Its both things to be perfectly honest. Last Time there was a ram bubble. A bunch of companies all went belly up because they ramped up production too high to meet demand. Got caught left hold in the bag. It's why this so few companies now and why they can do the cartel nonsense.

And well, yes, they're very clearly doing cartel nonsense yet again. They also aren't entirely wrong in their reasoning. They're just going about it in a really s***** manner.

Cuz if they did ramp up production and then the bubble pops and the left holding the bag and one of them goes belly up then we're all f***** even more. Prices will then actually legitimately just go up even more. Which would just f*** everyone even more.

History has proven that ramping up production to meet a bubble is a stupid business decision. It also hurts your customer and hurts your profits in the short to medium term.

So you have a logical historical reason. A logical current business reason and illegal cartel nonsense.

There's just no reason to ramp up production. It just doesn't make sense on any front. It's basically purely knee-jerk reaction.