Hopefully some shipping will be freed up soon. SYR's problem isn't demand so this may in fact help increase orders. While global vehicle sales may be down, demand for fully electric vehicles isn't.

The Chinese need to restock their inventories while others may have been hesitant to place orders knowing the shipping delays. With the lack of supply of natural graphite, anode manufacturers may have been using more synthetic to plug the supply shortage. With consumer demand weakening, vehicle manufactures will be desperate to get the cost of the vehicles down by using more natural graphite. They have invested too much money in new battery and EV manufacturing plants.

Supply chains inching back to normal brace for headwinds of softer demand

Citi cautioned against declaring an 'all clear' on the supply front

Supply strains, while still afflicting many consumers and businesses, are becoming more mundane than menacing like they were six months ago, especially in the US. Snarls have eased back from their pandemic peaks and some are already adding less inflationary pressure. Modest improvements are showing up in gauges maintained by forecasters ranging from Bloomberg Economics to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. But the gradual end of the pandemic-driven supply crunch might give way to another potential headache: a slump in consumer demand that throws economic growth into reverse and leads to an ugly inventory pileup.

“Pressures in the global goods sectors, which have been a central driver of inflation, may finally be easing,” Citi economists led by Nathan Sheets wrote in a research note this month. “The bad news is that this looks to be occurring on the back of a slowing in the global consumer’s demand for goods, especially discretionary goods, and thus may also signal rising recession risks.”

Citi cautioned against declaring an “all clear” on the supply front.

Controlling some levers of economic activity is the Federal Reserve, which is set to raise interest rates later this month to try to curb surging inflation. According to its most recent regional survey, businesses are dealing with plenty of supply problems but they seem to be fading in severity.

Another indicator of emerging supply slack: Ocean freight rates have continued their decline from record highs. And the fact that it’s happening during what’s usually peak season for global shipping leads some observers to conclude that a market that lacked any excess capacity just a few months ago is rapidly swinging back.