How supply chain delays stalled new advancements in mobility through 2021
A year of supply chain woes left automakers and industry bodies scrambling
Suez Canal blockage
In March, a 400-meter cargo ship called Ever Given wedged itself in the Suez Canal for nearly a week due to high winds and poor visibility.
It was responsible for memes like:
With over 12% of the world’s trade traveling on the Suez Canal, this left over 300 vessels at both ends of the canal from being able to move.Lloyds Listestimated that the stranding held up about $9.6 billion worth of trade along the canal each day.
This resulted in a flow-on effect of dealing with the backlog of stalled ships.
Then, there was the challenge of getting ships to harbor, delays in getting shipping containers onto trucks, and trucks to their destination.
Today, the container ship isback afloat, albeit under strict safety measures and extensive repair progress.
Colonial Pipeline attack
In May, we sawthe Colonial Pipeline Companytemporarily shut down all of its pipeline operations in response to a hack involving ransomware.
Colonial Pipeline is the largest US refined products pipeline system. 5,500 miles of pipeline run from Texas to New York. The company carries 45% of the East Coast’s fuel supplies and services seven airports.
TheDarkSide hacker groupadmitted to the attack. Colonialpaid the hackersroughly 75 Bitcoin — or nearly $5 million — to recover its stolen data,
In response to the attack, DarkSide left this message on their now-defunct dark website:
As a result, the US governmentissued a number of emergency actionsin response to the attack. Besides the obvious security investigations, they included:
Silicon Semiconductor Chip shortage
2021 was the year of thesemiconductor chip shortage. Its causation is varied but includes:
The company usually produces about one-third of microcontroller chips embedded in cars globally.
The problem is also indicative of bigger supply chain problems and theinherent fragility of overextended supply chains.
Automakers use about 10% of the chips on the semiconductor market. A typical car (the Earth-killing type) uses between 50 and 150 semiconductors. However, a modern electric vehicle can use up to3,000 chips. Oof.
All year we’ve heard stories of cars and other vehicles sitting in factories ready for rollout… except for their computers and processors. In response to the shortage, automakers drastically reduced their production, leading buyers to wait long for their promised orders.
This year, BMW, General Motors, and Tesla alsoshipped vehicleswithout features due to the semiconductor chip shortage.
Trucking personnel shortages
We’ve also seen the supply chain crippled by people shortages. We only need to look over the pond to the UK to see what happens when there’s a people shortage. After the Brexit vote, anestimated 20,000 truckerswent back to Europe and never returned.
Industry officials claim the UK is around 100,000 truck drivers short, leading to problems like supermarket stock and fuel shortages. The government ended upgetting the army into drive fuel tankers. That’s one use for people’s tax dollars….
Lithium
As fossil fuels are phasing out, lithium is a crucial ingredient in the making oflithium-ion batteriesfor electric vehicles and energy storage systems.
However, it’s time-consuming to extract and refine to meet the demand for lithium-ion batteries.
Further, as automakers accelerate their electric vehicle ambitions, a lot of lithium is needed to reach set targets.
According toIHS Markit, in 2000, about 9% of lithium produced was used for batteries. By 2020, this share rose to 66%, and it is forecast to reach over 90% by 2030.
According toDavid Snydacker, CEO and director of Lilac Solutions Inc.:
Urea
We’ve seen alarms raised this year in response to a world shortage of synthetic compoundurea. 90% of urea produced makes nitrogen-release fertilizer.
However, it’s also used to reduce pollutants and emissions in diesel and natural gas engines.
Truck drivers inject a urea-water solution into the exhaust stream of diesel vehicles before the gases pass through a catalytic converter. This ensures diesel engines comply with environmental nitrogen oxide emissions standards.
In transport, urea sells under the brandAdBlue.
India, Korea, and Australia all import their urea from China.
Further, in November, there were reports of ureapanic buyingin South Korea by diesel vehicle owners after Chinarestricted urea export until June 2022. 40% of South Korean cars run on diesel.
From Australia’s National Road Transport Association,Warren Clark attributesthe export cut to trying to manage an internal price hike in fertilizer in local China and potential trade issues.
Australia is scrambling to establishnew urea supply chainswith Japan, Indonesia, and the UAE to stop diesel truck stoppages wreaking havoc on the logistics industry.
According toInfiniumCEO and Co-Founder Robert Schuetzle:
I think 2022 will be a bumpy ride, folks, and we’ll be here to bring you the latest news and analysis.
Story byCate Lawrence
Cate Lawrence is an Australian tech journo living in Berlin. She focuses on all things mobility: ebikes, autonomous vehicles, VTOL, smart ci(show all)Cate Lawrence is an Australian tech journo living in Berlin. She focuses on all things mobility: ebikes, autonomous vehicles, VTOL, smart cities, and the future of alternative energy sources like electric batteries, solar, and hydrogen.
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