Article; The Global Supply Chain Pressure Index and the “Smooth Lines” Fallacy https://liquidtime.substack.com/p/the-global-supply-chain-pressure?utm_source=substack&publication_id=537128&post_id=146544135
Variations of the sentence “the pandemic and the blockage of the Suez canal by the Ever Given brought the world’s supply chains to light” are, generally, annoying, although there is admittedly some truth to them. Shipping was not particularly on the news agenda several years ago. Running a search for news articles in 2019 that contain the phrase “Global Shipping” pulls up 1830 results. Running the same search for subsequent years sees that figure more than double 4800 in 2021, and rise to 5260 for 2023. In the last few years, Bloomberg have hired dedicated logistics reporters, and other news outlets are starting to consider supply chains as its own beat rather than just a dull branch of business news.
Report; A Metric of Global Maritime Supply Chain Disruptions https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099746107032431443/pdf/IDU19447dab513757140b1193cd19643f0ab7c10.pdf
In recent years, containerized trade, the backbone of global value chains, has experienced unprecedented disruptions. For instance, the COVID-19 pandemic created unforeseen consequences in a far-ranging array of sectors on a global scale, triggering an unprecedented supply chain crisis from late 2020 to mid-2022. Surging trade demand surpassed shipping capacity, itself affected by massive operational disruptions in key ports. In 2023, there were two events of global relevance. First, a severe drought affected the operation of the locks in the Panama Canal, resulting in a reduction in throughput and restricting the size of vessels able to transit the canal. Later in the year, militant groups carried out attacks in the Red Sea, forcing shipping lines to reroute ships servicing the Asia-Europe and Asia-US East Coast trade routes through the Cape of Good Hope.