4


UNPRECEDENTED CHALLENGES


GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN RESILIENCE … BUILDING BACK OR AT BREAKING POINT?


It seems the entire world is talking about supply chain resilience.


From the President of the United States and Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to the CEOs of global brands, union leaders, port workers and truck drivers, the common themes are largely two- fold; continued disruption and the need for change.


All over the world, national and business media schedules and pages are devoting vast amounts of airtime and column inches to the pressure facing global supply chains, the reliance of national economies, companies and consumers on the cross-border flows of goods and materials, and how we’ve come to find ourselves in this situation in the first place.


It’s easy to place all the blame at the door of Covid, and it’s certainly the biggest overall contributor to the current supply chain woes.


But, not far behind, is the growing realisation of the consequences of a lack of investment in key infrastructure, more than a little complacency over the sustainability of supply, and the constant pressure to get more, and do more, for less.


You cannot, for example, wave the Covid pandemic flag as the cause of driver shortages and, if you were to try to do so, the pandemic in question would more realistically be SARS in 2003, given that the drivers shortages of today date back a good 10, 15 or more years, according to some industry observers.


It’s about to get worse


If you rely on supply chains – and, frankly, who doesn’t? - the media headlines are more concerning today than at any time in most of our careers. ‘Supply chain chaos is already hitting global growth. And it’s about to get worse,’ headlined CNBC. More optimistically,


the WTO’s Director-General Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala forecast the present disruption could last ’several months.’ Those on the frontlines of supply chains might easily interpret ‘several’ as ‘at least 12 and possible 24 months,’ based on no further deterioration from where we are today.


With so much international focus, including at the very highest levels of governments, improvements may come faster than they would otherwise. More and more governments are listening to industry experts and, more importantly, basing decisions on their recommendations. But, there’s no quick fix.


Media reports are seeing the broader picture, talking of everything from the impact of Covid infections on port closures, floods, shipping container shortages, China’s energy challenge and subsequent factory closures as well as energy shortages in Europe, lower airfreight capacity due to the slow return of passenger


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20