Why skippers aren’t scuppered

MUCH OF THE time most people do not think about the complex choreography that makes modern shopping possible. You just click and wait—and not too long, mind—for a package or three to arrive on your doorstep. Over the past few months, however, the world’s supply chains have elbowed their way into the foreground, as surging demand for goods and supply disruptions have restricted the flow of trade. At ports around the world, dozens of ships stacked high with containers wait at anchor for their turn to unload, while the cost to ship a box from China to America’s west coast has jumped roughly tenfold from the pre-pandemic level.

You may think the snafus represent the beginning of the end of globalisation. Consumers are learning how infections half a world away or a ship stuck in the Suez Canal can disrupt the near-instant access to goods they take for granted. Manufacturers are discovering that lean supply chains can mean inadequate access to essential components as well as low costs. The disruptions are one reason inflation is high in America, Britain and elsewhere. But amid the logistics blues, markets are working as they tend to do, and firms are finding routes around blockages. Under intense pressure, global supply chains are not in fact failing; they are, rather, adapting.