For a growing array of e-commerce companies, a business model built on the simple proposition that they aren’t Amazon is translating into strong growth. Small and local businesses are joining bigger operators like Shopify as well as other tech giants in setting up alternatives to the online sector’s behemoth. The WSJ’s Dana Mattioli writes that the businesses are positioning themselves as anti-Amazons by uniting small companies that have lost sales and margins to the e-commerce giant. The operations include physical facilities like a ShopIN.nyc warehouse in Brooklyn that pools inventories for a local version of Amazon’s marketplace. Bookshop’s website provides the online infrastructure for 1,000 independent bookstores, allowing them to set up a digital shop and ship to customers around the country. Such services are aimed at making smaller businesses look bigger, but the larger driver may be to tap into concern about Amazon’s growing clout and competitive practices.

China is about to push a big volumes of major industrial metals into commodity markets. Beijing says it will start selling copper, aluminum, zinc and other metals, the WSJ’s Chuin-Wei Yap reports, in an effort to squelch sharp growth in raw materials costs that just sent factory-gate price increases to a 13-year high. The world’s biggest buyer of industrial commodities is using its market heft to try to quell the sharp rise in global metal prices over the past 12 months. That includes a 67% surge in copper, a bellwether for global industrial manufacturing health. China’s big profile in purchasing markets has ocean carriers of commodities from iron ore to crude closely watching Beijing’s actions, and selling from stockpiles could push stronger volumes into shipping markets. Still, bulk carriers have seen resurgent earnings this year and falling commodity prices for goods may provide an unwelcome drag on profit margins. 

There’s big money in matching trucks to loads in China. Startup Full Truck Alliance expects to raise up to $1.57 billion in its U.S. initial public offering, the WSJ’s Joanne Chiu reports, in a plan that could value the business also known as Manbang Group at more than $20 billion. The mobile app company already has major backing from investors including Softbank Group’s Vision Fund and it’s looking to raise another $200 million by privately selling $100 million of stock each to two big investors. The big figures are a sign of the potential investors see in China’s sprawling and highly fragmented trucking market. Various digital load-matching services have started in the U.S. but they’re competing for business in an American trucking market that is more concentrated and includes freight brokers with increasingly sophisticated technology. By contrast, Full Truck Alliance’s road to growth looks far less congested.  

U.S. Federal Reserve officials signaled they expect to raise interest rates by late 2023, earlier than previously expected. (WSJ)

Growth in China’s industrial production and retail sales moderated in May. (WSJ)

General Motors raised its target for investment in electric and autonomous vehicles by about 30%, to $35 million through 2025. (WSJ)

Waymo raised $2.5 billion in a funding round as it bulks up investment in autonomous freight-hauling technology. (WSJ)

Johnson & Johnson is alleging “numerous irregularities” in the voting for a former supplier’s bankruptcy plan. (WSJ)

Gartner says the share of women working at the executive level in supply chains has fallen from 17% in 2020 to 15% this year. (Modern Materials Handling)

Online pet store Chewy says stock-outs cost the company $40 million in missed sales last quarter. (Supply Chain Dive)

Sharply-divided delegates at the International Maritime Organization set aside negotiations on a proposed carbon levy for ships. (Lloyd’s List)

Yantian International Container Terminal says the logjam at the Chinese port is easing. (The Loadstar)

Crude transports to China have fallen to the lowest level in three years. (TradeWinds)

The Panama Canal increased the length of vessels allowed to transit the waterway by almost 10 feet. (Dow Jones Newswires)

Ship operator Norden is issuing $100 million in bonds to fund expansion in the dry-bulk sector. (ShippingWatch)

Bringg raised $100 million in a Series E funding round that values the delivery logistics and fulfillment platform at $1 billion. VentureBeat)

Retailer Neiman Marcus is buying machine-learning startup Stylyze. (Dallas Morning News)

Philadelphia’s airport is tripling warehousing space under a broad airfreight expansion. (Air Cargo News)

Fast-fashion merchant Boohoo is facing a shareholder revolt over its role in a labor abuse scandal among its U.K. suppliers. (Financial Times)

Paul Page is editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Write to him at paul.page@wsj.com.

Follow the WSJ Logistics Report team: @PaulPage, @jensmithWSJ, @CostasParis. Follow the WSJ Logistics Report on Twitter at @WSJLogistics.