Global Supply Chain Crisis 2021: Megathread - A cozy thread for watching the supply chain fall apart just in time for the holidays

Should the title be re-worded to expand the scope of the thread?

  • The US Trucking Crisis of 2021 works fine

    Votes: 25 9.4%
  • The US Logistics Crisis of 2021

    Votes: 30 11.2%
  • The US Transportation Crisis of 2021

    Votes: 7 2.6%
  • The US Supply Chain Crisis of 2021

    Votes: 35 13.1%
  • Global Supply Chain Crisis 2021

    Votes: 206 77.2%

  • Total voters
    267
  • Poll closed .
Wasn't someone ITT hypothesizing that the empty shelves were a result of aluminum and magnesium shortages?
Its not just one thing, its everything, there is about to be a massive steel shortage because China has no coal, let alone coke, to refine the stuff they mine. Chinese Steel is used heavily to cut costs in construction and almost every other industry larger than your garage blacksmith. This map is nearing on a month old and the problem has only deepened, its likely China may literally go without electricity in many regions this winter:

UkTkoggwjoZlLeegRgNDJjqE
 
For a change of pace, I'm currently in the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan Area and things in Japan seem fairly normal. On the other hand, supermarkets and most convenience stores are incredibly seasonal and stock completely changed for Fall. The only "shortages" I saw was a brief time between the Summer produce running out and Fall produce getting rotated in. Certain cuts of meat, especially imported meat have been a bit sparse as well, but no empty shelves anywhere. I've talked to some people in the more rural areas up in Tokaido and they haven't noticed much except for a small disruption from the trains stopping due to typhoons and earthquakes (so, you know, life as normal).

A handful of companies have announced price hikes though. I've seen mostly dairy-based products being affected, which will eventually spill over into certain snacks and pastries (one company announcing higher prices is Meiji, who makes some decent cheap chocolate, rip). Imports like coffee, beef, livestock feed corn, and most worryingly, wheat have also jumped up. Starting in the new year it looks like bread and most noodles are going to get more expensive. While there's a lot of focus on seasonal and fresh food in Japan, most people are ride or die on pre-made convenience food, and I think that kind of manufactured food is going to start taking big hits from all this.

Anecdotally, my fiance's parents are both truck drivers for construction material, and they've mentioned that certain materials are getting hard to find. Silicon, silicate, and plastic materials mostly. Haven't noticed a significant change in fuel prices at a consumer level yet.

Japan's government has suddenly had a huge push for SDGs, they're everywhere, even the borderline propaganda talk shows are doing "comedy" segments about sustainability and recycling and shit. Wonder if it's related at all to this situation.
 
Gas here is like 90 cents per liter.

I haven't seen it that high in years.

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In the US, it looks to be the highest we've seen since 2014. For a while there back then it peaked at around $5 a gallon. It was punishing.


It looks like it'll be hitting $4/gallon, easy. If $200/barrel represents a linear price increase, that would mean something like $8/gallon. That would devastate most every sector of society.
 
Its not just one thing, its everything, there is about to be a massive steel shortage because China has no coal, let alone coke, to refine the stuff they mine. Chinese Steel is used heavily to cut costs in construction and almost every other industry larger than your garage blacksmith. This map is nearing on a month old and the problem has only deepened, its likely China may literally go without electricity in many regions this winter:

UkTkoggwjoZlLeegRgNDJjqE
>Hubei
Wuhan really just can't catch a break.
 
Is consuming this kind of thing not just asking for prions? I thought the whole mad cow panic would have killed off products like this.
Unless the animal has a serious infection it's safe to eat animal brains in small amounts. Prion infection requires a much heavier exposure to prions (like eating the brains of an infected animal), otherwise they get flushed from your system before they cause disease. Consider it like eating fish high in mercury, don't eat it more than 1-2 times a month.
 
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I don't know if this relates to the supply chain crisis, but I just tried to get gas and couldn't because the station I usually go to was completely out of regular. That's never happened to me in my entire life.
This has started happening regularly at the gas station by my home. Though to be fair I can't tell if they keep closing at 1 pm because they are out of gas or because of a labor shortage. Either way it's weird and unprecedented.
 
Is consuming this kind of thing not just asking for prions? I thought the whole mad cow panic would have killed off products like this.
This is pork brains, not cow brains. The only “danger” in this is the 1080% of your daily recommended dose of cholesterol, but it’s OK because it’s the GOOD kind of cholesterol.
 
This has been happening for the past few months, but the price of canned carbonated water has more than doubled.
And this could be a coincidence, but the two times I’ve drank soda from a restaurant in the past month that came from a fountain, both times had very low carbonation as well.

Yea i've noticed that Bottles of Coke or Beer seem a little flatter than normal.
 
Its not just one thing, its everything, there is about to be a massive steel shortage because China has no coal, let alone coke, to refine the stuff they mine. Chinese Steel is used heavily to cut costs in construction and almost every other industry larger than your garage blacksmith. This map is nearing on a month old and the problem has only deepened, its likely China may literally go without electricity in many regions this winter:

UkTkoggwjoZlLeegRgNDJjqE

This is why outsourcing our manufacturing base to what is, regardless of whitewash, still a third-world shithole was a horrible idea; thank you James Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, William Jefferson Clinton, George W. Bush & Baraka Hussein Abu Oumama.
 
This is why outsourcing our manufacturing base to what is, regardless of whitewash, still a third-world shithole was a horrible idea; thank you James Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, William Jefferson Clinton, George W. Bush & Baraka Hussein Abu Oumama.
The US itself has these same problems. Except its driven by ideologues who want to return to the Dark Ages because of their Climate Change cult, since about 2011 under Obama the power industry has been closing coal fired plants at a staggering rate and without stable alternatives to replace it. For a period of time Natural Gas was replacing these plants but since all carbon emissions are viewed as heresy they get replaced with wind and solar which don't fucking scale during periods of crisis and are an immensely heavy challenge when it comes to servicing.
 
This is why outsourcing our manufacturing base to what is, regardless of whitewash, still a third-world shithole was a horrible idea; thank you James Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, William Jefferson Clinton, George W. Bush & Baraka Hussein Abu Oumama.
You forgot Nixon going to China in the first place.
 
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