Potential Solution to America’s Electricity Supply As countries look at moving towards electrifying vehicles and renewable energy, the problem in the US is the existing electric infrastructure is currently insufficient. According to researchers at UC Berkeley, they may have a feasible solution: replacing the existing power lines with cables made from state-of-the-art materials, thus potentially…
Summer of High Oil Prices My local news station has been warning drivers of surging gas prices as Summer nears. Oil prices are near a five month high. This coincides with the current production cuts by OPEC at least until June. UPS In, Fedex Out with USPS The collaboration between the US Postal Service (USPS)…
Pain Ahead for Chocolate-Lovers We mentioned this just a couple of weeks ago, but cocoa futures has reached new highs this past week. The shortages in cocoa supply are mainly due to climate and weather events which can severely affect commodity prices such as cocoa. Baltimore Bridge Collapse In an absolutely tragic accident, a Sri…
Port of Vancouver Handles Record Cargo Volume The past year has been somewhat chaotic for the Port of Vancouver, with worker strikes and a slowdown in global shipping, the Port of Vancouver actually saw a 6% increase in cargo handling from the previous year. Fast-Fashion Behemoth, Shein, Wants to Be Your Supply Friend Shein, the…
US Plans to Launch AI in Manufacturing Institute The U.S. government is launching a competition to create a new institute focused on using artificial intelligence (AI) to strengthen American manufacturing. This institute, overseen by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will receive $70 million from the government over five years, with additional funding…
Factories testing out flex-time Traditionally, factories wanting to be efficient and producing seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day found that workers need to start and end at the same time in order to maximize their efforts. Land O’Lakes, a cheese manufacturer based in Minnesota, is testing out flex-time schedules. Eliminating the traditional factory…
Food Logistics Tests Autonomous Trucking Autonomous trucking startup, Kodiak Robotics, are testing a new delivery route to deliver refrigerated freight with their autonomous trucks for logistics company Martin Bower. Martin Bower’s big clients include McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A, Ikea and Maersk. China’s BYD Could Disrupt the EV Market As the world builds up the demand for EV’s,…
Relief Coming to Shipping Disruptions As the Houthi attacks in the Middle-East has caused massive disruptions for shipping from Asia and the surrounding region as well as skyrocketing shipping costs, relief is in sight. New shipping containers that were ordered 2-3 years ago are ready to come online and help relieve the disruptions caused by…
What’s happening to Cocoa? Cocoa, the key ingredient in chocolate, has seen prices surge to an all-time high not seen since 1977. Why? Weather & climate events such as massive rains, droughts and pests & disease have affected cocoa crops from West African nations, where 70% of the world’s cocoa beans come from. (BTW, if…
GM Eyes More EV Investment in Quebec We’ve been covering extensively how Canada has been actively attracting investment in the surging EV production industry. GM is the latest automaker to invest $600M to build a battery factory in the province of Quebec and says it’s only the “tip of the iceberg”. Lessons from the Pandemic…