Supply Chain Stuff

We were up in St Louis this weekend going to a ball game and visiting with family just oustside of the city. There is a big GM plant there too. Only reason I mention that is my BIL showed me where GM had cleared off a hundred acres or so near where they live and Gm hadsecured it and started parking cars there months ago. He said they number in the thousands. All are ready to go except for the computer modules. Because of a shortage of chips, the whole process is backed up. I guess the news has been out there about it but until now I hadn’t paid much attention. https://www.consumerreports.org/buyi...s-a8160576456/

Big economic hit if it continues until ‘23 like is predicted. Folks, this isn’t the only supply chain that’s in trouble. Hopefully this leads to a more rational discussion about globalization. Nationalism, or Buy America, orwhatever buzzword program you like was never a good enough reason for companies not to chase cheap labor and loose regulation worldwide. Effects of supply disruption on our economy like this automobile one should make us realise that there needs to be a strategery, as Bush II would say. But wouldn’t that be a planned economy? Picking winners and losers again? Man, slippery slope. But is clinging to free market principles in a global economy that isn’t anywhere close to a free market smart?
Like I said, we need a discussion about considering critical supply chains more as national security interests.
God blessthe military industrial complex, eh? I can’t believe I’m even writing this.

BKB

Man-o-man! Where have you been lately? Drive by any dealership and you can count the new cars on the lots on one hand (and maybe a foot thrown in). A couple months ago I was at the Toyota dealer and they had a total of seven Tacoma’s and Tundras on the lot. They normally have a whole row across the whole front of their very large lot. If you REALLY want a shot in your shorts, just try to buy a decent used car these days. You can’t find new ones, so the old supply and demand has kicked in. Of course, it’s a bonus if you’re SELLING. I just traded my 2016 (bought Fall of 2015) Tacoma for what I paid for it. That was trade-in value, I could have gotten more if I’d sold to a private party. Trump is still a Bozo in many ways, but from a business standpoint (the main reason I voted for him), he was spot on with his “build it in America” rhetoric.

The other day while watching a newscast with Lynn about all the military equipment we left in Afghanistan, I told Lynn we should send a fleet of drones out and bomb every piece of it. Just a couple days ago, I read a piece that quoted Trump as saying our military should bomb every piece of equipment we left there. Sometimes we agree with things! All Biden is talking about right now is blaming the weather in the Northeast on Big Oil. F’ing maroon!

I was following you there for a minute and then you leapt off into another dimension. Must be the Chinese Space Lasers messing with your chip.

BKB

I’ve been avoiding politics for so long, I sprung a leak in the dam. Sorry. Back to cars, even the big rental car companies like Hertz and Enterprise, etc. are buying up low mileage used cars because they can’t get new ones. I’d love to be a used car dealer right now with some secret source of inventory.

What I don’t understand is, why can’t we make our own frigging chips? Where do we get chips for our military equipment? It scares me to think our military could be controlled by China! Heck, it’s not just cars. The chip shortage has affected everything from electric toothbrushes and toasters, to tv’s, computers and cell phones, to name just a few.

My wife’s car is up in the rotation for replacement this year. After researching the new car market, I decided to take a pass. No way I’m paying 10% OVER MSRP. It’s just not going to happen.


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That’s what scares the bejeebers out of me after purchasing my motor home. In the crazy market right now, people are waiting over a year to get new ones from the factory. Like cars, used motor home prices are through the roof. Once the bubble pops, I’m afraid I’m going to be extremely upside down on my loan. It doesn’t help that they cost as much as a house these days, but unlike a house, they depreciate instead of appreciate. Right now is the dumbest time in history to buy a motor home, but with my age and health situation, I don’t have the pleasure of waiting this out.

Look at the bright side of things, Jim. A whole lot of people are no longer upside down on their car loans!

BKB

True. Dealers are even offering bonuses on lease returns to prevent people from purchasing off lease.

