Cars are scarce, pipeline restarts

By The Associated Press

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As chip shortage goes on, cars are scarce and prices are up

DETROIT (AP) _ Automakers are cutting production as they grapple with a global shortage of computer chips, and that’s making dealers nervous. With sales at a brisk pace despite high prices, and inventories shrinking, many fear they’ll run out of new vehicles to sell this summer. They’re buying up used cars with hopes of selling them to make money until production returns to normal. But no one is sure when that’s going to happen. Ford has warned that it expects to make only half the normal number of vehicles from now through June. General Motors and others have stopped making some smaller cars and SUVs and diverted chips to higher-profit pickup trucks and big SUVs.

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Colonial Pipeline restarts operations days after major hack

CLEMMONS, N.C. (AP) _ The nation’s largest fuel pipeline restarted operations Wednesday, days after it was forced to shut down by a gang of hackers. The disruption caused long lines at gas stations in the Southeast due to distribution problems and panic-buying, draining supplies at thousands of gas stations. Colonial said all lines, including those lateral lines that have been running manually, will return to normal operations. But it will take several days for deliveries to return to normal, the company said. In the meantime, drivers have been finding gas stations with little or no gas in some Southeast states.