COVID-19 Bulletin: December 13

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Supply

• Oil prices had their biggest gain since August last week, up 8% for the week. Crude futures were lower in late morning trading, with WTI down 0.3% at $71.47/bbl and Brent off 0.4% at $74.69/bbl. U.S. natural gas was 1.0% higher at $3.96/MMBtu. 
• U.S. natural gas prices, which have fallen 40% since mid-October, could reverse if meteorologist predictions of a pending polar vortex are realized in coming weeks.  
• Mexico’s Pemex plans to reduce its oil exports next year in favor of supplying demand at home, a move that could hit South Korean and Indian refiners particularly hard. 
• Plans to develop the Cambo oil field in the U.K.’s North Sea have been scrapped following Shell’s departure from the project last week. 
• Saudi Arabia is expected to supply full contracted oil volumes to most of its Asian buyers for the fourth consecutive month in January, a signal that crude supply is sufficient for the time being. Higher oil prices and production volumes will lead the nation to its first budget surplus in eight years. 
• Shareholders of Royal Dutch Shell voted overwhelmingly to drop “Royal Dutch” from the firm’s name, end its dual share structure and relocate headquarters from the Netherlands to London sometime in 2022. 
• Strong demand growth in Norway will push the nation to the brink of a power deficit for the first time in 2026, forecasts suggest. 
• Belarusian oil company Belorusneft canceled its 2022 export plans to Germany via the 450,000-barrel-per-quarter Druzhba pipeline in response to tighter European sanctions. 
• Exxon Mobil and Qatar Energy inked a new energy exploration and production deal in Cyprus’ southeastern Block 5. 
• China’s state-owned Sinopec is setting up a new subsidiary near Beijing that will focus on building hydrogen refueling, storage and pipeline infrastructure. 
• With significant exemptions, a new White House order has barred all government funding for overseas coal and carbon-intensive project development. 

Supply Chain

• A 250-mile wave of tornadoes caused devastation in six states over the weekend. More than 100 people lost their lives, while cleanup efforts in leveled towns are expected to take weeks. 
• The Port of Long Beach handled 8.6 million shipping units through November, already smashing its yearly record with a month to go. There has been a 37% drop since Nov. 1 in containers sitting for nine days or more at terminals, a result of threatened hefty fees. 
• Major U.S. ports likely imported 2.21 million TEUs in November, 5.1% higher than the same time last year. 
• U.S. retailers are predicting there won’t be a traditional post-holiday slack period, and that container imports will remain strong into the second quarter of 2022. 
• Empty container exports from the nine largest U.S. ports rose 46.2% through November compared to the same time last year. 
• U.S. truck shipments managed by freight brokers rose 6.8% in the latest quarter for a 10.6% annual gain. 
• Container shipping lines dropped nearly 25% of north European port calls in the past five months due to congestion. 
• Roughly 79% of Costco’s imports are late by an average of 51 days, executives said, with some toy and holiday season items likely not arriving until after Christmas. 
• Beverages are out of stock at higher rates than most other grocery items, largely a result of bottle and can shortages. 
• Toyota will partially suspend operations at two more Japanese plants due to delays in procuring parts from Southeast Asia. 
• A Chinese auto industry group cited improved semiconductor supplies in helping passenger car production grow 14% month over month in November. 
• The U.S. Transportation Department awarded $12.6 million to nine marine highway projects in a bid to enhance the movement of goods in New York, New Jersey, Texas and other states. 
• Texas-based trucker Central Freight, a large operator in the less-than-truckload business, will be the largest trucking company to shut down since 2019 after suffering years of losses. 
• Shipbroker Braemar ACM saw profits rise to the highest level in 13 years on surging demand for commodities. The firm noted that capesize vessels saw the biggest fleet growth this year, while coal accounted for 43% of demand growth in the Panamax market. 
• Tyson Foods announced plans to spend over $1.3 billion the next three years to boost automation at its meat plants to help counter the national labor shortage. 
• Kellogg announced plans to hire replacements for 1,400 striking workers after contract negotiations failed last week. 
• With more companies making remote work permanent, real estate developers are increasingly looking to former office spaces as prime locations for warehouse and logistics sites. 
• Germany’s Hellmann Worldwide Logistics was forced to shut down its central data center late last week following a cyberattack. Operations remained disrupted over the weekend. 
• A cyberattack on the largest U.S. cheese producer was behind the recent shortage of cream cheese wreaking havoc on bagel shops and bakeries. 
• Volvo reported losing valuable R&D data following a cyberattack last week that could impact operations. 

