The peak fall shipping season is already shaping up as a buyer’s market. Plummeting spot-market prices have retailers reaping big savings over last year’s frantic market for trans-Pacific transport. The WSJ Logistics Report’s Paul Berger writes that importers are holding back on signing annual contracts in hopes they can bargain pricing down even further. The delays are based partly on a spot market that has seen once sky-high shipping prices plummet back toward prepandemic levels. But container lines are also starting to take delivery of the new, bigger ships they ordered as demand started surging early in the pandemic. Carriers are idling a growing share of their capacity and canceling some sailings, but that hasn’t kept pace with the decline in demand. With spot rates down some 90% from pandemic-era highs on some lanes and economic conditions looking fragile, importers are adopting a strategy of wait and see.

• Loaded container imports at the Port of Oakland fell 32% year-over-year in February. (Port Technology)

Freight train derailments, including the recent one in East Palestine, Ohio, have prompted officials to examine what is causing the accidents and whether they are happening more frequently. Derailments rank as the most common type of accident involving the major freight railroads, and federal data shows equipment failures are increasingly responsible for derailments. The WSJ’s Ming Li, Josh Ulick and Esther Fung report that federal data shows the number of derailments among major freight railroads has fallen sharply since 2000 but that the rate of derailments for some railroads has increased in more recent years. The increases have come even as the railroads haul more freight over fewer train miles. Despite fewer miles being traveled, the rate of derailments has increased in five of the last seven years. The derailment rate among the seven Class I railroads is also higher than it was a decade ago.

Subsidies are playing a growing role in the burgeoning U.S. supply chain for electric vehicles. LG Energy Solution is reviving and expanding its plans for a battery-manufacturing complex in Arizona, investing about four times what it initially pledged last year for a project that was later put on hold while the South Korean company took stock of the fast-changing economic environment. The WSJ’s Jiyoung Sohn reports LG Energy’s decision to bulk up its plans outside Phoenix marks the latest involving a string of new plants by foreign companies as the U.S. transitions toward cleaner fuels. The decision shows how rapidly the landscape for electric-vehicle manufacturing is shifting as subsidies offered by the U.S. alter economic calculations. The financial support was launched after the Inflation Reduction Act took effect last summer. LG announced shortly after that it was teaming up with Honda to build a $4.4 billion battery plant in Ohio.

• Ford plans to build 500,000 electric pickup trucks a year at its forthcoming manufacturing complex in Tennessee. (WSJ)
• Electric-vehicle maker Rivian is relocating parts of its manufacturing engineering team to its Illinois factory as part of a move to speed up production. (WSJ)

U.S. business investment rose in February for the second straight month. (MarketWatch)

The Biden administration’s nominee to lead the Federal Aviation Administration withdrew following criticism from Republicans over his credentials. (WSJ)

American Airlines is suspending a trans-Atlantic route because of delivery delays for Boeing 787 jets. (WSJ)

Fuel supplier and retailer Mountain Express Oil filed for bankruptcy protection. (WSJ)

Amazon workers in the U.K. plan more strikes after receiving a pay offer they called “an insult.” (The Guardian)

Federal regulators backed union organizers’ claim that Amazon’s policy of restricting warehouse access for off-duty employees is illegal. (New York Times)

Germany’s Deutsche Bahn canceled long-distance trains and Frankfurt Airport halted air traffic scheduled for today as transport workers were set to strike. (Deutsche Welle)

The Teamsters union rejected Yellow's plan to consolidate its various national and regional trucking and terminal operations. (Commercial Carrier Journal)

Yellow will close two terminals in Ohio as part of its network reorganization. (Transport Dive)

U.S.-based cement supplier Vulcan Materials says Mexico seized its rock quarry and port terminal on the Yucatan Peninsula. (Maritime Executive)

Japan Post completed its first drone delivery over a residential area. (Nikkei Asia)

Kroger opened a fulfillment center for online orders outside Denver, the grocer’s eighth such facility in the U.S. (Progressive Grocer)

U.K. supermarket chain Morrisons terminated a transport contract with Wincanton a year early and moved the business​ to Stobart. (Motor Transport)

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.