Out of Duranium
It´s probably because the conventional start takes so long to get going and by that time you are low on everything.
I Dont even have that many ships, 8 12kton missile cruisers, 6 laser frigates and couple of point defence. I need a stopgap so i can focus on those automines. In hind sight i should have build a lot more mines and construction from the beginning.
I have my fingers crossed for that one little planet that solves all my problems, unfortunately i ran into some nasty aliens with speeds exceeding 10000 km/s while I´m only just researching Ion engines. Still it will be fun to try and get myself out of this mess.