Today’s Logistics Report was written by Liz Young.

Overstocked retailers are cutting back on lenient pandemic-era return policies heading into the holiday season. Many companies during the pandemic worked to make online returns easy and free to appeal to homebound customers, fueling a habit of buying several items at once and returning unwanted items. The WSJ’s Rachel Wolfe reports the pattern has become costly for retailers, with the National Retail Federation estimating about 17% of all merchandise bought in 2021 was returned, totaling $761 billion. For retailers coping with excess inventories, the sight of goods coming back is proving too much too bear. Brands including J.Crew, Gap and Zara are shortening their refund and exchange windows and charging customers restocking fees to discourage returns. One survey shows the number of retailers offering free returns has fallen by half this year, suggesting easy returns is another trend unlikely to outlast the pandemic.

A recovery in semiconductor supplies hasn’t reached Toyota’s assembly lines. The world’s biggest auto maker is cutting its production outlook for its fiscal year ending in March by about half-a-million cars, to about 9.2 million units from a previous goal of 9.7 million, citing the risk of semiconductor-supply issues. The WSJ’s River Davis writes the shortfalls are also persisting at other car makers, in a sign that the chip rebound at smartphone and electronics companies isn’t necessarily translating into more of the critical components at automotive factories. Pockets of constrained supply remain and analysts and chip executives say the mismatch of supply and demand in the business could continue for years. Experts say the problem reflects years of underinvestment in certain older types of chips that are needed by car makers. Chip makers STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments have been working to catch up on backlogs of orders.

The recent drop in natural-gas prices is helping relieve a problem that has been moving across agricultural supply chains. European fertilizer companies are restarting production after slashing output earlier this year because of rising raw-materials costs. The WSJ’s Yusuf Khan and Jenny Strasburg report the higher production costs had left fertilizer in short supply and pushed pricing for remaining stocks to record highs. Many farmers have been seeking alternative options, including changing their planting plans toward less fertilizer-intensive crops like soybeans rather than corn and wheat. With gas prices falling sharply, commodity research firm CRU International estimates fertilizer output is now at about 63% of total capacity from a low of around 37% at the start of October. Still, gas prices remain higher than before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which threatens to limit production for some time to come.

Rus­sia says it will re­sume par­tic­i­pa­tion in a deal to al­low Ukrain­ian grain ex­ports. (WSJ)

U.S. job openings rose again in September, in a sign of continuing tightness in the labor market. (WSJ)

Construction spending ticked up 0.2% in September. (MarketWatch)

A type of amoxicillin is in short supply in the U.S. (WSJ)

A.P. Moeller-Maersk said freight rates have peaked as the shipping line’s third-quarter profit surged to $8.88 billion. (MarketWatch)

Marine asset owner Atlas agreed to a nearly $11 billion buyout of its business that includes container shipping leasing business Seaspan. (MarketWatch)

Health-products giant Johnson & Johnson is buying heart-device maker Abiomed for $16.6 billion. (WSJ)

Tesla plans to start mass production of its Cybertruck pickup at the end of 2023. (Reuters) 

BlackRock has invested $153 million in tanker giant Frontline. (TradeWinds)

Maersk is offering overstocked retailers the option of slower cargo arrivals to help manage inventories. (The Loadstar)

A Vietnamese company halted the launch of the country’s all-cargo airline because of weakness in the sector. (Nikkei Asia)

A Chinese company completed the country’s first conversion of a Boeing 767-300 passenger jet into a freighter. (Air Cargo News)

XPO Logistics completed the spinoff of its freight brokerage and last-mile business as RXO. (Transport Dive)

Warehouse robotics company Ocado will provide automation for online fulfillment for South Korea’s Lotte Shopping. (Financial Times)

Amazon is pushing back the opening of a Detroit fulfillment center until next year. (Detroit Free Press)

Philadelphia is setting up a retail center for small merchants that will be housed inside shipping containers. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Join us on Nov. 9  for a webinar on advancing supply-chain sustainability. Speakers include Sandra MacQuillan, executive vice president and chief supply chain officer at Mondelez International, and Ravi Anupindi, professor of operations and management at Michigan Ross. Sign up here.

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.