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COVID-19 Variant Disrupts Supply Chain
Akihiro Komuro In Southeast Asia, where the delta variant of the COVID-19 is spreading rapidly, business activities are becoming stagnant. In response to government regulations and the rapid increase in the number of infected people, major Japanese companies such as Toyota and Panasonic have suspended production at some of their plants. In addition to the decline in local sales, the disruption of the supply chain has also affected production in Japan.
Toyota has sequentially shut down all three of its plants in Thailand since July 20. The company has not yet decided when to resume operations because it has been unable to procure parts due to an outbreak of infection at one of its customers’ plants. Honda also shut down one of its plants in Thailand from August 3 to 5.
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Honda Staff Seek Early Retirement Amid EV Shift
Over 2,000 employees at Honda Motor have applied for early retirement, as the Japanese automaker restructures its workforce to gear up to make more electric vehicles.
Honda’s move is the latest in the trend among automakers to move away from the production and sales of internal combustion engines. Those employees account for around 5% of Honda’s full-time staff in Japan. Although Honda had not set a target, the number of applications has far exceeded its initial estimate of 1,000.
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Understanding the Global Chip Shortage
Erik Martin Semiconductors help power everything from your phone to your car. Here’s what to know about the major supply chain problem.
There are chips in nearly everything electric you own, from your phone to your computer to your car. There are even chips in items you wouldn’t expect, such as your washing machine, electric toothbrush, and refrigerator. But these tiny parts that power so much of our lives are now in critically short supply.
“Right now we have a global supply chain in crisis,” says Patrick Penfield, a professor of supply chain practice at Syracuse University. “We’ve just never ever seen anything of this magnitude impact us before.”
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Komatsu Invests in Production and Service Center in Pará
Fabio Ferraresi Since 2020 Komatsu has been investing in Parauapebas, in the state of Pará in Northern Brazil, for a new facility that will provide maintenance for equipment and produce new equipment. The General Manager of the Mining Division for South America, Charles Medeiros says the unit will produce products for all regions in Brazil and for export.
Source: Automotive Business Read The Article
PSR Analysis: Pará is an important region for mining where companies like Vale are located and demand…
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Toyota Suspends Production in Sorocaba, Brazil
Toyota is one of the OEMs least affected by the semiconductor crisis, but it now says production will be suspended for 10 days at its Sorocaba plant. The announcement does not refer specifically to semiconductors and other components and materials may be affecting the production capacity.
Source: Valor Read The Article
PSR Analysis: The shortage of materials and price escalation is affecting all OEMs and suppliers in the automotive supply chain, from basic steel grades to semiconductors. Price…
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Ford Ends Production of Troller
Even though Ford has announced the end of production of the off-road Troller T4 in Horizonte, Ceará, Brazil, by September 2021, the secretary of industrial development of Ceará says that while Ford is working to sell the productive unit, it wants to keep the brand and the product design as its property. Government of the state is trying to change Ford executives mind about the decision.
Source: Autoespoerte / O Globo Read The Article
PSR Analysis: Troller T4 holds an important share of the sports…
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Rapid Economic Recovery Puts Pressure on Supply Chain
Christopher Bamforth After continued positive market trends which started towards the end of 2020, as well as good progress in their initiatives for integration and sustainability, the Finnish quarrying and mining equipment group Metso Outote grew their order intake in the second quarter by 43%. Supported further by a robust recovery fuelled by infrastructure investments in Europe and the US, and the quarterly orders were higher than in the first quarter.
They believe that many of these new order intakes are a direct result from their “Positive planet portfolio”. This new initiative has been designed help customers improve the sustainability and productivity of their operations. This initiative performed even better than expected, they have already estimated a value of €105m end of June, out of the predicted €120m for 2021. This highlights the ecological trend that we are seeing across most industries.
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How Much Energy Does Bitcoin Consume?
John Krzesicki Today, Bitcoin consumes as much energy as a small country. This certainly sounds alarming, but the reality is a little more complex.
Our clients design and build generators installed for data centers, factories, distribution centers, commercial buildings, office buildings, grocery stores, and banks for emergency backup, peak shaving, or continuous power. Bitcoin miners utilize data centers for housing and managing their data (server) farms.
Bitcoin is a digital currency powered by many computers worldwide working to maintain the Bitcoin blockchain, a public database of all transactions on the network ever made. Bitcoin miners compete to officially record and verify the transaction and earn bitcoin as a reward. These transactions are verified by solving complex cryptographic and mathematical problems for which Bitcoin miners use a lot of power. The computers that record and verify Bitcoin transactions consume power at a level similar to some countries. The exact amount of energy used by a Bitcoin transaction can vary based on demand.
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Most Regions Will Post 20%+ Growth in Truck Production
Chris Fisher Editor’s Note: This is an updated report from the Q2 2021 Truck Production Index report produced by Chris Fisher and Jim Downey, Vice President-Global Data Products, in July 2021.
Question: What is the global truck production picture? What is the outlook?
PSR Opinion: Overall, medium and heavy truck demand will finish the year on a strong note, and continued strength is expected into 2022. On-going supply chain disruptions will continue to impact production throughout the rest of the year and likely into 2022.
Question: What kind of global production volume do you expect for this year?
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Sinara May Dismiss 20% of Workers Because of Reduced Orders
Maxim Sakov The machine building company “Sinara – Transport machines” (STM), says it may be forced to dismiss 20% of personnel because it has lost most of its orders from Russian Railways for cranes and other railway service machines.
Sinara has lost 85% of the orders from Russian Railways for railway service machines. Because of decreasing orders from the railway monopoly, the main client of STM, 7,000 people on its plants have not worked since August. The total personnel number in STM is 32,000 people, so about 20% of its personnel is questionable. Now, the company is looking for a way to re-qualify these people
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