According to Germany’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IFW) expert, Vincent Stamer, more than 2% of the global freight capacity remains at a standstill in Europe’s North Sea, putting European ports in a “very unusual” situation.

The global supply chain disruptions seem to be dragging far longer than expected, with shipping container shortages and sea ports’ bottlenecks spreading beyond Chinese hubs.

The pandemic and later repercussions have largely impacted the global supply chain and associated sectors, with snowballing logjams at major seaports and corresponding workforce and shipping container shortages driving record hikes in ocean freight rates and lengthy shipping delays across the world.

Over recent months, the global supply chain was subject to yet another crippling wave of disruptions, fuelled by China’s zero-COVID strategy and the lockdown in the country’s largest port, the Port of Shanghai, as well as the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the subsequent upsurge in fuel prices, which hindered the flow of goods and instigated a series of cost increases and product shortages.