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WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden launched a renewed push June 9 to reduce the costs of shipping goods across oceans, a major challenge for retailers that the White House said has pushed up prices as the world emerges from the coronavirus pandemic.

Groups in Kansas City and St. Louis are bringing industry and state transportation leaders together to accelerate funds to improve Interstate 70’s freight corridor in Missouri and beyond.

The leaders of the transportation committee in the U.S. House of Representatives called on the nation’s top transportation officer to increase resources for the expansion of parking facilities for truck drivers.

Removing sea mines near Ukraine’s key ports could take months, and hundreds of seafarers still are stranded in the region after Russia’s invasion of the country, according to the United Nations agency responsible for shipping safety.

China’s shipping industry is bracing for an uptick in demand and freight costs as manufacturing activity in Shanghai roars back to life after the city’s return to normal starting June 1.

The Port of Oakland, along with those in Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., and the U.S. Department of Agriculture said they are working together to provide financial incentives for U.S. growers to ship agriculture products through the ports.

Fleet operators and others in New York are being surveyed in a new website launched by Gov. Kathy Hochul to help the state submit a plan by Aug. 1 to gain federal electric vehicle infrastructure funds.

The U.S. trade deficit shrunk in April by the most on record in dollar terms, reflecting a drop in the value of imports amid COVID lockdowns in China while exports climbed.

The Logistics Managers Index dropped to 67.1 in May, the second straight decline from a record of 76.2 reached in March.

The immediate future of the global supply chain rests on a bargaining table in San Francisco, where the union representing all West Coast dockworkers is hashing out a new contract with the assembled bosses of maritime shipping.