Looking back, 2021 will be remembered as the year of COVID-19-driven supply chain congestion, but it can also be seen as the year when US supply chains proved their resilience.
There is no doubting the frustrations and business dislocations caused by COVID-19-related operational disruptions and the sustained surge in US consumer demand. But these dislocations have occurred at a time when the international ocean supply chain has successfully delivered not just the usual volumes but a 32 percent increase in the number of containers handled in North America, according to Drewry’s 3Q 2021 Container Forecaster report. Global container volumes in 2021 are projected to rise more than 8 percent from 2020, according to the maritime analyst.
Despite all the problems, cargo is moving.
The congestion seen today is different from prior bouts in that there is no one bottleneck slowing cargo flow. Instead, the whole supply chain is oversaturated, and there are multiple bottlenecks.
That means every actor in the chain must make extraordinary efforts, including receivers at final destination, where cargo is piling up and pushing congestion back through the chain.
For their part, the most important actions regulators can take today are to facilitate crew changes and to ensure that government processes that affect the import and export of cargo are efficient and fully staffed. Together with continued investment in logistics infrastructure, this will contribute to resilient global supply chains in the long term.
What the government does not do is equally important. Supply chain congestion is not caused by a lack of regulation or government policies, and more regulation will not make the congestion go away. The US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) has strong authority to address any violations, but having the government take control over service contracts and deciding how carriers should load ships — measures that have been proposed in Congress — can only cause harm.