One of the key messages from the World Petrochemical Conference is that it is not an oil shortage, it is a commodity shortage, and we show our key metals index (updated through February) again in the chart below. We will update this again at the end of March (when consistent data is available) and given what has happened to both lithium and nickel prices we would expect a jump in the March index.
Our Sunday thematic and weekly recap report covers how the US is short of truck drivers (60,000) during a period when freight is struggling to move from congested ports – holiday buying will add more stress. This matters because we have record shipments of containers on the docks at US ports and record shipping backlogs waiting to unload as well as well documented shortages of durables in warehouses and at retailers.
The image below shows the mismatch in driver availability and trucking rates: