According to an April Fortune article, “20% of the world’s roughly 9,000 active container ships are currently sitting in traffic jams outside congested ports. Close to 30% of that backlog alone is in China—double the domestic congestion rate in February.” This will have a serious domino effect as ships and containers act as the circulatory system for the global supply chain. Disruption of this magnitude, with the end still not in sight, will inevitably affect materials and equipment shipments for months to come. The article went on to say “Ships have been piling up outside Shanghai, the world’s largest port, and other container docks across China as authorities have forced multiple cities into lockdown to counter the country’s worst COVID outbreak since the pandemic began. Shanghai has been under lockdown for close to four weeks.” As we have stated previously, your best defense against long lead times is to execute projects as early as possible to allow for the extra time.
