Tag: Recent
How Remote Managed IT Services Can Help You Build a Scalable Business
Remote-managed IT services are becoming a necessity rather than a luxury. The reason is that the competition in the industry has gone up in recent years due to the increase in warehouses leveraging technology in their operations. However, the technology needs to be managed in an effective and cost-efficient way. This is where remote-managed IT service come in. This service can help you handle and utilize technology effectively to build a scalable business and eventually cater to a significant market portion.
Penske Launches Offensive to Battle Catalytic Converter Theft
Catalytic converter theft has skyrocketed in recent months as organized groups of thieves continue to illegally cut these devices out of cars, SUVs, and rental trucks at an increasingly alarming rate.
While this has been an ongoing issue for several years, thefts have increased exponentially throughout the recent pandemic period.
Penske's corporate security team is now spearheading a significant outreach program to law enforcement at the city, state and federal levels and cooperating with various catalytic converter theft task forces in hotspots around the country.
"We're also undertaking an aggressive effort to use a new etching technology and exploring other methods to better track stolen catalytic converters within our expansive fleet of trucks," said Scott Brunner, vice president of Security at Penske Transportation Solutions.
Catalytic Converter Thefts by the Numbers
Catalytic converters are emission control devices used on vehicles including Penske's rental trucks that help reduce air pollution.
Thieves are stealing these devices because they often contain high-value metals such as rhodium, platinum and palladium. Once removed and stolen, these devices are then sold by thieves to metal recycling and scrap yards netting the thieves a hefty payday.
"Catalytic converter theft is an increasing problem for consumers and businesses," Brunner said. "It's not a victimless crime. The theft of these devices can cause customers great inconvenience, disables vehicles for repairs, and drives up costs for consumers."
A recent State Farm report examined catalytic converter theft claims from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, and found thefts grew nearly 293% nationwide, representing more than 18,000 instances.
Compared with the same time period just a year earlier, theft reports from the last half of 2019 to the first half of 2020 numbered just above 4,500.
State Farm reported the total paid to customers during the most recent 12-month period was more than $33.7 million. In the previous 12-month period it was slightly below $9 million.
When it comes to claims, California leads the way with more than 3 out of 10 claims being filed in the state. Texas is second, with roughly 1 out of 10 claims, followed by Minnesota, Washington and Illinois, according to State Farm's examination of data from the first half of 2021.
While the value of metals contained in catalytic converters is a driver of the increase in thefts, the National Insurance Crime Bureau linked the thefts to the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We have seen a significant increase during the pandemic. It's an opportunistic crime. As the value of the precious metals contained within the catalytic converters continues to increase, so do the number of thefts of these devices," said David Glawe. NICB president and CEO. "There is a clear connection between times of crisis, limited resources, and disruption of the supply chain that drives investors towards these precious metals."
As of the end of February 2021, 18 states – Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia – are evaluating potential legislative actions to curb the theft problem, according to the NICB.
Protecting Your Fleet
Penske Truck Leasing recommends all fleet operators take note of this trend and to take protective measures including:
- Properly secure vehicles
- Park in well-lit areas
- Use perimeter fencing when vehicles are domiciled overnight
- Invest in parking lot video surveillance
- Train drivers to look for signs related to theft or tampering during their pre-trip and post-trip vehicle inspections
- Inspect the catalytic converter area often
- Report catalytic converter theft to law enforcement immediately
By "Move Ahead" Staff
RedKite to launch revolutionary NFT marketplace
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have been around for some time now. However, following a few big press stories earlier this year, one being digital artist Beeple selling an NFT for $69 million, it's only in recent months that we've seen some big players in the art world, such as Damien Hirst and Sotheby's auction house, join in the NFT party.
Currently, most websites presenting NFTs in the form of visual artworks allow artists to upload their own digital files, GIFs, photos or animations and present them for sale for users to buy with cryptocurrency. However, with so many artists creating digital artwork, the whole space has become cluttered, and even some of the leading NFT websites such as Nifty Gateway still have thousands of works in their marketplace, many by predominantly unknown artists.
This is where RedKite comes in to cut the noise. With a founding team built heavily of contemporary art professionals - one being renowned street artist and pioneer in the exploration of graffiti letter forms Ben Eine - the RedKite platform is fully curated, with a focus on artists who already have a big following and are widely collected in the physical art world. The team's deep ties to current practicing artists and their ability to bring in valuable contemporary names creates a one stop shop for premium digital art collecting.
