Supply-chain pressures may have eased but the lingering impact of three years of turmoil is still weighing on many companies’ finances. The maker of the popular Instant Pot cooker and Pyrex glassware cites the deep hole that the pandemic-driven strains cut into its balance sheet as a key reason the company entered chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The WSJ Logistics Report’s Liz Young writes that Instant Brands owes tens of millions of dollars to suppliers, including manufacturers in China, as well as outstanding bills to logistics providers. Supply-chain experts said Instant Brands’ woes show how many retailers and manufacturers, operators without big capital cushions, are still coping with the financial overhang of the pandemic turmoil. Instant Brands says in court filings that it was essentially whipsawed by fast-changing consumer buying patterns. High shipping prices raised the cost of moving goods and now higher interest rates have boosted inventory carrying costs.

• A measure of consumer sentiment in the U.S. rose to a four-month high. (MarketWatch)

The heat is rising in negotiations between United Parcel Service and the Teamsters as the July 31 expiration date for the current contract closes in. Union members at the parcel carrier voted to authorize a strike if the contract talks falter, the WSJ’s Esther Fung reports, in the latest in a series of high-stakes labor negotiations rippling across the transport sector this season. UPS is in talks to replace an agreement signed in 2018 covering about 330,000 workers, a massive labor pact that reaches deep into retail supply chains. The strike authorization vote is largely a tactical move at this point, potentially providing added negotiating leverage for the union. Teamsters members also authorized a strike last week at less-than-truckload carrier TForce Freight. The union took a similar step at rival ABF Freight just two weeks before striking a tentative contract agreement.

• DHL parent Deutsche Post is changing its name to DHL Group. (MarketWatch) 

Some direct-to-consumer strategies may be heading directly to the scrap heap. A number of brands are turning away from attempts to bypass retailers by building new supply chains using e-commerce tools to bring their goods straight to shoppers. The WSJ’s Suzanne Kapner reports that smaller, targeted startups and some more-established brands have concluded that cutting out the middleman was harder and more expensive than they anticipated. Investors believed companies like mattress-seller Casper understood their customers better than retailers did, but they miscalculated the rising expense of acquiring customers online. Some brands like shoe maker Allbirds have sought to answer that problem by opening physical stores, but that is also expensive. The sheer economics of scale in logistics remain compelling, with brands weighing the difference between shipping a single box to a consumer rather than “a crate of shoes to Nordstrom,” as one analyst put it.

Al­ibaba is re­plac­ing top ex­ec­u­tive Daniel Zhang by nam­ing com­pany vet­eran Joe Tsai as chairman and domestic e-commerce chief Eddie Wu as CEO. (WSJ)

Farmer and consumer groups warn that the planned agricultural megadeal uniting Bunge and Viterra could leave farmers with fewer alternatives for selling crops and drive up food prices. (WSJ)

Indian discount airline IndiGo agreed to buy 500 Airbus passenger planes, in the largest commercial jet deal in civil-aviation history. (WSJ)

Intel plans to build a $4.6 billion semiconductor assembly and test facility in Poland. (WSJ)

Intel agreed in principle to build a manufacturing plant in Israel. (Bloomberg)

Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes says Western supply chains “can de-risk but not decouple” from China. (Financial Times)

Automakers say a railcar shortage is slowing their deliveries of new cars. (Detroit Free Press) 

Pennsylvania’s governor says the collapsed portion of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia should be repaired within two weeks. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Tesla issued the second recall for its Semi heavy-duty trucks, affecting 36 units. (Commercial Carrier Journal)

A Japanese bullet train operator is offering to haul freight on the passenger railway to relieve a looming truck driver shortage. (Nikkei Asia)

Charter rates for very large crude carriers soared past $100,000 per day over the past week. (TradeWinds)

Brazilian media reports Mediterranean Shipping is looking to buy port and maritime logistics firm Wilson Sons. (Splash 247)

Airbus projects 60% of the freighters entering the market in the next 20 years will be converted passenger aircraft. (Air Cargo News)

Walmart opened a 2.2 million-square-foot distribution center northeast of Indianapolis that is the largest in its logistics network. (DC Velocity)

Mars opened a warehouse in East London as part of a strategy to reduce transport mileage in the U.K. (Logistics Manager)

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.