Paul Berger of The Wall Street Journal is reporting that companies looking to establish resilience in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic are already putting rebuilt sourcing and logistics strategies to work thanks to geopolitical tensions and disruptions. He writes:
Companies that assembled new supply chain strategies in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic are having to put those plans into practice far faster than they may have thought possible.
Global supply chains are entering 2024 roiled by disruptions at two of the world’s crucial trade corridors—the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal—even as geopolitical tensions appear set to take a more prominent role in sourcing and distribution. That could potentially force countries and companies to redraw trade maps that have been built over decades.
At the same time, startups and longstanding businesses are establishing the new supply chains behind clean energy, including the operations backing an automotive sector that is a foundation of manufacturing logistics networks. […]
That also puts flexibility at the top of logistics providers’ strategic plans for 2024.
NFI Industries recently poured significant investment into freight-handling sites near the ports at Norfolk, Va., Savannah, Ga. and Houston. But now, “We’re hitting pause on anything further,” said NFI’s Brown. “We are just going to try to figure out with all these uncertainties out there what the long-term implications are going to be.”
Read more here.