RE:Strange action this AMYeah there's another emerging factor in the global supply chain that will affect economic activity and it is the choke points to global matine traffic. I can't remember the exact figure but I think it was close to 90% of all goods shipped are at some point shipped by sea.
I guess that there are 4 major choke points - Suez Canal, Straits of Hormuz, Malacca Strait and Panama Canal. An cinstriction in one affects the entire supply chain.
The drought that is causing low water levels in Panama is causing backlogs of ships transiting the canal. Some 200 ships are waiting to get through. The Panama Canal Authority has imposed a 10 month reduction in number of ships that can pass each day. Even though only 6% of global marine traffic passes through the canal the restrictions are affecting the rest of the supply chain.
So now we have muted rumblings of a reoccurance of restrictions in the supply chain causing shortages and inflation. Nobody is all that worried yet but it had better rain in Panama soon. Also drought is causing low Mississippi River water levels. They are becoming a concern as well. They're worried about barges running aground. Some of those barges carry wcs oil down to the refineries on the Gulf Coast.
They oughtta build more pipelines and move most of the global manufacturing base to the Americas where most of the raw materials are. There's only about 1 billion of us on 2 huge continents. Lots of room for expansion and piles of energy. We wouldn't need any canals nor care if it was raining or not in Panama or the US mid-west to move goods.
They talk about a multi-polar world. There's no such thing as multipolar anything. There's only 2 poles, north-south, positive-negative. The Americas will be positive. The rest of the world will be f'd.