I had heard of new car shortages but Ithinkthe article I read blamed it on rentalcar compaies restocking fleets afterselling them off during covid. Same for leased company fleet vehicles.
BKB

The new car market is a mess right now. However I almost never buy new so I don't worry a lot about buying a new car personally, but like has been mentioned it has most used vehicles going for highly inflated prices. It's not just cars that are struggling though. Over the weekend I bought new living room furniture for my new home. All went well until I decided I wanted to special order a Lazy Boy recliner in a different color than what they had in stock. It will be a 6 to 8 month wait to receive the recliner. I ordered and paid for it anyway as I'm in no real hurry. The other living room furniture was all in stock so it wasn't a problem, but anything that is not in stock is pretty much a 6-12 month wait depending on the manufacturer. Another local friend of mine popped into a convenient store to buy a Diet Coke earlier this week. He was told he couldn't buy one because they were out of plastic cups and they didn't know when there were going to get their next shipment because things are so backed up in the plastic cup business. That's crazy sometimes it just blindsides you with what has become difficult to buy. Who would have ever thought trying to buy a Diet Coke at a convenient store would ever be a challenge???

We ran into that at Walmart about a month ago. This is a huge store (Super Walmart) with groceries. They were out of plastic bags! People were taking stuff out in whatever boxes they could find or simply taking the carts to their car and filling their trunks with loose items.

I can tell you this, after 800 miles of hard Oklahoma and Missouri highway in a few days there are MANY more trucks on the interstates right now. And the way many of them drive there must bea lot of rookies. And I honestly couldn’t tell you how fast you’d have to drive to get a ticket nowadays. I usually drive 9 over if I don’t have a ‘pace car’ (which translates to ‘some guy like Len’) and I had pace cars AND trucks both directions. Saw lots of po pos but not a single one giving out Fast Driver Awards, as Larke called them. And they’re screaming they’re short of drivers.
I guess there are several container ships stranded in our ports because they don’t have the people to unload them.

Question: Is there a tipping point? Is it close or furtheraway than we think?

BKB

The scary thing is China's claiming Taiwan is their country now!

TSMC is really what they want.

Edit: FYI in layman's terms >https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=TSMC

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Originally Posted by BarryBobPosthole

We were up in St Louis this weekend going to a ball game and visiting with family just oustside of the city. There is a big GM plant there too. Only reason I mention that is my BIL showed me where GM had cleared off a hundred acres or so near where they live and Gm hadsecured it and started parking cars there months ago. He said they number in the thousands. All are ready to go except for the computer modules. Because of a shortage of chips, the whole process is backed up. I guess the news has been out there about it but until now I hadn’t paid much attention. https://www.consumerreports.org/buyi...s-a8160576456/

Big economic hit if it continues until ‘23 like is predicted. Folks, this isn’t the only supply chain that’s in trouble. Hopefully this leads to a more rational discussion about globalization. Nationalism, or Buy America, orwhatever buzzword program you like was never a good enough reason for companies not to chase cheap labor and loose regulation worldwide. Effects of supply disruption on our economy like this automobile one should make us realise that there needs to be a strategery, as Bush II would say. But wouldn’t that be a planned economy? Picking winners and losers again? Man, slippery slope. But is clinging to free market principles in a global economy that isn’t anywhere close to a free market smart?
Like I said, we need a discussion about considering critical supply chains more as national security interests.
God blessthe military industrial complex, eh? I can’t believe I’m even writing this.

BKB

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I thought Covid was supposedly to blame?


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Chip factory in Japan hit with a fire took out 2 dozen machines in March. Company announced 100-120 days to be back online.
Local Toyota prep.facility in Commercial Ga (north of Athens) usually gets 5-600 vehicles a day is now down to 100.

Young guy who runs the knife display at the local gun shop works there. He was at the shop yesterday working,no cars no work.

Personally , I have over 100k$ plus in reloading components and cartridges on backorder for retail sales. Don't think I'll ever see them.

Other than the entire world has gone bat shit crazy. SSDD