Venture-capital investors are maintaining the momentum in their investments in logistics technology even as stresses in supply chains are easing. Venture firms are aggressively backing startups from warehousing robotics providers to visibility businesses that help manage supply chains in motion, the WSJ’s Marc Vartabedian reports, in bets that the efforts to bring digital tools to logistics will endure beyond the strains of the past three years. According to PitchBook, venture investors committed roughly $5.6 billion last year into enterprise supply-chain management startups, a nearly 120% increase from 2017. Commitments to warehouse-robotics startups were up 326% over that time, to roughly $2.8 billion. Investors aren’t backing down despite a depressed fundraising market in which VC firms have grown more cautious. Joe Floyd of Emergence Capital says the backing is based on the long-term view that supply chains are ripe for a digital overhaul that will help prevent future meltdowns.
 

U.S. economic growth slowed to a 1.1% annual rate in the first quarter. (WSJ)

Amazon’s first-quarter sales surged 9% and profit expanded nearly 50% to $3.2 billion. (WSJ)

United Parcel Service is accelerating its rollout of RFID technology as part of its cost-cutting efforts. (WSJ)

Iran’s naval forces seized a Chevron-chartered oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman that was bound for Houston. (WSJ)

Intel lost a record $11.7 billion in the first quarter as sales fell to a 13-year low. (WSJ)

Airlines say passenger demand is picking up heading into the critical summer travel season. (WSJ)

Quarterly sales at Caterpillar rose 17% on strong demand for the manufacturer’s construction equipment. (WSJ)

Gap is eliminating 1,800 jobs as part of a broad restructuring. (WSJ)

The Senate voted to overturn the Biden administration’s new pollution limits for heavy-duty trucks. (Bloomberg)

Honda and GS Yuasa will spend about $3 billion to jointly develop and mass-produce battery cells for electric vehicles in Japan. (Nikkei Asia)

Chinese automaker BYD’s quarterly profit fell 43.5% on fierce price competition among EV makers. (South China Morning Post)

Fast Retailing’s Uniqlo plans to add 20 to 30 apparel stores in North America annually through 2027. (Reuters)

California will provide $27 million toward creating a shared data platform for the state’s five biggest ports. (Long Beach Business Journal)

First-quarter operating profit at freight forwarder DSV fell 31% to $681 million as air and ocean sales plummeted 43%. (The Loadstar)

Freight broker C.H. Robinson Worldwide plans to name a CEO this quarter. (Transport Dive)

Penske Truck Leasing bought Star Truck Rentals in its second acquisition this year. (Commercial Carrier Journal)

Industrial parts supplier Graybar acquired automation products distributor Valin on the heels of surging sales and revenue growth. (Industrial Distribution)

Nearshoring. Automation. Supplier diversification. Sustainability. Our WSJ Pro teams take a closer look in a series exploring how companies are building their supply chains for a changing world. 

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 Twitter at @WSJLogistics.