The South is bearing the brunt of a historic run of pulp- and paper-mill closures, the WSJ’s Ryan Dezember writes. Recycled boxes, cheap imported pulp and more thrifty packing by e-commerce giants, including Amazon, have hit demand. Last year, the U.S. shed roughly 10% of its capacity to produce containerboard, the thick paper used to make shipping and moving boxes.

Demand for pulpwood—trees unfit for making lumber but fine for cardboard and paper—plummeted. So did demand for wood chips, sawdust and other byproducts. Prices across the South are at the lowest level in nearly 40 years before factoring in inflation.

In some parts, there is essentially no market. Some growers are, for the first time, having to pay to have their pulpwood removed. And some timberland owners, worried that planting could saddle their heirs with trees they won’t be able to sell, are rethinking the future.

Mubadala Investment agreed to acquire a majority stake in Arrive Logistics to accelerate the freight brokerage’s expansion. This includes increasing adoption of AI across different stages of the trucking process, the Journal’s Luis Garcia writes. Terms of the deal with the Abu Dhabi sovereign-wealth fund weren’t disclosed.

ATL Partners and Lead Edge Capital will retain a stake in the Austin, Texas-based company, among Arrive’s other early backers. Arrive serves more than 5,500 customers and works with over 10,000 road carriers across North America, the company said. Customers include construction-material retailer Home Depot, beverage company Molson Coors and discount-store chain Dollar General.

Last year, Arrive handled 27% more shipments than in 2024, while investing over $25 million in long-term growth initiatives, it said. Proportion of more than 500 surveyed U.S. operators who see delivery costs rising as fast or faster than revenue, according to a study by last-mile delivery platform Far Eye. U.S. imports of goods outstripped exports by a seasonally adjusted $118.8 billion in July, compared with a deficit of $101.4 billion in June. Most economists thought the deficit would narrow instead, the WSJ’s Justin Lahart writes.

The culprit was a surge in imports of capital goods—a category that includes items such as industrial machinery, medical equipment and, notably, semiconductors and computers. Excluding automotive goods, the U.S. imported $140.1 billion in capital equipment last month, up 11% from June. That marks the largest percentage increase in over 30 years, according to data from Haver Analytics.

This reflects how much of the U.S.’s AI buildout relies on imported tech goods. That has consequences for the economy—because those products aren’t produced in the U.S., they are factored out of gross domestic product. From the Strait of Hormuz to Panama, pressure is building across some of the world’s most important trade routes.

We explore why businesses are being forced to rethink how goods move around the globe. Also, the U.S. and Canada are embroiled in their worst dispute in decades. New episodes every Friday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon.

Mark R. Long is editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Reach him at [email protected].

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