|
Through all the uncertainty and anguish of 2022, I bring you a little bit of good news: China’s biggest port is finally heading back to normal after nearly two months on the sidelines. Shanghai, which handles a fifth of the nation’s huge cargo volumes, has never ground to a complete halt during the city’s lockdown, but it has been functioning at severely reduced capacity.
Reviving the nation’s No. 1 industrial hub – even as places like Beijing return to tighter COVID-19 restrictions – has got factories burning the midnight oil to catch up with order backlogs. And with container cranes beginning to swing again at full tilt at the mouth of the Yangtze, the government has also been announcing tax cuts, emergency loans and interest rate cuts to try to breathe life into China’s ailing economy.
This all sounds very promising for global supply chains that have been punched left and right by Chinese lockdowns and the Ukraine war, but logistics experts Sarah Schiffling and Nikolaos Kanellos explain that it’s not quite so simple. Instead, another summer of supply chain hell looks distinctly likely.
They do at least see a silver lining for the future, namely that “just in time” manufacturing has fallen way out of fashion for supply chains. As if we didn’t need one more case study in its vulnerabilities, I’ve also been learning that “just in time” has played a role in America’s great baby formula shortage.
|
Sarah Schiffling, Liverpool John Moores University; Nikolaos Valantasis Kanellos, Technological University Dublin
China lockdowns and Ukraine war have made global supply chains far worse in 2022 than many expected.
|
Quote of the week 💬
|
-
"Russia started the invasion to prevent Ukraine from joining Nato. Last week, the U.S. and Australia threatened military action in the tiny Solomon Islands if that government allows China to have military presence there. If the U.S. considers what goes on 12,000 kilometres away from its borders a threat, how can we expect Russia to agree to Nato presence right on its doorstep?"
– Dirk Matten, Hewlett-Packard Chair in Corporate Social Responsibility, York University, Canada, from his story, Companies leaving Russia are caving to public pressure, not actually making a difference.
|
|
Workers
|
-
Yalcin Acikgoz, Appalachian State University
Performance reviews were always a challenge, but even more so in the age of hybrid work, when some employees are in the office more often than others.
|
|
Business
|
-
Anup Srivastava, University of Calgary
Elon Musk’s recent antics call into question his decision to purchase Twitter. With a US$1 billion termination fee built into the contract, Musk should cut his losses.
|
|
Economy
|
-
Lisa Jack, University of Portsmouth
It’s surprisingly difficult for most to make a profit.
-
John Hawkins, University of Canberra
The share of the population in work has hit an all-time high as the share of the workforce underemployed has hit a 14-year low. The fresh low in unemployment will bring higher interest rates, and perhaps higher wages.
-
Eoin McLaughlin, University College Cork; Seán Kenny, University College Cork
The people that had supported Irish independence were often not the ones who benefited from it.
|
|
