Supply-chain disruptions are making managing inventory more of a guessing game than ever for retailers and suppliers. Inventories at sports apparel giant Nike were up 23% in the past quarter over the same period a year ago, the WSJ’s Inti Pacheco reports, even as overall sales declined 1% to $12.2 billion. The gap is the latest sign of an inventory disconnect across the retail sector, and for Nike it appears the mismatch is the result of shifting consumer-buying patterns colliding with ongoing supply-chain snarls. Nike finance chief Matthew Friend says extended production and shipping times caused nearly two-thirds of the company’s inventory to be in transit and unavailable to customers at the end of its fiscal quarter. The clothing and sporting goods supplier is hardly alone. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that retailers’ overall inventories rose 1.1% from April to May, and were up 17.3% over last year.

• Manufacturers world-wide are seeing a sharp increase in inventory as consumer demand weakens. (Nikkei Asia)

Industrial real-estate developers aren’t waiting for their customers to jump on the cold-storage bandwagon. Developers had nearly 3.3 million square feet of refrigerated warehouse space under construction without tenants signed onto the plans in the first half of the year. The WSJ Logistics Report’s Liz Young writes that the work on so-called speculative projects was up about 1,000% from 2019, according to a new report by CBRE, signaling strong confidence that the demand driven by the pandemic will outlast shifting consumer spending patterns. The surge in refrigerated-warehouse construction is one sign of how the boom in online spending is changing the logistics landscape. Grocers including Walmart and Kroger have shifted their logistics operations to meet the new demand, and they are still investing in those operations. Consumer spending has been shifting again as shoppers return to stores. But some cold-storage developers say their demand isn’t flagging.

• Food distributor US Foods opened a 355,000-square-foot distribution center outside Sacramento to serve as a hub for Northern California. (Business Journals)

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may be roiling commodities markets but it’s not stopping the flow of raw materials to European steel plants. Import volumes of some Russian steelmaking ingredients into Europe are surging, the WSJ’s Yusuf Khan reports, even after the continent’s steelmakers said they would avoid Russia-sourced raw materials. Russian exporters boosted shipments of Russia-sourced ferrotitanium, a metallic alloy used to strengthen steel, by 30% in March from the previous month and far above the average in the months before the invasion. Traders say bargain-hunting buyers are capitalizing on a discount for Russian products amid wide-ranging sanctions, while boosting purchases ahead of possible sanctions on the ingredient itself. The shipments show how markets are responding to sanctions and the threat of restrictions, complicating Western efforts to isolate Russia’s economy. One trader says that as long as Western governments avoid sanctioning ferrotitanium, “most steel plants are buying.”

• U.S. Steel plans to end steel production at its Granite City, Ill., mill and use the plant to produce pig iron. (WSJ)
• U.S. authorities have stopped a tanker owned by Greece’s TMS Tankers that was carrying fuel products from Russia to New Orleans. (WSJ)

U.S. consumers’ short-term outlook for the economy dropped sharply to its lowest point in nearly a decade. (WSJ)

U.S. goods imports slipped 0.1% in May in the second straight monthly decline while exports increased 1.2%. (MarketWatch)

Four people died and about 150 people were hospitalized after a cross-country Amtrak train collided with a dump truck in rural Missouri. (WSJ)

Sri Lanka sharply restricted fuel use to essential services as it struggles to shore up energy supplies. (WSJ)

Volkswagen is close to selling a stake in its U.S. electric-vehicle charging business to an arm of Siemens. (WSJ)

Volkswagen’s CEO believes the auto maker can overtake Tesla in the electric vehicle market by 2025 because of Tesla's production woes. (Financial Times)

Logistics companies including DHL Global Forwarding says U.S. orders with manufacturers in China have fallen as much as 30%. (Supply Chain Digital)

Transport worker unions in Europe are turning up the heat on employers after two years of relative peace in the freight labor sector. (Journal of Commerce)

Container lines are assessing penalty fees against shippers who incorrectly declare the weight of boxes on Asia-to-Europe services. (The Loadstar)

Clarksons Research says overall vessel orders are down 45% this year even as container ships and liquefied natural gas tankers remain in strong demand. (TradeWinds)

The value of late model Class 8 trucks was up nearly 83% in the first five months of this year over last year. (Commercial Carrier Journal)

Paul Page is editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Write to 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.