Tag: Shortages

The South Korean Mine at the Center of America’s Tungsten Push

Media Library

The front line of America’s scramble for critical minerals lies miles beneath the surface in the cavernous tunnels of Sangdong, South Korea, where miners blast glittering seams of tungsten from craggy rock. With the highest melting point of any metal and a hardness close to that of a diamond, tungsten is essential to manufacturing semiconductors, construction and oil-drilling equipment, and the missiles and armored vehicles used in modern warfare. Like many minerals critical to the technologies the world depends on, tungsten is overwhelmingly controlled by China, which produces roughly 85…

The World Is Draining Oil Reserves, Raising Pressure for a Peace Deal

Media Library

The world is quickly depleting its stores of oil, putting more pressure on President Trump to reach a deal with Iran that would quickly get more fuel flowing out of the Persian Gulf. Vast stockpiles of oil, gasoline and other fuels have helped fill the hole in global energy supplies created by the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. But those reserves, which companies and governments stash in giant steel storage tanks and underground salt caverns, are running low in some places. This week, U.S. government stockpiles were poised to hit their…

A ‘Miraculous Transformation’: How Kim Jong-un Fortified North Korea

Media Library

During the pandemic, the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who had long billed himself as invincible, made a stunning, teary-eyed apology on national television. “I am really sorry,” he said, as the coronavirus, coupled with food shortages and international sanctions, was ravaging his country. “My efforts and sincerity have not been sufficient enough to rid our people of the difficulties in their life.” But while ordinary North Koreans were suffering, Mr. Kim, 42, seized the crisis as a unique opportunity. Now, he is brimming with confidence. He is recognized at…

Iran War Has Drained U.S. Supplies of Critical, Costly Weapons

Media Library

Since the Iran war began in late February, the United States has burned through around 1,100 of its long-range stealth cruise missiles built for a war with China, close to the total number remaining in the U.S. stockpile. The military has fired off more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles, roughly 10 times the number it currently buys each year. The Pentagon used more than 1,200 Patriot interceptor missiles in the war, at more than $4 million a pop, and more than 1,000 Precision Strike and ATACMS ground-based missiles, leaving inventories…

Why Diesel Has Become a Much Bigger Economic Problem Than Gasoline

Media Library

The price of diesel has risen much more quickly than gasoline as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has choked global oil supplies. That could have severe consequences for the diesel-dependent transportation industry. Since the war began on Feb. 28, the average price of a gallon of diesel has gone up about 45 percent, while a gallon of regular gasoline has risen about 35 percent. The Energy Information Administration, a federal research agency, expects average diesel prices to peak at more than $5.80 a gallon this month. Gasoline, the agency said,…

China’s Extreme Floods and Heat Ravage Farms and Kill Animals

Media Library

The downpour began in late May, drenching the wheat crops in central China. As kernels of wheat blackened in the rain, becoming unfit for human consumption, the government mobilized emergency teams to salvage as much of the harvest as possible. In a viral video, a 79-year-old farmer in Henan Province wiped away tears as he surveyed the damage. The unusually heavy rainfall, which local officials said was the worst disruption to the wheat harvest in a decade, underscored the risks that climate shocks pose to President Xi Jinping’s push for…

Natural Gas Shortages Hit China as Temperatures Plunge

Chin@Strategy

For many people across China, a shortage of natural gas and alarmingly cold temperatures are making a difficult winter unbearable. For Li Yongqiang, they mean freezing nights without heat. “We dare not turn on the heat overnight — after using it for five or six hours, the gas stops again,” Mr. Li, a 45-year-old grocer, said by telephone from his home in northern China’s Hebei Province. “The gas shortage is really affecting our lives.” The lack of natural gas, which is used widely across China to heat homes and businesses,…

China’s Abrupt Covid Pivot Leaves Many Without Medicines

Chin@Strategy

When demand for fever-reducing drugs more than quadrupled the price of ibuprofen, a city in eastern China began rationing sales by selling the pills individually. When a popular Chinese online pharmacy offered the antiviral drug Paxlovid, it sold out within hours. And when word of the medicine shortages in China reached friends and relatives in Hong Kong and Taiwan, they quickly bought vast quantities of drugs from local sellers to ship to the mainland. As Covid rips through parts of China, millions of Chinese are struggling to find treatment —…

As Covid Spreads Fast in China, Beijing Isn’t in Lockdown. But It Feels Like It.

Chin@Strategy

Restaurants have closed because too many staff members have tested positive for Covid. The usually ubiquitous food delivery workers zipping through traffic on their scooters have nearly vanished because of infections. Pharmacies have been emptied of cold medicine, and supermarkets have been running low on the essentials: disinfectant solution, antibacterial wipes, beer. Less than a week after the Chinese government lifted its stringent “zero Covid” restrictions, Beijing looks like a city in the throes of a lockdown — this time, self-imposed by residents. Sidewalks and pedestrian shopping streets are barren,…

‘At the Breaking Point’: Tibetans, Under Lockdown, Make Rare Cries for Help

Chin@Strategy

BEIJING — Infected patients quarantined alongside those who tested negative. No food for hours, despite repeated requests. Lines of buses, loaded with people, waiting late into the night to drop them off at makeshift isolation centers. These are the scenes described by residents of Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, who have been locked down for one month as officials try to contain a coronavirus outbreak. Lockdowns, including of entire cities, have become almost commonplace in China, which remains bent on eliminating the coronavirus even as the rest of the world…