Domestic Markets

• The U.S. reported 36,818 new COVID-19 infections and 167 virus fatalities Sunday. Total fatalities since the start of the pandemic surpassed 800,000. 
• U.S. COVID-19 hospitalizations rose 23% the past two weeks to a daily average of 65,277 as of Saturday. New cases rose by 40% for a daily average of 119,325 within the same time frame, likely the result of in-person Thanksgiving gatherings. 
• COVID-19 hospitalizations in Michigan rose 88% the past month.
• Arizona has recorded more than 3,000 new COVID-19 infections for 12 consecutive days. 
• Ohio reported its first cases of the COVID-19 Omicron variant. 
• Thirty percent of COVID-19 patients in Massachusetts’ largest hospital network last week were vaccinated. 
• New York’s governor imposed a mask mandate for all indoor businesses that don’t have COVID-19 vaccine requirements.
• As many as 1.3 million Americans are suffering long-term COVID-19 symptoms that prevent their reentry to the workforce, medical specialists say. 
• U.S. officials have indicated they will not require a third booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine for a person to be considered fully vaccinated. 
• After a judge temporarily blocked the administration’s vaccine mandate for healthcare workers, several major hospital systems waived the requirement as they face serious worker shortages.  
• Protection from mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in older adults begins to wane after about four months, a new CDC study suggests. 
• COVID-19 vaccine uptake among teenagers has nearly ground to a halt in recent weeks, the latest survey results show, while demand remains even lower for parents of younger children aged 5 to 11. 
• No safety problems have been reported in children between ages 5 and 11 who get vaccinated against COVID-19, the CDC said. 
• The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal mask mandate for U.S. air travel. 
• More companies are pushing back return-to-office plans again amid rising COVID-19 cases and the threat of the Omicron variant. 
• U.S. wholesale inventories rose 2.3% in October from the previous month and 14.4% from the year-ago period, new data shows. 
• Low-cost U.S. exchange-traded funds have seen historic influxes of cash this year, a result of rising stock markets and the lack of high-yield alternatives. 
• S&P 500 companies repurchased a record $234.5 billion in shares during the third quarter, a major driver behind continued stock market gains. 
• Recent data suggests the Federal Reserve’s reluctance to tighten economic policy could have bolstered stimulus effects on the U.S. economy, pushing real interest rates to their lowest levels in four decades. 
• GM is finalizing plans to spend $3 billion on two Michigan electric vehicle projects, including converting a Detroit factory to produce electric trucks and building a battery-cell factory with LG. 
• GM plans to begin production of an electric version of its Chevy Silverado pickup truck in early 2023.  
• Ford pushed out the introduction of electric Explorer and Aviator models until 2025 and plans to triple production of its Mustang Mach-E by 2023.  

International Markets

• A new COVID-19 crisis is intensifying in the U.K.:
  • The nation reported more than 58,000 COVID-19 infections in a single day last week, the highest single-day total since January. 
  • The prime minister publicly warned of a “tidal wave” of new cases with the Omicron strain, which are doubling every two to three days and have now broached 3,000. 
  • The COVID-19 Omicron variant is expected to become the nation’s dominant strain this month. 
  • The nation today confirmed its first fatality from the Omicron variant. 
  • Strict mask requirements were reimposed last Wednesday, while Britons have been told to work from home whenever possible. 
  • Officials moved up by a month the timeline for everyone over age 18 to be offered a booster vaccine dose. 
  • Israel banned travel from the nation, as well as from Denmark and Belgium. 
• France has registered a daily average of more than 44,000 new COVID-19 cases the past week, a 36% increase from the previous week as pharmacies report running low on virus tests. 
• Scotland expects the COVID-19 Omicron strain to become the dominant virus variant within the next several days, prompting officials to tighten rules on self-isolation requirements.  
• South Africa reported 18,035 COVID-19 infections yesterday as the nation’s fourth virus wave grows, reducing the chance that more than 90 nations that banned travel to and from the nation will lift their restrictions. The COVID-19 Omicron variant is now the dominant virus strain in Cape Town, the nation’s second largest city. 
• South Africa’s 69-year-old president is being treated after testing positive for COVID-19.  
• A new law in Germany will require all healthcare workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or have recovered from the virus by mid-March. 
• Canada reported 87 cases of the COVID-19 Omicron variant. 
• South Korea reported an average of 6,320 new COVID-19 cases each day last week, more than three times the level from a month ago. 
• China reported its first infection of the COVID-19 Omicron variant. A dozen listed companies were closed in China’s Zhejiang province, site of the nation’s latest Delta outbreak. 
• Ghana will start administering COVID-19 vaccines to returning citizens upon their arrival at the airport. 
• Australia will begin administering COVID-19 shots to children as young as age 5 starting in January. The nation also decreased the wait time for vaccine booster shots from six months to five in response to the rise of the Omicron variant.  
• Slovakia will begin paying cash to people over age 60 who are vaccinated against COVID-19.
• A new study out of the U.K. shows that COVID-19 vaccine booster doses raised immunity protection from the Omicron variant by up to 75%.
• New tests from South Africa show that a two-course regimen of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine dose may offer just a 22.5% efficacy against symptomatic infection from the Omicron variant, though can still stop severe disease, while a new Israeli study suggests the drugmaker’s booster shot provides good protection against severe illness from the Omicron strain. 
• Moderna will supply an additional 20 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to the COVAX vaccine sharing program in the second quarter of 2022. 
• A team of researchers in Japan have developed new face masks that use ostrich antibodies to detect COVID-19 under ultraviolet light. 
• China’s industrial inflation rose 12.9% in November, falling from a 26-year-high growth rate the month before but staying at historically elevated levels since May. 
• The European Commission is proposing new rules to provide full employee benefits to roughly 4.1 million gig economy workers, including third-party drivers and deliverers. 
• French train manufacturer Alstom will cut up to 1,300 of its 10,000 jobs in Germany due to restructuring after the company’s acquisition of Bombardier’s rail unit. 
• Volvo and battery manufacturer Northvolt are partnering to invest $3.3 billion into a new research and development center for electric vehicle batteries in Sweden. 

At M. Holland

• M. Holland’s 3D Printing group offers a rapid response alternative for producing selected parts where resin availability is tight during prevailing force majeure. For more information, email our 3D Printing team.
• Market Expertise: M. Holland offers a host of resources to clients, prospects and suppliers across nine strategic markets.

For all COVID-19 updates and notices, please refer to the M. Holland website.