Global Supply Chains Buckle As Disasters And Covid Strike
A new worldwide wave of COVID-19, natural disasters in China and Germany and a cyberattack targeting key South African ports have conspired to drive global supply chains towards breaking point.
Economists and shipping specialists say these combined events are threatening the fragile flow of raw materials, parts and consumer goods.
Deadly floods in economic giants China and Germany have further ruptured global supply lines that had yet to recover from the first wave of the pandemic, compromising trillions of dollars of economic activity that rely on them.
In Europe the volume of late shipments rose by 15 percent from the week before, according to data from supply-chain tracking platform FourKites.