Financial Times (March 27)
“The price of cocoa surged past $10,000 a tonne for the first time on Tuesday, as a dizzying rise in prices caused by poor harvests in Africa accelerates. Cocoa futures traded as high as $10,080 in New York, more than double their price only two months ago, as traders warned a global shortage of cocoa beans would herald higher price tags for chocolate bars.”
Tags: Africa, Chocolate bars, Cocoa, Dizzying, Double, Futures, Higher, New York, Poor harvests, Price, Shortage, Surged, Traders
Star Tribune (February 21)
Hit by higher costs for barley, a can shortage and soaring shipping costs, “even the world’s largest beer manufacturers are passing on their higher costs to consumers.” Up to now, “consumers have taken it in stride. Just as higher grocery bills are offset by dining out less, a bigger tab at liquor stores is being absorbed by a lack of travel and entertainment expenses.” Even so, there are worries we may be reaching a turning point where consumption will fall.
Tags: Barley, Beer, Can, Consumers, Dining out, Entertainment, Groceries, Higher costs, Manufacturers, Shipping, Shortage, Soaring, Travel, Turning-point
New York Times (February 2)
“Warehouse space is the latest thing being hoarded.” Retailers and logistics companies now confront a new challenge as they “try to stockpile goods to hedge against supply chain problems…. The shortage of commercial warehouse and industrial space is the latest fallout from pandemic-fueled growth in online shopping and shows few signs of abating.”
Tags: Challenge, Commercial, Fallout, Hoarded, Industrial, Logistics, Pandemic, Problems, Retailers, Shortage, Space, Stockpile, Supply chain, Warehouse
Boston Globe (January 31)
“It’s almost as if Massachusetts has too many biotechs.” With a “surplus of startups,” reflecting “investors’ desire to pour more money into the world’s leading biotech hub,” the pipeline of qualified workers simply “can’t keep up with the burgeoning demand.” The talent shortage may “inhibit growth” and could “affect the quality of work.”
Tags: Biotech hub, Burgeoning, Demand, Growth, Investors, Leading, Massachusetts, Money, Pipeline, Qualified, Shortage, Startups, Surplus, Talent, Workers
USA Today (October 20)
“Scientists for decades have dreamed of xenotransplantation: using animals to solve the shortage of organs available for human transplant.” This came a step closer with a “groundbreaking operation using a pig’s kidney.” Though the successful transplant into a brain-dead human is only a first step, it may ultimately help reduce the number of deaths, roughly 6,000 annually, of those waitlisted who die before receiving a donor organ.
Tags: Animals, Deaths, Donor, Groundbreaking, Human, Kidney, Operation, Organs, Pig, Scientists, Shortage, Transplant, Xenotransplantation
South China Morning Post (October 18)
Coal prices have “more than tripled in a year to near historical highs” and look poised to keep climbing, driven by a coal shortage that could threaten the global economic recovery. “Blackouts could spread from China and India to all the emerging economies still mostly reliant on coal. As supply can’t be ramped up in the near term, the shortages could worsen as energy demand rises with winter’s arrival. That may trigger another emerging-market crisis.”
Tags: Blackouts, China, Coal, Demand, Economic recovery, Emerging-market crisis, Energy, India, Prices, Reliant, Shortage, Supply, Threaten, Tripled, Winter
Wall Street Journal (September 26)
“The American supply chain has so far failed to adapt to the crush of imports as businesses rush to restock pandemic-depleted inventories.” At the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, two major shipping gateways, *more than 60 ships are lined up to dock, with waiting times stretching to three weeks.” The obvious fix, switching to 24/7 operations, remains problematic due to a shortage of trucks, storage and workers.
Tags: 24/7, Businesses, Depleted, Failed, Imports, Inventories, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Pandemic, Ports, Problematic, Restock, Rush, Shipping, Shortage, Storage, Supply chain, Trucks, Waiting
Reuters (May 14)
“Desperate to overcome Japan’s growing shortage of labor, mid-sized companies are planning to buy robots and other equipment to automate a wide range of tasks, including manufacturing, earthmoving and hotel room service…. If the investment ambitions are fulfilled it would show there is a silver lining as Japan tries to cope with a shrinking and rapidly aging population. It could help equipment-makers, lift the country’s low productivity and boost economic growth.”
Tags: Aging, Automate, Desperate, Economic growth, Japan, Labor, Manufacturing, Productivity, Robots, Shortage, Silver lining
New York Times (January 9)
India’s “man-made currency crisis” has had real costs and limited benefit. Two months after the surprise move to invalidate over 80% of existing currency, “the manufacturing sector is contracting; real estate and car sales are down; and farm workers, shopkeepers and other Indians report that a shortage of cash has made life increasingly difficult.”
Tags: Benefit, Car sales, Contracting, Costs, Crisis, Currency, Farm workers, India, Manufacturing, Real estate, Shopkeepers, Shortage
USA Today (May 8)
Though it may seem preposterous, a labor shortage will strike the U.S. “America is about to run short of workers for the simple reason that people are retiring.” In the coming decade, the retirement age population is expected to expand by 37.8% while the working age population will only increase by 3.2%. Those set to retire “will leave jobs while continuing to buy things—food, shelter, haircuts, airplane tickets health care and more—which will have to be produced by the remaining workforce.”
