Localised crises caused by outbreaks of coronavirus (Covid-19) have quickly turned into worldwide problems for networks of supply chains. Like the days of the Y2K bug, the 2010 ash cloud and anxieties around Brexit, a lack of resilience and agility in manufacturing supply chains is being exposed. The road, river and rail blocks in the Hubei exclusion zone in February led to empty shipping containers stacking up in Chinese ports. Given the prevailing flow of supplies, strongly east to west, that means there were sudden shortages of containers in other parts of the globe: products were being made but there was nothing to transport them in. Entire manufacturing operations were being stalled by needing to comply with disinfection regimes. Apple has 290 of its 800 suppliers based in Hubei. The region is also, for example, responsible for 9% of global television set production.
展开▼
