“Some shipping lines, whose retail customers are being hammered by the coronavirus pandemic, are reducing sailing speeds and taking longer routes around Africa, avoiding Suez canal passage fees, according to the companies and ship-tracking specialists.
“Many are also cutting down the number of voyages and providing short-term storage for clients as the industry, which includes heavyweights like Maersk, MSC and Hapag-Lloyd, faces its biggest downturn since the 2008 financial crisis.
“The new tactics not only save on costs, but also help adapt to the needs of cash-crunched retailers – among their biggest customers – who are stuck with huge inventory surpluses thanks to COVID-19 store closures and a collapse in consumer demand.
“Slower shipping times also means importers can delay payments made on delivery.”
“The Robert Garcia that Robert Garcia always saw in the mirror was the Marine who jumped out of helicopters, the guy who built houses, rode a Harley and had plenty of buddies.
“Now, thanks to the virus, his reflection shows a man alone in a single room in Santa Fe, N.M., out of work, looking outside and wondering what the neighbors are thinking when the food bank delivers his meals.”
https://www.chron.com/news/article/Hunger-comes-with-shame-for-many-who-lost-jobs-in-15318253.php
“British consumer confidence in late May fell to its lowest level since the global financial crisis over a decade ago as people worried about a rise in unemployment and falling house prices caused by the coronavirus crisis, a survey showed on Friday.”
“UK Builders are gradually returning to work but the sector is still in the grip of the worst downturn on record, the latest gloomy industry figures show…
“Its index – where a score under 50 signals industry contraction – recovered partially from a disastrous 8.2 in April to 28.9 last month but is still languishing at levels last seen in the depths of the financial crisis in February 2009.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/06/04/battered-builders-struggle-record-slump/
“Britain’s markets watchdog has begun asking 13,000 firms how close are they to going bust because of the coronavirus pandemic to avoid being saddled with unexpectedly “lumpy” compensation bills…
“The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will send the questionnaire to firms like financial advisers and wealth funds, its executive director of supervision, Megan Butler, said on Thursday.”
“The Italian prime minister called for a conference of the country’s most “brilliant minds” to save the country from a prolonged recession.
“Amid warnings that Italy will lose a million jobs this year as it staggers out of its Covid-19 crisis, experts believe the country can either bounce back using well-invested emergency funds or slide into economic collapse.”
“Africa’s debt crisis has been simmering for some time. Two years ago the imf was already anxious about a growing number of African countries in “debt distress” or at high risk of it.
“This crisis was brought to the boil by covid-19, which has caused economies to shrink and tax revenues to plunge.”
“The Syrian pound hit a record low on Thursday over fears of the impact of tougher U.S. sanctions this month and the repercussions of a seizure of assets of a leading tycoon on the war-battered economy, dealers, traders and businessmen said.
“Traders said it cost as much as 2,050 Syrian pounds to buy one dollar on the street on Thursday.”
“As the Coronavirus pandemic batters Iraq, the Iraqi state is grappling to respond to the evolving outbreak. At the same time, the government is trying to fill a $40 billion deficit in the state budget arising from plummeting oil prices, which is estimated to have slashed the government revenues by half.
“With the pandemic and economic challenges taking top priority for the Iraqi government, Iraq is exposed to the prospect of food insecurity.”
https://carnegieendowment.org/sada/81976
“Four weeks ago, with its most important festival coming up and millions of people facing starvation as economic activity dwindled, Pakistan lifted a two-month-long coronavirus lockdown…
“Now, a Reuters review of government data shows over 20,000 cases of the virus were identified in the three weeks before the lockdown was lifted…”
“The kind way to interpret India getting downgraded this week is that the news could’ve been worse… Can formal junk status really be far off?“
“World Steel Association (WSA) on Thursday said India’s steel demand may fall by a steep 18% to 83.3 million tonne (MT) in 2020 from 101.5 MT in 2019.”
“China’s exports likely tumbled in May after a surprising rebound the previous month as global coronavirus lockdowns continued to devastate demand…
“Both official and private factory surveys for May showed sub-indexes for export orders remained in contraction, suggesting strong external headwinds on Chinese exporters in the near term.”
“In the weeks before she took her own life, Thai waitress Nitiwadee Sae-Tia felt growing financial pressure after she lost her job, a member of the family said.
“She was one of millions of Thais who lost their jobs after lockdown restrictions to combat the spread of the coronavirus forced malls and other public venues to close in March.”
“Argentina’s industrial output crashed 33.5 percent in April from the same month last year, the government’s statistics agency said on Thursday, as the national lockdown to fight the coronavirus pandemic bludgeoned Latin America’s third-largest economy.”
“The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the downward trend in exports from Latin America that had been observed since last year and the future does not seem encouraging, revealed a report by the Inter-American Development Bank…
“China, the engine for the region’s external sector in recent years, has paralyzed its demand to the region.”
“The energy industry’s bet that a petrochemicals boom would support decades of oil and gas sales growth is on shaky ground as an already saturated plastic market is hit by a coronavirus demand shock…
“In the longer term, a virus-led hit to economic growth in Asian, African and Latin American markets threatens demand at a time when the industry is already facing bans on single-use plastic that are spreading across the world.”
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/pandemic-exposes-cracks-oil-majors-070630029.html
“The global economic growth in 2020 [such as it was; many nations, eg Germany and Japan were flirting with recession; some like South African and Argentina were in recession] has been eclipsed since the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak causing fears of looming unemployment and recession in a number of countries.
“Verdict has been tracking the optimism over global economic recovery through an online poll started in April and still ongoing in 22 of the network’s websites.”
Read the previous ‘Economic’ thread here and visit my Patreon page here.
