Starting on Nov. 1, the ports will charge shipping companies that fall into one of two categories: containers scheduled to move by truck and containers moving by rail. In the case of containers scheduled to move by truck, shipping companies will be charged for every container that stays in marine terminals for nine days or longer. For those moving by rail, shipping companies will be charged if the container stays for three days or more. https://www.theepochtimes.com/shipping-companies-at-ports-of-los-angeles-and-long-beach-will-soon-be-fined-for-staying-too-long-in-marine-terminals_4071146.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge

The European Union’s exports may top 11 million tons by the end of this month, according to Nathan Cordier, an analyst at consultant Agritel. That would be 25% more than a year earlier and the most for that time of the season in EU data going back two decades. The strong demand has helped push Paris milling-wheat futures toward a record high. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-26/the-world-is-gobbling-up-european-wheat-like-never-before

The auto industry has faced a global shortage of semiconductor chips since February. The chips are used in many car parts and, without them, production at many GM plants has either slowed or stopped completely, leaving dealers' new car lots bare. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/amid-a-computer-chip-and-car-parts-shortage-gm-third-quarter-profits-plummet-40-25/ar-AAQ1r9E?pfr=1

The European Central Bank (ECB) has announced the new members of the Market Advisory Group for the forthcoming digital euro project. It will include advising the Eurosystem on the design and distribution of a potential Eurozone’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) ‘from an industry perspective’ https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/ecb-appoints-30-members-for-the-digital-euro-market-advisory-group/

Hackers have stolen about $130 million worth of cryptocurrency assets from Cream Finance, by exploiting a bug in their flash loaning system to siphon away all Ethereum-based tokens on the platform. This is Cream Finance’s third hack this year alone. The decentralized finance (DeFi) platform allows users to loan and speculate on cryptocurrency price variations. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/another-crypto-marketplace-has-been-hit-by-a-major-cyberattack/ar-AAQ3zNe?pfr=1

European corn farmers are facing the prospect of having to leave crops in fields because of the energy crunch. The grain typically needs to be dried down after it’s collected to ensure the proper moisture content, a task that’s becoming more costly as gas prices surge. Most of the region’s harvest is collected through November. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-27/gas-suppliers-tell-french-corn-farmers-to-leave-crop-in-field

China has dramatically ramped up coal imports from Russia to compensate for shortages caused by the ongoing trade row with Australia, once the country’s biggest coal supplier. According to customs data, China’s coal imports surged 76% in September compared to the same period a year ago, and totaled 32.9 million tons. Much of the coal came from Russia and Indonesia. https://www.rt.com/business/538672-china-triples-coal-purchases-russia/?fbclid=IwAR3riDZD_FW9Z8wy34bDf-_U7BeOVR-Mm9J8zAEKYMS14RNahQt3QGOECJg

A jump in the number of people in China infected with bird flu this year is raising concern among experts, who say a previously circulating strain appears to have changed and may be more infectious to people.
China has reported 22 human infections with the H5N6 subtype of avian influenza in 2021 to the World Health Organization (WHO), compared with only five last year https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/china-reports-22-humans-infected-with-h5n6-avian-influenza-683363

Australia- Vegetable growers north of Adelaide are counting the cost after hail yesterday damaged glasshouses and ruined their crops. Hail hit Adelaide, the Barossa Valley and the northern Adelaide Hills. "We would anticipate it could be up to a 70 per cent loss; however, once a few days go by we'll be able to ascertain what can still be picked and sent to market https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-29/sa-vegetable-growers-count-cost-of-hailstorm/100579320

A cyberattack on Papua New Guinea’s finance ministry briefly disrupted government payments and operations, officials. Ransomware infiltrated and compromised a core server at the department of finance last week, hampering the government’s access to foreign aid, its ability to pay cheques and carry out other basic functions. https://www.samaa.tv/technology/2021/10/ransomware-attack-hits-papua-new-guineas-access-to-foreign-aid/

U.S. wheat futures edged higher Friday to linger near a near 9-high high as concerns about global supplies pushed the grain towards monthly gains of 7%. The fifth monthly gain and the biggest four-week rally since April. https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/grains-wheat-lingers-near-2013-high-set-for-monthly-gain-of-7-2021-10-29

