But a supply crunch of the kind that sporadically hits the oil market seems unlikely in uranium.

But there is a supply crunch looming.

Government and auto industry efforts to promote the fuel have increased demand for E85 ethanol, helping create a supply crunch at refineries.

It's to mitigate a temporary supply crunch created by the President's decision, unquestionably correct, to organize a worldwide embargo.

"We avoided a supply crunch because the recession and one of the warmest winters in recent history combined to keep demand in check."

Toyota's car production in Japan plummeted by a staggering two-thirds in March due to a parts supply crunch following the country's earthquake and tsunami.

That's because of a supply crunch in the commodity it produces - and its 50pc expansion projects will be completed later this year, probably in the third quarter.

Although the plants will ease the city's short-term supply crunch, they put the state in competition with privately owned generators, which may be discouraged from building other new plants.

We haven't had an oil supply crunch (so far) because industry has expanded the supply of liquid fuels from unconventional sources such as tar sands, biofuels, and natural gas liquids.

In the wake of a supply crunch last year, federal health officials had told doctors that through this past Sunday they were to vaccinate only the elderly, the very young, the sick and health care providers.

That could potentially end the supply crunch in California, but would require the state to take the politically poisonous step of raising the cap on electricity costs and making consumers pay tens of billions of dollars more in coming years for pricier power.