Article; Navigating the Dry Waters of the Panama Canal
https://industrytoday.com/navigating-the-dry-waters-of-the-panama-canal/
The Panama Canal, an essential artery of global trade connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, is currently grappling with a severe drought. Water levels continue to decrease, raising concerns about the potential impact on supply chains and peak season shipping. Rainfall was less than 50% of normal from February to April near the canal and the lakes that feed it, according to ACP (Autoridad del Canal de Panamá). Water levels in the larger of the two lakes that feed the canal, Lake Gatun, are projected to hit historic lows in July.

From the White House: Building resilient supply chains
https://whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/100-day-supply-chain-review-report.pdf


More secure and resilient supply chains are essential for our national security, our economic security, and our technological leadership.
National security experts, including the Department of Defense, have consistently argued that the nation’s underlying commercial industrial foundations are central to our security. Reports from both Republican and Democratic administrations have raised concerns about the defense industry’s reliance on limited domestic suppliers; a global supply chain vulnerable to disruption; and competitor country suppliers. Innovations essential to military preparedness—like highly specialized lithium-ion batteries—require an ecosystem of innovation, skills, and production facilities that the United States currently lacks. The disappearance of domestic production of essential antibiotics impairs our ability to counter threats ranging from pandemics to bio-terrorism, as emphasized by the FDA’s analysis of supply chains for active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Our economic security—steady employment and smooth operations of critical industries—also requires secure and resilient supply chains. For more than a decade, the Department of Defense has consistently found that essential civilian industries would bear the preponderance of harm from a disruption of strategic and critical materials supply. The Department of Energy notes that, today, China refines 60 percent of the world’s lithium and 80 percent of the world’s cobalt, two core inputs to high-capacity batteries—which presents a critical vulnerability to the future of the U.S. domestic auto ind