Logistics

Some supply strains in the U.S. are easing, two years after a jump in demand started emptying shelves, snarling shipping and sowing the seeds of soaring inflation.

Big retailers rushed to build up inventories last year amid soaring consumer demand and transportation bottlenecks — going so far in some cases as to rent their own cargo ships. Now, they’re trying to figure out how to sell all their stuff.

SHANGHAI — Shanghai authorities say they will take major steps June 1 toward reopening China’s largest city after a two-month COVID-19 lockdown that has set back the national economy and largely confined millions of people to their homes.

Retired U.S. Army Gen. Stephen Lyons has been appointed as the new port and supply chain envoy to a group created by the White House last June to mitigate economic problems arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The giant ports in Southern California and across the U.S. greatly lag their counterparts in Europe and other regions using digital technology to optimize operations. That was the consensus of a panel discussion at the Metrans International Urban Freight Conference.

Truck tonnage in April increased on an annual basis but declined compared with March, American Trucking Associations reported.

LONG BEACH, Calif. — Accelerating e-commerce purchases and continuing supply chain disruptions are reshaping the warehouse and distribution industry, driving up costs and creating robust demand for storage facilities in urban areas and near ports.

The biggest shareholder of India’s largest airline, IndiGo, teamed up with UPS Inc. to tap the South Asian nation’s growing logistics market.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Canadian Transport Minister Omar Alghabra discussed February’s seven-day blockage of the Ambassador Bridge during a supply chain meeting May 24 in Washington, Alghabra said.

In the past, Google has tried emulating Amazon.com Inc.’s online retail and delivery services, with little luck. Now the search giant is positioning itself as a kind of anti-Amazon, a free marketplace for merchants and Amazon rivals that’s designed to get consumers more comfortable shopping with Google.