Spike in Maritime Shipping Rates Is No Pandemic Flashback
A recent bout of port congestion and surge in container prices stems from the disruption of the Suez Canal and should be countered by ample capacity.
The problems this time are on the sea, not on the ground.
Photographer: Aparna Nori/Bloomberg
Like a bad nightmare, some of the same dreaded supply-chain terminology heard during the pandemic is being bandied about again — congestion, delays, disruption, rerouting, rate spikes — resurrecting haunting memories of Covid-era logistics when goods got stuck at ports and soaring transportation costs became an early accelerant for inflation.
Even though some of the descriptions are the same, this recent bout of congestion and surge in container prices is much different from the snags during the pandemic. Starting in mid-2020, ground transportation was overwhelmed by the sudden surge of goods and the difficulty of finding enough workers to run the trains, drive the trucks and unload the boxes at warehouses.