Bed Bath & Beyond is giving up its turnaround effort. The home-goods retailer filed for bankruptcy protection and says it is winding down its business after years of losses, the WSJ’s Suzanne Kapner and Soma Biswas report, providing a new high-profile casualty in a period of upheaval in the retail trade. The company has been struggling to keep its shelves stocked after a botched effort to start selling private-label goods cost it the support of major suppliers. The retailer now has about $240 million in financing to keep some 360 Bed Bath & Beyond stores and 120 Buybuy Baby locations open as it liquidates the business. The shift to private-label merchandise in 2020 was part of an overhaul in the company’s supply chain. But it alienated major brands at the heart of its business, highlighting the sometimes complicated intertwined relationship between merchants and their suppliers.

• Procter & Gamble’s quarterly sales slipped less than expected after the consumer-goods supplier raised prices another 10%. (WSJ)
• Walmart sold its plus-size direct-to-consumer apparel brand Eloquii to FullBeauty Brands. (Chain Store Age)

Europe’s largest car maker is resetting its supply chain as it tilts toward the North American market. Volkswagen will invest more than $5 billion in its planned battery-cell factory in Canada, the WSJ’s William Boston reports, part of a strategic pivot to capture a bigger share of U.S. electric-vehicle sales. The move is driven in part by attractive subsidies in the U.S., as well as Europe’s ponderous bureaucracy and uncertain economic prospects, and the need to diversify away from China. VW’s U.S. pivot started a couple of years ago but has accelerated since President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act last year. The law has had a rapid impact on the developing supply chains behind burgeoning EV business. At full capacity, VW’s Canadian facility is expected to churn out battery cells with twice the annual capacity of its European plants under construction in Germany and Spain.

• Chile's president plans to nationalize the country's lithium industry, the world's second largest producer of the metal. (WSJ) 

Levi Strauss is turning to technology to resize its inventories to match the apparel market. The company is rolling out an enterprise-resource planning system in the U.S. after using the ERP in Canada and Mexico to bring all of its regional operations under the same inventory management umbrella. Levi Straus Chief Financial Officer Harmit Singh tells the WSJ’s Mark Maurer the effort is part of a strategy to revive its direct-to-consumer operation as it manages supplies and weaker spending from cost-conscious customers. The apparel maker’s inventory management was thrown into turmoil during the pandemic amid supply-chain disruptions and abrupt shifts in consumer demand. Mr. Singh says the company expects to get inventories more closely aligned with demand “by the end of the year if not earlier.” The bigger gain is aimed at getting a clearer path to growth in e-commerce and other ways of reaching consumers.

Purchasing manager surveys showed business activity in the eurozone and the U.K. grew at a faster pace this month than in March. (WSJ)

The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to issue new rules requiring that U.S. power plants slash their emissions in the coming decades. (WSJ)

A cargo container with gold and other items worth nearly $15 million was stolen at Toronto Pearson International Airport. (WSJ)

China’s exports by foreign-invested companies dwindled in the first quarter despite a surge in overall outbound trade flows. (South China Morning Post)

Chinese chipmaking suppliers plan to spend about $7.3 billion with state backing to strengthen the country’s semiconductor supply chain. (Nikkei Asia)

Transpacific container rates are rising as ocean carriers impose general rate increases while they cancel sailings. (The Loadstar)

Samsung Electronics complained to U.S. maritime regulators that SM Line charged “staggering” fees amid supply chain congestion. (TradeWinds)

An oil tanker company moving Russian oil lost its insurance coverage after violating a price cap on the crude. (Bloomberg)

Loaded container imports into Georgia’s Port of Savannah fell 19.4% in March. (Port Technology)

Royal Mail and the U.K. postal workers’ union reached an agreement on wages and work rules after nearly a year of acrimonious negotiations. (Financial Times)

Amazon rolled out a program that retailers and suppliers can use to spot and track counterfeiters. (Reuters)

Knight-Swift Transportation’s operating profit dropped 51% to $144.8 million in an “unusually weak first quarter.” (Transport Dive)

Autonomous trucking startup Kodiak Robotics and carrier C.R. England will haul Tyson Foods products between Dallas and San Antonio with self-driving rigs. (TechCrunch)

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.