Today’s Logistics Report: Higher Wages, Bonus for Dockworkers; Retailers Sharpen Forecasts; Resetting Chips

The Logistics Report won’t be published Monday in observance of the Juneteenth holiday in the U.S. We will be back Tuesday.

The new tentative labor contract at West Coast ports provides relief to shippers and a sizable pay increase for dockworkers. Unionized workers at the cargo terminals would see wages rise 32% over the six-year contract and would share in a $70 million pool for bonuses under the agreement reached this week. The WSJ Logistics Report’s Paul Berger writes the plan would raise wages around 10% in the first year, followed by increases through 2028. Negotiators referred to the one-time payment as a “hero bonus,” a recognition of the work the cargo handlers did to keep goods moving during the pandemic. The agreement, which will go through a lengthy ratification process, is the latest labor deal bringing significant pay increases to transport workers, including a recent tentative pact between FedEx and its unionized pilots. The ports pact also comes as United Parcel Service is negotiating with the Teamsters.

Retailers are trying to repair the supply-chain forecasting tools that were effectively splintered during the Covid-19 pandemic. Merchants are bringing new technology, boosting their use of data and getting close to their suppliers, the WSJ Logistics Report’s Liz Young writes, as they try to close gaps that emerged during three tumultuous years of product shortages and overstuffed inventories. The efforts are part of the broad moves by retailers, manufacturers and other operators to bring lessons from the pandemic upheaval to their supply chains. Forecasting was one of the disciplines that came under heavy pressure as retailers and their suppliers scrambled to adjust to rapidly changing consumer demand and disruptions in the flow of finished goods and raw materials. Forecasting has grown even more complicated as companies try to project whether demand will reach online or in stores and then determine how sales may fit into their fulfillment operations.

The battle between China and the U.S. to reset global semiconductor supply chains won’t be a straightforward slugfest. The White House says it will extend exemptions to top South Korean and Taiwanese companies from tough restrictions on shipments of advanced chip-making equipment to China. The WSJ’s Jacky Wong writes in a Heard on the Street column that the move signals Washington’s understanding that it will have to manage both supply-chain realities and foreign-policy objectives in its effort to reshape the manufacture and distribution of semiconductors. China is the world’s largest semiconductor market, with many of those chips going into devices that are then shipped around the world. Korean memory-chip makers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have a big footprint there, so suddenly curtailing their business could disrupt supplies of many electronic devices. It would also hurt manufacturers that are poised to invest billions in U.S. production.

Retail spending in the U.S. rose 0.3% from April to May as growing sales at stores offset a sharp decline in spending at gas stations. (WSJ)

U.S. industrial production fell 0.2% in May after two straight months of gains while capacity utilization slipped from April. (MarketWatch)

The cost of imported goods into the U.S. fell in May for the fourth time in the past five months. (MarketWatch)

Beijing is planning major steps to revive China’s flagging economy, including possibly adding billions of dollars in new infrastructure spending. (WSJ)

Kroger’s same-store sales rose 3.5% last quarter as higher-income consumers stepped up purchases at supermarkets. (WSJ)

France is drumming up support for a global levy on greenhouse gas emissions from the shipping industry. (Financial Times)

The World Bank says a carbon tax could help fund efforts to cut shipping emissions. (DC Velocity)

Japan will provide a subsidy of about $853 million to Toyota to help the carmaker increase its production of electric-vehicle batteries. (Nikkei Asia)

Maersk bought 25 electric trucks from Volvo for use in Germany. (ShippingWatch)

Shoemaker Rockport filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time in five years. (Bloomberg)

Union Pacific says rising labor and other operating costs will likely raise the railroad’s operating ratio this year. (Railway Age)

Online pet-goods retailer Chewy added a site in Nashville, Tenn., to its growing network of automated fulfillment centers. (Supply Chain Dive)

Kenyan tea pickers are destroying machines brought in to replace them as they protest the agribusiness automation. (Semafor)