“In 2001, [American art dealer and curator] Jeffrey Deitch said the Street Art Movement was the biggest art movement in the world. I agreed with him at the time. We're now in 2021 and although it blows my mind, I believe digital art is the future. RedKite's set up, where artists get to create physical pieces that relate to the digital works, makes more sense to me.” Ben Eine, street artist
With all of the artwork on the platform being carefully selected by RedKite's in-house curatorial team, who between them have many years experience in running galleries, publishing limited editioned art and shaping artists' careers, a close partnership that helps facilitate this lies with Ourtypes, an international art studio managing some of the most leading street artists and graffiti writers in the world.
Ourtypes' impressive projects include a mural on the London Eye and the production of one of the largest paintings ever created in partnership with Zippo. The cumulative following of Ourtypes and its artists currently sits at around 3 million and the volume of interest in the group is expected to significantly grow as their artists gain further exposure and continue to create ground-breaking work.
As an active studio that's constantly working on new projects and embracing new technology, Ourtypes like the concept of the NFT space, and many of their artists, including Eine, whose work was once gifted to President Obama by UK Prime Minister David Cameron, have been dipping their toes in the digital medium for some time, but it wasn't until they spoke to RedKite that it the idea resonated.
Juan Topping of Ourtypes said: “We'd been approached by a lot of NFT spaces in the past, with everyone wanting to work with our artists, however, it wasn't until we heard about RedKite's idea of the artists producing physical works to create asset backed NFTs that it all seemed to make sense”.
Cementing this new relationship, Eine and other artists from the Ourtypes family are likely to be the first in line for RedKite's debut NFT drops, paving the way for other leading artists to jump on board.
On top of all this RedKite is looking to utilise some of the best tech in the space as well as bringing innovative solutions to the table. They will also be introducing some of the first asset-backed NFTs into the space. This means that each NFT bought and sold is associated with an original piece of work, such as a painting, that physically exists and will be publicly exhibited. By doing this, not only does a collector get to own part of a piece of art that exists in the real world, but it also means the value of the associated NFTs will not fall below a certain point. This is, due to them representing a fraction of a physical artwork that will hold its value or, more likely, increase in value as time goes on.
Environmental issues are often addressed when talking about NFTs and RedKite takes this seriously, offering carbon-neutral transactions. They aim to make this possible by offsetting their energy usage that is used on the Layer 2 of the Ethereum Network that they run on.
With this new platform, Redkite is looking to continue the development of the growing contemporary art market by bringing art collecting into the current digital climate.
Powered by blockchain technology to break down ownership of high-value pieces, their aim is to ultimately increase accessibility and utility for all.
Alongside the platform, RedKite will also be launching the KITE token, with its main utility deriving from running a Collectors Club. Avid investors can sign up to find out more information about how a public sale will be run via the RedKite website, Twitter and Telegram. Those that want premium NFTs can expect first drops to happen in December, with visual content appearing via instagram.
RedKite will be running a competition in order to excite and strengthen the community. Prices will include an original work of art by Ben Eine, five prints provided by Ourtypes, NFTs and Token Prizes. In order to find out more head over to the RedKite website and subscribe.
If you wish to learn more about the team's extensive background and technicalities of the project visit RedKite and read through their whitepaper.
Links:
https://twitter.com/RedKiteNFT
https://www.instagram.com/redkitenft/
Magnesium shortage in context: A real threat or just a price spike?
(This is an executive summary. The full report can be found on AutoTechInsight. See links below.)
As the automotive sector struggles to sustain production in light of semiconductor shortages, new concerns emerge around the stability of the supply for magnesium, which is key to aluminum production and is heavily sourced from Mainland China. The price of the raw material has recorded a three-fold increase when compared to pre-pandemic levels, further corroborating shortage concerns in the industry.
The issue has been raised at the governmental level at a recent EU Council held one week ago as it could have "far-reaching ramifications on entire European Union value chains". There is little doubt that a prolonged shortage of magnesium could have a devastating impact on vehicle and components production. This article analyzes why this has become an issue and whether it will trickle down to vehicle and component production.
Magnesium in automotive
Magnesium is considered the lightest material among all commonly used ones for structural applications. It is roughly one-third lighter than aluminum. It has also the property of bonding with other elements easily, which makes it difficult to find magnesium in its pure form. Automotive applications of magnesium started from racing cars, adopting the material in some components as early as the 1920s. The adoption of the material in light vehicles started with commercial vehicles.
