After witnessing a pandemic, war, and economic crises, supply chains across the world are healing up almost as fast as they broke down. The cost of container shipping has risen dramatically in recent years, spot rates from Asia to the US West Coast increased more, levels as trade between the world’s two largest economies cools from a frenzied pace. Short-term prices for containers from Europe to the US East Coast are still more than double what they were in late-2019, according to data from Freightos Ltd.
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In the US, consumer-inflation data earlier this month showed commodities, excluding food and energy, rose 1.4% from a year earlier, but services inflation, minus energy services, is running at 7.2%. While the supply-chain issues have largely abated, prices are still high and there is considerable pressure on the consumer.
Additionally, ports have been affected by staff shortages, creating delays in the delivery of goods. It is slow and costly to train new employees, and productivity only begins to generate higher costs, in addition to higher paychecks, other basic business costs have increased.
