Supply Chain Struggles: A Sequel
From 462 million COVID-19 cases and over 6 million pandemic deaths worldwide to a growing number of 636 civilians killed and 1000 injured in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the globe faces its second series of shocking supply chain issues.
Over the last few decades, growing international trade has allowed for consumers to have a plethora of options for everything from dish soap to designer handbags. The choices are only increasing, making us accustomed to never having to adjust. If one organisation faces an issue, multiple others establish themselves to solve that problem and take over market share. But what happens when multiple firms of the same nature face an issue that human control can’t resolve?
With the onset of the pandemic in 2020, over 100 countries went into partial or complete lockdown. This massive movement meant people weren’t going to work- no labourers, no production, no supply. However, one mammoth block of 7.8 billion consumers sat in their homes across the globe, engaging more than ever in baking breads they’d never heard of, drinking coffee because they had all the time to, and playing word games they hadn’t thought of in years.
Nearly 2.5 years later when the world has just started to get back on its feet and supply chains have begun to reconnect, we see a sequel of struggles. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine comes heaps of destruction and massive chaos to global supply chains.
Being significant holders of palladium, platinum, aluminium and steel, Russia and Ukraine’s disruption is causing havoc in the automaker and semiconductor manufacturing industries. Cosmetic and potato chip makers are also facing trouble, given that a large amount of sunflower oil is produced in Ukraine and Russia.
In the near future, wheat harvests could also be disturbed, impacting the supply chain of bread, pasta and numerous other packaged goods that are primarily exported to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. These are just some of the primary goods that we may see a shortage of, so one can only imagine how vast the repercussions will be.
While lesser developed countries continue to face heavy social turmoil from the pandemic, the continued supply chain disorder will extend the timelines needed for them to recover, potentially from years to decades. Among this unrest, we see some sparks ignited by social media for the world to help each other. With the onset of March, a week after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Tesla’s Elon Musk provided Ukraine with internet upon a Twitter request by the country’s Vice Prime Minister and minister of digital transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov.
A public request to an individual over a social media platform aided an entire country to have internet access amidst strife. To ponder over the power of togetherness and community is what we need in this time. Be it to live through supply chain issues, a pandemic or worse global turbulence, doing it together while helping one another in any capacity possible will make it easier. So here’s to hope: heaps of it, for each 7.9 billion of us. May the peaceful future be ours to share!
