https://arab.news/jvsuk
Five years ago, a major maritime route was blocked and trade was obstructed. The news cycle is too swift for most of us to remember it. Yet, from March 23 to March 29, 2021, the Ever Given cargo ship obstructed the Suez Canal. While this only lasted a little over six days, it created a blockage in global supply chains that had tremendous economic consequences.
Lloyd’s List estimated at the time that the value of goods delayed each hour was $400 million, meaning that the obstruction disrupted $9.6 billion of goods daily. Ferdinand de Lesseps’ achievement of developing the Suez Canal was rendered useless, with ships forced to take the much longer and more costly route around the Cape of Good Hope, adding about 10 to 14 days to their journey and costing millions of dollars in extra fuel.
Just a year earlier, another major event caused a huge disruption to global supply chains: the COVID-19 pandemic. In hindsight, this was the first crisis to show how vulnerable every country has become in our globalized world. Nations’ dependency on resources, manufactured goods and essential products such as pharmaceuticals and even food were highlighted.
COVID-19 was the first crisis to show how vulnerable every country has become in our globalized world
