Activist investor Ancora Holdings says it is bringing the lessons from earlier bruising proxy battles at freight companies to its fight over control of Norfolk Southern. The firm that has targeted retailers including Kohl’s and Bed Bath & Beyond has made several runs at the logistics sector, including recent efforts at trucker Forward Air and freight broker C.H. Robinson Worldwide. Ancora has a mixed record in those proxy fights, the WSJ Logistics Report’s Paul Berger writes. The firm’s run on C.H. Robinson eventually forced out CEO Bob Biesterfeld, but Ancora couldn’t get its chosen successor in place and C.H. Robinson didn’t follow the investor’s demand to divest its global forwarding unit. Ancora’s Jim Chadwick says one lesson is to seek control of the boardroom, as the firm is trying to do at Norfolk Southern. Otherwise, he says, “that’s the Wild West as far as the outcome goes.”

The battle for U.K. logistics business Wincanton is now a bidding war. A new offer from U.S.-based GXO Logistics of about $965 million raises the ante on a bid by rival Ceva Logistics by about 26%, and it’s well ahead of the $716.5 million that Ceva first put up for Wincanton in January. The WSJ’s Najat Kantouar reports the GXO bid complicates efforts by Ceva’s parent, container line CMA CGM, to expand its logistics reach. Wincanton isn’t a major global logistics presence, but with about $1.8 billion in revenue in its last fiscal year, the contract logistics companies is a force in Britain and counts big customers along with 16.4 million square feet of space across 160 locations. CMA CGM just completed its $5 billion acquisition of French forwarder Bolloré Logistics, so the company will have to decide whether its cash reserves can support still more investment.

• Freight forwarder Kuehne + Nagel is buying Malaysia-based cross-border logistics provider City Zone Express. (WSJ)
• Danish freight forwarder DSV has reportedly hired two banks to help it launch a bid for German rival DB Schenker. (ShippingWatch)
• Freight forwarder Flexport strengthened its ties to the Shopify retail sales platform. (Supply Chain Dive)

First container cranes, now cars. President Biden is telling the Commerce Department to investigate foreign-made software in automobiles, citing Chinese technology as a potential national-security risk. The WSJ’s Gareth Vipers reports the investigation could lead to restrictions on the use of certain parts in cars in the U.S., barriers that could come as Chinese automakers are moving swiftly to expand international sales. Connected vehicles could collect sensitive data, Biden says, and “could be remotely accessed or disabled.” The probe is the latest in a series of White House moves to protect U.S. industry against what officials see as the growing threat of Chinese cyberattacks. The administration says it wants U.S. ports to replace Chinese made cranes. In December, U.S. rail regulators said they would seek to restrict imports of new rail cars from certain countries and bar the use of “sensitive technology” from those countries in the equipment.

• Volkswagen expanded a technology and sourcing agreement with Chinese automaker XPeng. (WSJ)
• China’s southern technology hub Shenzhen is rolling out plans for a big expansion of car exports. (Financial Times)
• Electric-vehicle startup Fisker issued a going concern warning​ and said it would lay off 15% of its staff. (WSJ)

J.B. Hunt named company veteran Shelley Simpson CEO replacing John Roberts III, who will become executive chairman later this year. (WSJ)

A measure of U.S. consumer prices rose 2.4% in January from the year before. (WSJ)

Canada’s economy expanded at a 1% annual rate in the fourth quarter. (WSJ)

India’s economic growth accelerated to 8.4% last quarter on stronger government infrastructure spending. (WSJ)

Anheuser-Busch and the Teamsters union averted a strike with a tentative contract agreement that includes warehouse workers. (WSJ)

Chemical giant Chemours put its top executives on leave and delayed its audited financial filings amid an internal investigation into its bookkeeping and other matters. (WSJ)

U.S. regulators gave Boeing 90 days to develop a comprehensive action plan to address quality-control issues in its supply chain. (WSJ)

The airline group that includes British Airways expects to expand passenger-jet capacity by 7% this year. (WSJ)

Air France-KLM swung to a $277.5 million loss in the fourth quarter. (WSJ)

India approved its first semiconductor fabrication plant and two assembly sites to be developed jointly by local conglomerates and firms from Japan, Taiwan and Thailand. (Nikkei Asia)

CMA CGM says it is resuming some Red Sea transits for its containerships on a “case-by-case basis.” (Seatrade Maritime)

A developer is seeking approval to build a logistics center totaling 1.5 million square feet of warehouses near South Carolina’s Port of Charleston. (Post and Courier)

Best Buy’s revenue and same-store sales declined on an annual basis for the ninth straight quarter. (MarketWatch)

Cargo booking platform Freightos is targeting profitability in 2026 after losses nearly doubled last year. (The Loadstar)

FedEx opened a regional headquarters in Singapore for its Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa operations. (Straits Times)

• A budget, just for AI.
• But, watch out for the bad bots. 
• A cyberattack on prescriptions processor is hurting smaller pharmacies and hospitals, and bringing vulnerabilities within the healthcare system to the fore.

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 X at @WSJLogistics.