The majority of this material is produced from natural minerals such as dolomite and magnesite and it is extracted typically through two processes, both needing high energy levels and producing high emissions levels: pidgeon process and electrolysis process (mainly used in the United States), one respectively starting from the dolomite mineral, the latter from magnesium chloride.
It must be noted that the vast majority of automotive applications comes from alloys in which magnesium is present with different levels, mainly aluminum alloys. The following aluminum series commonly used in automotive components are impacted by magnesium or silicon usage (and thus potential shortages): 5xxx, 6xxx, 7xxx, and 3xx.x.
Aluminum alloys are highly recycled within the automotive value chain, so specific attention should be paid to market demand increases for wrought alloys, which burden the minerals supply chain with additional raw materials. For the automotive value chain, an extensive amount of wrought alloy demand comes from aluminum sheets used in body construction.
Is there a shortage?
The origins of the concerns are to be found in Mainland China, which in 2020, accounted for 85% of global output of magnesium metal, in particular in the Shaanxi Province, which accounted for 63.5% of total production output with its 0.61 million metric tons. Magnesium producers in Shaanxi Province are dealing with high coal and electricity prices, and stricter "dual control" of energy consumption.
To further cut 2% of energy consumption in per capita GDP growth in the third quarter, and 3.2% in the whole year 2021, Shaanxi's Yulin city urged industrial facilities, including magnesium plants, which are categorized as high-emission units, to either completely shut down or run at 50% of production capacity in the last two weeks of the third quarter. Most magnesium plants have resumed operations since early October, but they are being asked to run at about 40% of capacity until the end of this calendar year.
This has sparked concerns, particularly in the automotive industry about an imminent shortage of material. John Mothersole, economics director at IHS Markit in the Price and Purchasing division, clarified that there is no certainty about the imminent shortage, but markets are reacting to the scale of production cuts in Mainland China and comparatively low inventory coming into the fall. "The fear that if this lasts for a few months will result into a material shortage is well placed," Mothersole explained.
There are indications that the mandated cuts in production imposed in China may soon be relaxed, perhaps as early as November. Chinese authorities have intervened in both coal and electricity markets in an attempt to alleviate the crisis. If the electricity supply begins to improve, it is likely that those mandated production cuts will be relaxed.
To date, no shortages of aluminum have been reported.
Possible long-term implications
The current energy market within Shaanxi Province and guidance provided by Yulin city officials is the determining factor for both the near-term and long-term direction of the magnesium market. The duration of production limits, as constrained by province-level grid energy demand, will become a key metric to monitor to understand pricing and supply availability of magnesium. Most plants within this province will run at 40% production capacity until the end of 2021.
Beyond the immediate next quarter of magnesium production, energy capacity investments within Shaanxi Province, relaxations in energy cuts, or changes in prioritization of energy restrictions will establish market direction for both the availability of magnesium as well as the cost basis of production. While relaxations in policy may alleviate the supply chain bottleneck of this material, the energy-intensive nature of magnesium production will not be impacted within a mid to long-term period. Substantial research and development is required for any material production to reduce energy requirements. Beyond this, there is not a clear pathway to adjust for the fact that Shaanxi Province is responsible for producing nearly 54% of the global magnesium supply.
In a worst-case scenario, extended production cuts will lead inevitably to a material shortage, as capacity outside of Greater China will not be able to make up for the shortfall in global supply. In this situation, we could see a cascade effect on the aluminum sector, although aluminum prices seem stable so far. IHS Markit, to date, does not have any confirmations about this happening, nor that the aluminum producers are concerned about this magnesium situation.
The automotive industry remains concerned about this situation, with the immediate impact of substantial input cost increases as an ominous signal that shortage is imminent. The next two months will be crucial to understand whether this will result in a journey similar to what was observed with the semiconductor shortage or is an overreaction in the metals market. In the meantime, long-term risks about supply should also be in focus.
A recent study by the US Department of Defense identified magnesium as one of the key strategic minerals for the country. Such over-reliance on China might not bode well in the context of the economic decoupling the United States is pursuing or Europe's "strategic autonomy" policy. In this context, it would be wise for OEMs and suppliers to explore some pathways to alleviate their exposure to magnesium-intensive alloys in the longer run.
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