Wall Street Journal (September 16)
“Transportation costs—typically a fraction of a finished product’s price—are emerging as another supply-chain hurdle, overwhelming some companies already paying more for raw materials and labor…. The Covid-19 pandemic has driven a long-lasting surge in transportation costs, putting pressure on many businesses already confronting higher wages and raw-material prices. Some CEOs are saying they expect elevated freight costs stretching into 2023.”
Tags: COVID-19, Hurdle, Labor, Overwhelming, Pandemic, Pressure, Product price, Raw materials, Supply chain, Surge, Transportation, Wages
Financial Times (February 3)
“The pandemic’s devastating impact on Big Oil was illustrated yesterday when some of the world’s largest energy groups reported record annual losses, marking a brutal 12 months of an industry under mounting pressure to speed up a transition to cleaner fuels.”
Tags: Big oil, Brutal, Cleaner fuels, Devastating, Energy, Impact, Largest, Losses, Pandemic, Pressure, Record, Transition
Bloomberg (December 18)
“The U.S. launched yet another broadside at China’s technological ambitions this week by blacklisting more than 60 Chinese companies…. While the action will be painful, over the longer term it could be a shot in the arm.” The restrictions may very well “help make China great again.” Under this “massive pressure, Chinese tech giants finally have an incentive to use and improve local suppliers.”
Tags: Ambitions, Blacklisting, Broadside, China, Incentive, Painful, Pressure, Restrictions, Suppliers, Tech giants, U.S.
Financial Times (June 1)
“Shareholders have ramped up pressure on companies to tackle global warming even as businesses grapple with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.” Their targets have included JPMorgan and Rio Tinto and through May 20, “climate change resolutions at annual meetings received average shareholder support of 23 per cent,” up from “16 per cent during all of 2019.”
Tags: Annual meetings, Climate change, Coronavirus, Global warming, JPMorgan, Pandemic, Pressure, Resolutions, Rio Tinto, Shareholders
Bloomberg (April 13)
“OPEC+ group of countries, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, finally agreed to a record cut in their oil production in response to the coronavirus-triggered collapse in demand. But the deal will come under pressure when the world becomes a more normal place again.” When demand returns, “the great battle for market share between the Americans, the Saudis and the Russians will probably restart.”
Tags: Battle, Collapse, Coronavirus, Demand, Market share, Oil production, OPEC, Pressure, Record, Russia, Saudi Arabia
Bloomberg (July 27)
With over 300 million vehicles, China’s fleet is the world’s largest and the impact will be increasingly felt worldwide. “Secondhand car exports are starting modestly and the country will take time to catch up to more established players.” Still, it’s clear that “China will have more used cars to sell than anybody and its export business will inevitably grow into the world’s biggest.” This will place pressure on new vehicle sales as well. “Global automakers might want to strap on their seatbelts.”
Tags: Automakers, Car, China, Exports, Fleet, New, Pressure, Secondhand, Used, Vehicles, World's biggest
The Guardian (July 9)
“The pound has come under fresh selling pressure amid rising fears over the strength of the British economy as no-deal Brexit looms,” tumbling to its lowest sustained level in over two years. “The latest sell-off comes at a time of a stalling UK economy, as the boost from stockpiling before the original Brexit deadline begins to fade” and fears grow that “the economy probably contracted in the three months to June, raising fears of a technical recession.”
Tags: Brexit, Economy, Fears, No-deal, Pound, Pressure, Recession, Sell-off, Stalling, Stockpiling, UK
Washington Post (June 14)
“Is the Iran-U.S. tinderbox about to ignite?” In one sense, it already has. Burning tankers provided “the dramatic imagery that sometimes precedes armed conflict.” Clearly fraught, the confrontation is partly due to “Iranian overconfidence” and frustration. “Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign has collided head on with Khamenei’s maximum resistance. Met by American economic warfare, Iran’s hard-liners are doubling down with their own forms of deniable warfare, with mines, drones and proxy attacks.”
Tags: Armed conflict, Confrontation, Deniable warfare, Drones, Economic warfare, Frustration, Hard-liners, Ignite, Iran, Khamenei, Mines, Overconfidence, Pressure, Proxy attacks, Resistance, Tankers, Tinderbox, Trump’s, U.S.
Reuters (February 1)
“Socialist President Nicolas Maduro is under intense pressure to step down, with Venezuela in deep economic crisis and the government facing widespread international condemnation for elections last year seen as fraudulent.” It appears he is making plans “to sell 29 tonnes of gold held in Caracas to the United Arab Emirates by February in order to provide liquidity for imports of basic goods.”
Tags: Basic goods, Condemnation, Crisis, Elections, Gold, Imports, Liquidity, Maduro, Pressure, Socialist, UAE, Venezuela
Washington Post (January 26)
President Trump now occupies “an extremely weak position.” Ending the shut down “only confirms what lawmakers have long suspected…. Trump repeatedly backs down from his public positions…. That’s a problem for the president going forward. The players expect that, with enough pressure, the president will again back down.”
