COVID-19 Bulletin: October 9

Good Afternoon,

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Supply

• More than 90% of Gulf of Mexico oil capacity is “shut in” in anticipation of Hurricane Delta.
• Evacuations have been ordered in Lake Charles, Louisiana, home to several major petrochemical sites, as Hurricane Delta bears down.
• Oil prices have surged 11% this week due to curtailed production in the Gulf of Mexico and the labor strike in Norway.
• The strike by Norwegian oil workers could cut the country’s output by 25%, the country’s oil and gas association warned.
• The WTI was at $40.80/bbl in early trading today and Brent was at $42.97/bbl.  Natural gas was at $2.71/MMBtu.   
• Saudi Arabia is considering scrapping an established timeline to return to early-pandemic levels of production, as COVID-19 cases continue to rise around the world and crude production in Libya threatens to swell global supply.
• Five of the U.S.’s six largest banks have pledged to end funding for new oil drilling and exploration in the Arctic.
• Total joined as a founding member of the Sea Cargo Charter, a consortium of major companies committed to align their shipping activities with climate goals.
• Chevron Phillips announced the first commercial scale chemical recycling production of polyethylene in the U.S.
• The recession in the fracking industry has hit non-oil-producing states in the Midwest where sand mines are closing and laying off workers due to the drop in demand for silica.
• Chevron is laying off 700 workers at its Houston headquarters as it streamlines in response to the energy recession. Workers are encouraged to apply for jobs elsewhere in the company.
• Braskem S.A. disclosed that it has been victimized by a cyberattack in Brazil.

Supply Chain

• Hurricane Delta, a Category 3 storm, is expected to make landfall on the Louisiana coastline Friday evening. It is the sixth hurricane to strike the U.S. gulf in the past several months.
• The approaching hurricane has curtailed port operations along the Gulf Coast.
• Much of Japan is being battered by slow-moving Typhoon Chan-hom as it passes along the nation’s southern coast.
• As 22 major wildfires continue to burn in California, the forecast calls for the possibility of light rain Saturday in Northern California with dry conditions returning next week.
• The month of September saw a 7.1% year-over-year increase in containers and trailers carried by U.S. railroads. It was the fourth-busiest month ever for intermodal rail traffic.
• Global freight container traffic jumped 1.5% in August, the first year-over-year increase in traffic since the pandemic began.
• India is exploiting disruption in global supply chains by subsidizing 16 manufacturers of mobile phones and electronic parts to strengthen its position as a global manufacturing center and fulfill more domestic demand.
• With tight freight capacity nationwide and supply constraints with many plastic resins, clients are advised to provide expanded lead times on orders to help ensure delivery dates.

Markets

• The U.S. reported more than 56,000 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the highest level since mid-August and second-most behind more than 78,000 new cases in India. The death toll in the U.S. has passed 211,000, with 961 reported Thursday.
• Average daily infections are averaging more than 45,000 this week, an 8% increase from last week’s average.
• Thirty-two states have rising infection trends this week.
• On Thursday, New York and New Jersey both recorded the highest number of COVID-19 cases since May. State officials are anticipating a second wave as the weather gets colder and people stay indoors.
• Wisconsin and the Dakotas lead all states in new COVID-19 cases per capita with hospital beds filling up rapidly.
• After vacillating earlier this week, the White House is again signaling support for a large-scale stimulus bill. The house speaker and treasury secretary resumed talks on the bill Thursday.
• The U.S. budget deficit hit a record $3.1 trillion in the fiscal year ended September 30, triple the deficit in 2019 and 15.2% of GDP, the highest percentage since 1945.
• Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal believe jobs in the U.S. won’t recover to pre-pandemic levels until 2023 or later.

• One in six U.S. workers will not get a raise in 2021, according to a survey conducted by consulting firm Willis Towers Watson, as a third of surveyed companies reported payroll cuts.
• A U.S. Census Bureau survey reveals that 60 million Americans expect someone in their household to lose a job or take a pay cut in the next four weeks.
• The number of coffee shops in the U.S. is shrinking for the first time in nine years, mostly at the expense of independent shops that have closed during the pandemic.
• Toyota and Hino are developing a hydrogen fuel-cell electric freight truck for the North American market. The announcement came after Daimler said it would start producing a Mercedes-Benz Class 8 electric truck in 2021.
• Hyundai will also join in the U.S. market for electric freight trucks. The company released the first seven of its planned 2,000 fuel-cell trucks Wednesday in Switzerland.
• Waymo, the self-driving car unit of Alphabet Inc., is offering a fully driverless ride-hailing service to the public in suburban Phoenix.
• IBM will spin off its IT infrastructure unit, which supplies a quarter of the company’s sales and staff, to prioritize the growing businesses of cloud-computing and artificial intelligence.
• Mondelēz International is testing digital watermarks to aid in the identification and sorting of plastic waste for recycling.

International

• A surge of 96,996 new COVID-19 cases in Europe Thursday sealed a record increase in global one-day infections (338,000+), according to the World Health Organization. Cases are rising in 54 countries, with surges in Europe, Canada and Argentina.
• Poland registered record daily COVID-19 infections today for the fourth consecutive day.
• The Czech Republic has registered record COVID-19 infections for the past three days.
• New infections in Russia topped 12,000 today, a record.
• Governments across Europe held emergency sessions to plan countermeasures against the spreading virus, including new shutdowns and social distancing mandates.
• GDP in the U.K. rose a disappointing 2.1% in August, less than half analyst estimates and a third of the growth rate in July, indicating its recovery is slowing. Output remains 10% below pre-pandemic levels.
• China, which has experienced no community spread of COVID-19 since early August, saw a surge in domestic travel and tourism in its just ended Golden Week holiday.
• China has joined an $18 billion effort backed by the World Health Organization to help provide lower-income countries with an eventual COVID-19 vaccine.
• Cautious Japanese consumers pocketed government stimulus handouts, sending the nation’s savings rate to 44% through August, a two-decade high.
• The mental health toll of the COVID-19 pandemic is reflected in Japan, where the increasing number of suicides this year outnumbers virus deaths by more than 10,000.
• The U.S. Federal Reserve joined six other central banks in a meeting today to plan for eventual digital currencies.
• Japan will begin testing a digital currency next year.

Our Operations

• 3D Market Manager Haleyanne Freedman and Jacob Fallon, Braskem’s Technology Engineer for 3D Printing, co-hosted a webinar on Polypropylene Advancements in 3D Printing this week. Watch the recording here.
• Stop by M. Holland’s virtual booth at IWCS to meet our team of Wire & Cable experts. The M. Holland team is exhibiting October 15-16 from 8 am to 1 pm ET. Click here to learn more.
• Plastics News featured an article on our new partnership with JL Goor in Ireland. 
• Global Healthcare Manager Josh Blackmore will be a featured speaker at the Plastics in Healthcare Virtual Edition, sponsored by Plastics News, October 26-30. The title of his talk: Applying the Lessons from the First Wave of COVID-19 to Successfully Navigate the Second. 
• To access 3D Printing training, order parts and seek technical assistance, visit our new online resource.
• Market Expertise: M. Holland offers a host of resources to clients, prospects and suppliers across nine strategic markets. To arrange a videoconference or meeting with any of our Market Managers, please visit our website.

Thank you,

M. Holland Company

We will provide further COVID-19 bulletins as circumstances dictate. For all COVID-19 updates and notices, please refer to the M. Holland website.