Global supply chains came under severe strain during the Covid-19 pandemic. Which locations and companies will benefit from the disruption, and which ones will lose out?
Global supply chains have been in a state of disruption for the past few years due to a combination of rising trade tensions and the impacts of Covid-19.
Of this double whammy, Damien Bruckard, deputy director of trade and investment at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, says: “The collapse and subsequent surge in consumer demand during the pandemic has led to significant shortages of manufacturing components, order backlogs, delivery delays and a spike in transportation costs and consumer prices.”
As supply chains move past the immediate impacts of the pandemic, Band-Aid solutions such as chartering private container ships and stockpiling are being replaced by restructured supply chains that put the emphasis on security rather than fiscal savings. The allure of low-cost labour is being outshone by the desire to have resilient and robust supply chains that can respond to crisis with more agility.
As the dust continues to settle on the Covid crisis and companies and countries action ever-evolving strategies, Investment Monitor investigates who the winners and losers will be within the world of supply chains in 2022.
Further crediting Statista's findings, GlobalData's Supply Chain Vulnerability Index reveals that the US and the UK are in first and second position for supply chain vulnerability. Australia, France, and the Russian federation all follow respectively. The index found Germany to be the least vulnerable, with China, Korea, Ireland and the Netherlands following in the top five spaces, indicating that their supply chains remain fairly secure.
So if global supply chains are still in a state of disruption as 2022 begins, how can supply chain winners and losers be defined?