US- Top shipping officials this week said that a Biden administration-backed plan to issue emergency fees for containers lingering too long won’t work and will lead to chaos. Two days later, the officials who attended a meeting of the National Shippers Advisory Council (NSAC)—comprised of 12 importers and 12 exporters including Walmart, Amazon, and Home Depot—said the port fees are “crazy” and “catastrophic.” https://www.theepochtimes.com/shipping-companies-fear-catastrophic-supply-chain-fallout-over-new-california-port-fees_4074782.html

Iran’s subsidized fuel distribution system was partially restored Friday, though a majority of services remained grounded, three days after an unprecedented cyberattack by unknown perpetrators. Among 4,300 fuel stations across the country, “at present, 1,450 are connected to the central fuel distribution system. https://www.timesofisrael.com/most-iran-gas-stations-still-offline-three-days-after-cyberattack/

Fertilizer in Europe is poised to get even pricier, adding to concerns that bigger production costs for food could add to inflation. A gauge of western European prices for ammonia, used to make nitrogen fertilizer, surged to a 13-year high to $910 a metric ton. Europe has been hard hit by the natural gas crunch, which has forced a number of nitrogen-fertilizer plants to halt or curtail production. https://www.bloombergquint.com/onweb/european-fertilizer-prices-set-to-surge-amid-energy-squeeze

Banque de France is about to complete a 10-month central bank digital currency (CBDC) testing experiment for its government bond deals with over 500 participating institutions. During the experiment, the participants were made to trade some security tokens and government bonds was via a CBDC, which the French central bank supplied. https://www.econotimes.com/Stiglitz-urges-S-Korean-regulators-to-shut-down-cryptocurrencies-1620259

Hackers have targeted a section of the computer system at the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and caused disruption which may result in payment delays for thousands of public sector employees. The hackers failed to gain access to the NBP’s main servers, though they did take control of some of the computers running Microsoft’s software. https://www.samaa.tv/news/2021/10/cyberattack-targets-national-bank-of-pakistan-causes-nationwide-disruption/

North Africa, one of the world’s biggest grain importers, is increasingly feeling the impact of higher food costs on grocery bills. Egypt is hiking subsidised vegetable oil prices by almost 20%, and reiterated that higher bread costs are coming. Tunisia doesn’t expect any relief in prices of the wheat it imports to make semolina and pasta until next year’s harvest. And Algeria blamed global markets for more expensive food at home, vowing to boost its grains harvest in the next three years to become less dependent on imports. https://www.gulf-times.com/story/703469/Food-security-alarm-bells-ring-in-North-Africa

Sri Lanka’s inflation in the 12-months to October 2021 surged to 7.8 percent, the highest since October 2017, The Colombo Consumer Price Index jumped 1.9 percent in October to 146.9 points, with some foods which were kept under price controls understating inflation in prior months were officially allowed to go up. Food prices rose 2.8 percent in the month and were up 12.8 percent over the past 12 months.
Food prices have risen 24.1 percent over two years amid local and Fed money printing. https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-inflation-soars-to-4-year-high-in-october-2021-food-up-24-pct-over-2-years-87423/

The idea that supply chain problems are “driving inflation” gets the causation backward. It’s money supply inflation that’s causing much of the supply chain's problems. Not the other way around. After all, as of September 2021, M2 has increased from $15.2 trillion to $20.9 trillion since February 2020. That’s an increase of 35 percent. https://mises.org/wire/feds-inflation-behind-supply-chain-mess

What is going to compel the shippers and carriers to invest in the needed infrastructure? The owners of these companies can theoretically not change anything and their business will still be at full capacity because of the backlog of containers. The backlog of containers doesn’t hurt them. It hurts anyone paying shipping costs — that is, manufacturers selling products and consumers buying products. But it doesn’t hurt the owners of the transportation business — in fact the laws of supply and demand mean that they are actually going to make more money through higher rates, without changing a thing. https://medium.com/@ryan79z28/im-a-twenty-year-truck-driver-i-will-tell-you-why-america-s-shipping-crisis-will-not-end-bbe0ebac6a91

The Black Shadow hacking group, in recent days has been leaking personal information from Israeli websites. The suspected Iran-linked group’s main Telegram channel for communicating messages, as well as a separate channel for releasing data, were both removed on Sunday afternoon, just hours after it had demanded a new ransom payment of $1 million in digital currency to stop the leak. https://www.timesofisrael.com/suspected-iran-linked-hackers-telegram-account-blocked-after-ransom-demand/