U.S. retailers are fueling a longer-than-expected peak shipping season in Southern California, according to the leader of America's busiest gateway for container imports, the WSJ Logistics Report's Paul Berger writes.

Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said in an interview that big box retailers are driving heavy volumes of clothes, electronics and furniture through Los Angeles and the neighboring Port of Long Beach this summer.

"The peak is lasting longer than many of us thought, even going back a couple of months ago," Seroka said. Loaded imports into the Port of L.A. reached 530,558 20-foot-equivalent units in June -- the third highest ever -- and Seroka said he expects July's loaded imports to come in between 475,000 and 500,000 TEU.

Ocean shipping rates surged earlier than usual this year, in May, as some importers brought forward orders from Asian factories. This was largely driven by small to midsize importers trying to get ahead of rising costs from tariffs and fuel surcharges triggered by the war in Iran, Seroka said.

Shipping industry officials had expected that the early rush of goods would mean an earlier end to the traditional peak shipping season, when retailers bring in end-of-year holiday items. But big box retailers still have plenty of cargo to bring into the country, Seroka said.

Forecasts for an especially strong El Niño, plus continued bypassing of the Suez Canal as conflict in the Mideast persists, could bump imports into Southern California up about 5%, Seroka said. The Panama Canal is imposing draft limits on vessels ahead of potential El Niño-related droughts, which could divert shipments to L.A. and Long Beach, Seroka said.

   -- North Carolina ports resumed normal gate schedules but were still 
      processing operations manually on Thursday after a Tuesday cyberattack 
      disrupted operations. (WECT) 

Maximum draft, in feet, to be allowed for vessels transiting the Panama Canal's Neopanamax locks, starting Sept. 3, down from the usual 50 feet, amid forecasts for a strong El Niño.

Global Manufacturing

China is becoming a factory for factories, The Wall Street Journal's Hannah Miao and Tom Fairless write. No longer just a producer of low-value consumer goods, the nation now is exporting more of the higher-value intermediate and capital goods that underpin global manufacturing, such as chips, precision machinery and robotic arms.

China's dominance over greater portions of global supply chains is making the country's export machine even more formidable -- and resilient against tariffs, which tend to target finished goods. In the first five months of 2026, China's exports of intermediate and capital goods jumped 25% and 12%, respectively, from the same period a year prior, while consumer goods exports increased 4%, according to a McKinsey Global Institute analysis of China's official customs data.

The transformation is threatening advanced-manufacturing economies such as the European Union, Japan and South Korea. Producers of chemicals, machines, batteries and other industrial goods in those economies once depended on Chinese factories as customers, but now China is a formidable competitor abroad and even in their home markets.

   -- China's exports have surged this year. Here are three things to know 
      about China's latest monthly trade data, released Friday by the country's 
      customs agency. (WSJ) 
 
   -- President Trump signed a proclamation imposing a 15% tariff and minimum 
      prices on imported polysilicon, solar panels and solar components. (WSJ) 
 
   -- German manufacturing orders unexpectedly rose 3.1% in June, defying 
      economist expectations of a 0.4% decline, and factory output increased 
      0.2%. (WSJ) 

In Other News

   -- U.S.-based employers announced about 33,500 job cuts in July, 41% lower 
      than at this point a year ago and the lowest monthly total in two years, 
      according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. (WSJ) 
 
   -- Retail sales in the eurozone fell 0.3% in June. (WSJ) 
 
   -- RXO said in an earnings call that its strict trucker-vetting processes 
      would help limit its insurance-renewal costs, after a Supreme Court 
      decision left brokerages more exposed to lawsuits. 
 
   -- SpaceX and Tesla plan to build a semiconductor fabrication plant in 
      Grimes County, Texas, to produce one terawatt of computing power a year. 
      (WSJ) 
 
   -- SK Hynix plans to invest about $38 billion to expand its semiconductor 
      production capacity in South Korea. (WSJ) 
 
   -- Germany's RWE agreed to a $1.22 billion settlement with the Interior 
      Department to relinquish its offshore wind leases. (WSJ) 
 
   -- Rheinmetall lowered its sales forecasts for the year after Germany 
      scrapped a frigate-procurement project. (WSJ) 
 
   -- Ford Motor said its new midsize electric truck to be built in Louisville, 
      Ky., will be called the Fathom and start at $28,350. (CNBC) 
 
   -- Daimler Truck North America plans to build a new factory in the U.S., 
      starting operations in 2029. (Transport Topics) 
 
   -- The Commerce Department proposed new tariffs on 14 additional steel, 
      aluminum and copper products, including tanker trailers and semitrailers, 
      according to a Federal Register document. (SupplyChainDive) 
 
   -- The Trump administration has refunded about $100 billion in tariffs 
      collected before the Supreme Court ruled them illegal, according to a 
      U.S. Court of International Trade filing. (Reuters) 
 
   -- Singapore-based SeaLead Shipping shut down operations after the U.S. 
      imposed sanctions on the container carrier for alleged links to Iran. 
      (Journal of Commerce) 
 
   -- DP World cut 300 jobs from its European operations amid a restructuring. 
      (The Loadstar) 
 
   -- E-commerce freight forwarder Rich Sale International will launch 
      air-cargo flights between China and the U.S. through a partnership with 
      Atlas Air. (Air Cargo News) 

In this week's Dow Jones Risk Journal Podcast: Amazon's security chief explains why AI is accelerating attacks and defenses, and why skilled humans remain essential. Also, new European AI rules and a surge in corporate AI-risk disclosures. New episodes every Friday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon.

About Us

Mark R. Long is editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Reach him at mark.long@wsj.com. Follow the WSJ Logistics Report team on LinkedIn: Mark R. Long, Liz Young and Paul Berger.

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