Container freight rates are surging at a steep pace this spring just as carriers and importers are lining up plans for the peak shipping season. Prices have spiked upward roughly 30% in recent weeks, the WSJ’s Costas Paris reports, boosted in part by a combination of growing demand and the ship diversions around the Red Sea that have consumed vessel capacity. The combination of rising rates and stronger demand has been a boon to shipping lines, and operators including Maersk Line and Hapag-Lloyd have raised their annual earnings outlooks from the grim projections they had issued earlier this year. Experts say big importers with contracts negotiated earlier in the year may be insulated from some of the rising prices in the spot market, but smaller shippers face rising costs along with the delays that Red Sea diversions have triggered on some shipping lanes.

• The Dali containership was refloated and tugboats began pushing the vessel from the Key Bridge disaster site to a berth at the Port of Baltimore. (WSJ)
• The Shanghai Containerized Freight Index pricing measure jumped another 9.3% over the past week to the highest level since the pandemic era. (TradeWinds)
• CMA CGM's finance chief expects upward pressure on freight rates will recede in the second half of the year. (Bloomberg)
• Freight forwarders say empty containers are growing harder to find in northern China as boxes are tied up on longer voyages at sea. (The Loadstar)

China’s grip on crucial minerals markets is growing despite efforts in the West to develop new supply chains. Chinese companies are becoming more dominant, not less, in minerals crucial to defense and green technologies, the WSJ’s Jon Emont reports, as they expand operations, supercharge supply and cause prices on global markets to drop. The breakneck expansion in production of minerals including nickel and lithium has buffeted Western producers, who say China’s domestic economy can’t always absorb the flood of minerals. What’s more worrying for Western producers is that there is little sign of a letup. Chinese processing plants that dot the Indonesian archipelago are pumping out vast quantities of the nickel needed for electric-vehicle batteries while Western miners Glencore and Horizonte Minerals have stumbled. The only dedicated cobalt mine in the U.S. suspended operations last year, with owners saying they are struggling against a flood of Chinese-produced cobalt.

• The International Energy Agency says clean-energy manufacturers face a shortfall in critical metals unless more investment is made to increase production. (WSJ)
• Dubai-based United Mining Projects plans to begin producing battery-grade lithium in Argentina next year. (Mining.com)

France’s efforts to gain greater control of crucial minerals are colliding with political reality. President Emmanuel Macron has sought to put the remote territory of New Caledonia—and its massive reserves of nickel—at the center of France’s push to secure raw materials to compete against China in manufacturing electric vehicles. The WSJ’s Matthew Dalton and Sam Schechner report the moves have invigorated an independence drive and led to rioting this month over a plan one local protest leader said amounts to a “colonial pact to regain control of New Caledonia’s resources.” Protestors object to a French proposal to lift restrictions on exporting unprocessed nickel and give priority to shipments to European electric-vehicle battery factories. Opponents say that would undercut local processors just as they are reeling from Chinese investment that has transformed Indonesia into the world’s largest producer of nickel and helped drive down prices.

Thailand lowered its forecast for economic growth this year after goods exports declined 2% in the first quarter. (WSJ)

Oil products carrier Overseas Shipholding agreed to be acquired by Saltchuk Resources, in a deal valued at $950 million. (WSJ)

The declining value of the yen is reviving Japan's appeal as a manufacturing hub and boosting business for exporters. (Nikkei Asia)

A congressional report found BMW and Jaguar Land Rover imported cars and components that included a part made by a company linked to forced labor in China. (Financial Times)

Top Chinese electric-vehicle manufacturers are taking longer to settle payments with suppliers, suggesting potential liquidity issues. (South China Morning Post)

Ford was the lone automaker to show worsening supplier relations in an annual survey. (Automotive Logistics)

Freight booking platform Freightos narrowed its operating loss in the first quarter as revenue rose 11% to $5.4 million. (Dow Jones Newswires)

Daimler Truck and Volvo plan to work together to develop a standardized commercial vehicle hardware and software platform. (Fleet Owner)

A cargo security group says the number of freight thefts jumped 46% in the first quarter from the year-ago quarter. (Commercial Carrier Journal)

Trucking groups are concerned about how the downgrading of marijuana in drug classification will affect their ability to test drivers for the substance. (Trucking Dive)

Retailer Michaels has refined its store-fulfillment strategy to focus on “peak stores” that carry the widest assortment of inventory. (Chain Store Age)

Walmart opened a highly-automated, 1.5-million-square-foot fulfillment center in south central Pennsylvania. (Patriot-News)

A group of three British freight forwarders acquired U.K.-based freight software provider Forward Solutions. (Project Cargo Journal)

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.