Soaring U.S. energy prices are hitting all modes of transport, squeezing smaller shipping lines amid already-volatile ocean rates, as well as truckers who have to contend with delays in clawing back higher costs.
Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine has the shipping industry bracing for new shocks to its labor force, which relies on experienced crew from both countries.
The war in Ukraine has already revealed that the modern financial system can be weaponized in ways never before seen. Now the same might be true of the energy transition.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine means the food inflation that’s been plaguing global consumers is now tipping into a full-blown crisis, potentially outstripping even the pandemic’s blow and pushing millions more into hunger.
Putin’s assault on Ukraine, and retaliatory steps designed to paralyze the Russian economy, are heaping new disruptions on supply chains that never recovered from unprecedented shocks caused by the pandemic.
After years of growing increasingly reliant on cheap and abundant wheat supplies from Russia and Ukraine, the world’s grains buyers are being forced to hunt elsewhere as flows from both countries dry up.
The supply squeeze on the U.S. economy tightened further in February, indicating no relief for domestic producers and pointing to persistent inflationary pressures.
Ben Ruddell, director and professor in the School of Informatics, Computing and Cyber Systems at Northern Arizona University, offers a perspective on whether we can expect another wave of shortages of essential products on store shelves this year.
Omicron is ripping through cargo ships, raising concerns that a surge in cases, coupled with China’s tightened quarantine requirements for vessels, could delay supply chain stabilization for the shipping industry.