A shortage of semiconductor chips and explosive growth of electric vehicles emerged as arguably the two biggest stories in the global auto industry in 2021. The odds are strong that they will dominate headlines again in 2022.

So, if you wanted to get ahead of the curve and know more about what’s happening, where would you look? Are there particular factories or inventory lots that could reveal major clues? 

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A team from Ursa Space traveled to Las Vegas after Thanksgiving to participate in what is typically one of the largest events in the world, known for bringing together the cloud computing community.

The timing could hardly have been worse for anyone trying to monitor ship congestion at Chinese ports, a topic of critical importance to understanding today’s global economy.

One manifestation of this year’s supply chain chaos has been the record number of ships anchored outside the world’s busiest ports, a function of COVID-related factors leading to increased wait times to load and offload cargoes.

What is the outlook for global carmakers in 2022? To answer this question about where the industry is headed next year first requires an understanding of where things stand today.

Present conditions, as everyone is aware, have been defined by the semiconductor shortage, part of the larger story about supply chain disruptions upending businesses and everyday lives around the world.

ITHACA, NEW YORK (November 12, 2021) - Ursa Space is excited to announce the appointment of industry veteran Morten Hagland Hansen as Vice President of Energy & Maritime.

The newly created sales position underscores Ursa Space’s continued growth and confirms its commitment to the development of satellite-derived data for the commercial sector.

ITHACA, NEW YORK (November 3, 2021) — Ursa Space Systems, a US-based satellite intelligence company, announced today it joined the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network (APN), a global community of businesses using AWS solutions and services.

AWS provides Partners with extensive business, technical and marketing support, and offers assistance on sales opportunities, leveraging a deep bench of current users. More than 90% of Fortune 100 companies are Partner customers.

How do we do it? 

We collect radar satellite imagery of floating-top storage tanks and apply proprietary algorithms to measure volumes. This is the only method we use. We do not estimate inventories based on crude oil flows.

You can read more /blog/an-inside-look-at-sar-based-measurements/">about our techniques and the /blog/faq-what-is-sar/">specific sensor utilized called synthetic aperture radar (SAR).

Why is this important?

In this blog, we examine global crude oil inventories, leveraging Ursa Space’s satellite-derived measurements of storage tanks. 

The three graphs below shed light on the supply-demand balance in the oil market:

1. Global Crude Inventories

Where are global crude inventories in 2021 versus recent historical averages? Is the surplus that formed during 2020 gone?