Michael Janda

They've got a 10-point plan that governments can implement, and some governments overseas already are.

Things like...

increased work from home, potentially some degree of rationing if it gets worse.

And it was interesting hearing Chris Bowen out over the weekend acknowledging that now some scheduled fuel shipments from those refineries in Asia that were supposed to come into Australia between mid-April and mid-May have been cancelled or deferred.

So far, only six out of 81, but we're still quite a way off that period and it could get worse.

refiners and fuel distributors are finding alternative sources.

We've just had the first shipment ordered from the US, I believe, in more than two years.

So we're starting to get fuel.

But that comes with increased cost because that's got to go from the Gulf of Mexico through the Panama Canal

across the whole pacific ocean to the fuel depots in australia so increased shipping cost higher base prices for the crude oil so it is going to feed through even if we don't have actual shortages if we avoid shortages it may just be because australians can afford to pay more than people in say south asia such as bangladesh where already things are being cut back and there is rationing going on

and other parts of South Asia where consumers just can't afford $3 plus per litre of fuel.

And we've already seen a number of companies declare force majeure on this, which means they can break their existing contracts.

And in many cases, it's to put through higher prices.

In some cases, it's just because they can't deliver what was originally promised.

Pretty much all major contracts have that clause.

And this is definitely an event outside of their control.

So they're triggering these clauses.

Prices will go up.

They're already going up.

My colleague Amelia Terzon from the business reporting team has just done a story today on building costs.