COVID-19 Bulletin: September 2

September 2, 2020 • Posted in Daily Bulletin, News

Good Afternoon,

More news relevant to the plastics industry:

Supply

  • Crude prices were lower in early trading today, with the WTI at $42.44/bbl and Brent at $45.31/bbl. Natural gas prices also were lower at 2.52/MMBtu.  
  • The Energy Information Administration reported a higher-than-expected inventory draw last week of 9.4 million barrels.
  • Solar and wind comprised two-thirds of the world’s new energy production last year, marking the first time alternative energy accounted for a majority of new energy sources.
  • Oil field services giant Schlumberger is selling its U.S. fracking business after this year’s collapse in demand.
  • Borealis expanded its capability and global footprint in wire and cable with the acquisition of a controlling stake in compounder DYM Solution of South Korea.

Supply Chain

  • Texas temporarily eased some trucking regulations to facilitate recovery efforts following Hurricane Laura.
  • Despite global food surpluses, the world could see more daily deaths from hunger than COVID-19 by year end due to inequities and supply chain issues exposed by the pandemic. 
  • Autonomous truck startups are seeking entry into the freight industry, with some building new fleets and others attempting to integrate with existing carriers.
  • The rapid development of autonomous vehicles is spawning new technologies that will cross into other industries, such as computer vision, synthetic data, robotic navigation and sensor technology. 
  • Some Amazon drivers are gaming the gig economy by hanging cell phones from trees near busy pickup points to win delivery assignments by appearing in closer proximity than other drivers.
  • We anticipate the Labor Day holiday will cause roadway congestion this weekend and early next week, impacting trucking capacity, pricing and performance.  
  • The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance has scheduled its (USA/CAN/MEX) Roadcheck for September 9 to 11 — we expect this to reduce capacity and service levels for the week.
  • Clients are advised to provide expanded lead times on orders to help ensure delivery dates will be met.

Markets

  • New COVID-19 infections, which fell below 34,000 on Monday, the lowest daily count since June, climbed back above 43,000 yesterday with reopened schools among the hot spots. Deaths exceeded 1,000.
  • Twenty-eight states have rising trends for new COVID-19 cases this week.
  • Seven of nine Sunbelt states hit hard by COVID-19 this summer are seeing declines in new cases, deaths and test positivity.
    • Alabama remains the lone Sunbelt state experiencing rising case, death and positivity rates.
    • The death rate in Mississippi continues to rise, while infections and positivity ratings are on the decline.
  • Five Midwestern states — Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota — have experienced their highest COVID-19 infection levels of the pandemic over the past seven days.
  • U.S. factory output continued to rebound in August, according to two leading surveys, but factory employment remains fragile with 800,000 fewer workers than before the pandemic.
  • Recent clinical trials confirm that steroids can help seriously ill COVID-19 patients survive.
  • A study group advising the federal government released guidelines for the distribution of an eventual vaccine, placing healthcare workers and vulnerable populations at the top of the list.
  • The U.S. will not participate in the World Health Organization-led COVAX initiative, a coalition of more than 170 countries committed to ensuring an eventual vaccine will be equitably distributed globally.
  • The CDC is executing a moratorium on evictions for individuals making less than $99,000 a year who face homelessness if evicted, stoking resistance from landlords and concerns about future indebtedness for struggling renters.
  • Separately, California passed eviction protections that give pandemic-impacted renters a reprieve from evictions through January 2021 if they pay 25% of their monthly rent. 
  • Insurers are winning court cases upholding their denial of business interruption payouts to companies hurt by government shutdowns.
  • Auditing firms are struggling to conduct audits during the pandemic with employees dispersed by work-from-home protocols and new safety procedures at offices and factories.
  • North American plastics machinery shipments rose 4% in the second quarter compared with the first quarter but remained 10.7% below the year-ago period.
  • German automotive supplier Continental plans to cut up to 30,000 jobs by 2025 as part of a global restructuring prompted by the pandemic and expectations that automotive demand will not return to 2017 levels until mid-decade.
  • Gap said it will close more than 225 mall-based Gap and Banana Republic stores this year, three times more than previously announced, with more closures expected next year. 
  • Department chain Lord & Taylor is liquidating after nearly 200 years in business; Amazon is converting Lord & Taylor’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York into office space for tech workers.
  • Cosmetics sales are suffering as more people don masks during the prolonged pandemic.
  • Improving ventilation through filtration and increased intake of outdoor air can significantly mitigate the risk of infection in schools and offices.
  • Unilever plans to spend $1.2 billion to eliminate fossil fuels from its cleaning products by 2030, which would reduce the company’s carbon footprint by about 20%. Sales of cleaning products have soared during the pandemic.
  • COVID-19 “long haulers” find themselves in a purgatory of uncertainty as they experience mysterious and sometimes debilitating aftereffects from the virus. 

International

  • China’s economy continued to improve in August, with the Purchasing Managers Index rising to 53.1 from 52.8 in July, the fastest growth in a decade.
  • Brazil officially tipped into recession in the second quarter, reporting a record 9.7% quarter-over-quarter contraction in GDP and an 11.4% drop compared with the prior-year period.
  • Australia’s GDP contracted a larger-than-expected 7% in the second quarter, the largest decline since records began in 1959, officially throwing the country into its first recession in three decades.
  • Europe’s COVID-19 infection rate has risen back to the level in March when the pandemic began to accelerate.
  • Thailand, the first country outside China to suffer a COVID-19 infection, has gone more than 100 days without a local COVID-19 infection amidst growing pressure to reopen its borders to restore tourism, which comprises 20% of the economy. 

Our Operations

  • We will be closed next Monday for the Labor Day holiday.
  • To access 3D Printing training, order parts and seek technical assistance, visit our new online resource.
  • Resource Center: M. Holland offers a host of resources to clients, prospects and suppliers. To arrange a videoconference or meeting, contact:
  • M. Holland’s official status statement is available here.

Thank you,

M. Holland Company

We will provide further COVID-19 bulletins as circumstances dictate. For all COVID-19 updates and notices, please refer to the M. Holland website.

Stay informed with industry trends and insights.

Stay informed with industry trends and insights.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.