Say goodbye to hopes of lower gas prices..Saudi Oil Refineries hit hard by Houthis

 Thanks to Alexander Timokhin for the pics!

I find it amazing.

We live in an interconnected world (thanks globalism) but so many Americans can't see beyond their own towns much less shores that they're left dazed and confused when events happen halfway around the world that will affect their lives.

Take the hit on the Saudi Oil Refinery.

This has implications for both Europe and America.

You can pretty much cancel thoughts of lower prices in the near future quite honestly the early predictions of 150 dollar a barrel oil is probably gonna be looked back at fondly.

Additionally many have ignored the warning signs of a looming global recession.

You can stick a pin in that too.

Did you know that a major Chinese city is facing another lockdown because of covid?

via Wired

THE SUPPLY CHAIN is in chaos—and it’s getting worse. Air freight warehouses at Shanghai Pudong Airport are log-jammed as a result of strict Covid testing protocols imposed on China’s biggest city following a local outbreak. At the city’s port, Shanghai-Ningbo, more than 120 container vessels are stuck on hold. In Shenzhen, a major manufacturing hub in the country’s south, trucking costs have shot up 300 percent due to a backlog of orders and a shortage of drivers following the introduction of similar Covid restrictions. Major ports the world over, which used to operate like clockwork, are now beset by delays, with container ships queuing for days in some of the worst congestion ever recorded. The list goes on.

More than a million containers due to travel to Europe from China by train—on a route that goes through Russia—must now make their journey by sea as sanctions bite. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has also severed key supply lines for nickel, aluminum, wheat, and sunflower oil, causing commodity prices to skyrocket. Countries in the Middle East and Africa that rely on produce from Ukraine are likely to experience serious food shortages in the coming weeks and months. Some European automotive production lines have cut their output due to a shortage of wiring normally sourced from factories in Ukraine. If the pandemic, which triggered a surge in purchasing of goods, caused the global supply chain to buckle, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s continuing zero-Covid policy risk breaking it completely.

The supply chain is too complex, interconnected, and fragile to be made completely immune to shocks, especially ones as seismic as a global pandemic or a major war. But a new reality is forcing companies to adopt new strategies to keep goods moving. In this reality, backlogs and breakdowns are the new normal, which makes getting ahead of disruptions as early as possible more important than ever.

“We used to occasionally have black swan events,” says Richard Wilding, professor of supply chain strategy at Cranfield University in the UK, referring to rare and hard-to-predict occurrences that have major impacts. ​“The problem at the moment is we have a whole flock of black swans coming at us.” 

Story here 

Buckle up boys and girls.

You wanted interesting times? 

You're about to get your wish.