For the brewing industry, the tightening in the CO2 market isn’t a new or sudden thing. It’s been an issue for at least two years—one supply-chain problem among many—as suppliers in different parts of the country sometimes come up short.
However, the situation has more recently become “critical in several areas,” in the words of the Brewers Association. It cites a handful of coincident causes:
- maintenance shutdowns at several ammonia plants that are major CO2 suppliers
- contamination at Mississippi’s Jackson Dome, an important natural source of CO2
- shortages of truck drivers
- peak summer demand
Even if demand wanes as the weather cools, additional plant closings and maintenance will constrain CO2 supply in the next couple of months, according to the industry publication Gasworld. The Compressed Gas Association, meanwhile, says that it doesn’t expect any relief until October or later.