Supplies Continue To Dwindle.

With all the money pouring into the commodity markets, you'd think supplies would be ramping up. But nope: Supplies of virtually every natural resource under the sun are dwindling.

Some recent evidence ...

The global platinum market ended 2007 in a deficit of 480,000 ounces, with demand of 7.03 million ounces surpassing supply of 6.55 million ounces.


According to the World Gold Council, in 2007 gold supply decreased 3% to 3,469 metric tonnes. Of that, mine supply decreased 3% to 2,047 metric tonnes.


The International Energy Agency is now (finally) concerned that future crude supplies could be far tighter than previously thought. Previously the agency has predicted that crude supplies will arc to keep pace with rising demand, topping 116 million barrels a day by 2030. But now the group worries that aging oil fields and diminished investment may leave oil companies struggling to produce even 100 million barrels a day for the next two decades.


Copper: New 2008 supply will only feed an additional 2.3% into the market. Furthermore, stockpiles of copper monitored by the LME have dipped by more than a third since the beginning of the year.


Global grain reserves are "precarious" at only 1.7 months of consumption. Wheat inventories, for example, have reached a 30-year low. For rice, global ending stocks finished in December 2007 at 72 million tonnes, an all-time low.