Truckers’ Protests Are Putting the Squeeze on Car Makers – The New York Times
Forbes was founded in 1917. Binance was founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao, known to his 5 million Twitter followers as C.Z., who landed on the cover of Forbes magazine within a year of starting the company. (Last year, Binance dropped a defamation lawsuit it had filed against Forbes over an article about the exchange’s structure.)
Zhao spoke to DealBook about the investment in Forbes. The interview has been edited and condensed.
How did this begin?
How the Supply Chain Crisis Unfolded
Card 1 of 9
The pandemic sparked the problem. The highly intricate and interconnected global supply chain is in upheaval. Much of the crisis can be traced to the outbreak of Covid-19, which triggered an economic slowdown, mass layoffs and a halt to production. Here’s what happened next:
A reduction in shipping. With fewer goods being made and fewer people with paychecks to spend at the start of the pandemic, manufacturers and shipping companies assumed that demand would drop sharply. But that proved to be a mistake, as demand for some items would surge.
Demand for protective gear spiked. In early 2020, the entire planet suddenly needed surgical masks and gowns. Most of these goods were made in China. As Chinese factories ramped up production, cargo vessels began delivering gear around the globe.
Then, a shipping container shortage. Shipping containers piled up in many parts of the world after they were emptied. The result was a shortage of containers in the one country that needed them the most: China, where factories would begin pumping out goods in record volumes
Demand for durable goods increased. The pandemic shifted Americans’ spending from eating out and attending events to office furniture, electronics and kitchen appliances – mostly purchased online. The spending was also encouraged by government stimulus programs.
Strained supply chains. Factory goods swiftly overwhelmed U.S. ports. Swelling orders further outstripped the availability of shipping containers, and the cost of shipping a container from Shanghai to Los Angeles skyrocketed tenfold.
We have a separate M.&A. team and I don’t really get very involved there because looking at deals takes a lot of time. So they go and find deals everywhere, and then one day — maybe two or three months ago — one of the guys says, “Hey, you know, do we want to invest in a media company?”
Why do it?
We don’t want to run a news company. But the angle was, “How do we help traditional businesses come into crypto faster so we can speed up the adoption of crypto?” By investing in traditional businesses and helping them to integrate with crypto, it’s an interesting play for us.
How so?
…….
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/11/business/dealbook/truckers-protests-cars.html