Troubled Waters - Energy, Shortages, Ships and Policies

Chain Reaction

In this episode Tony Hines looks at the troubled waters everywhere in supply chains. As the world is slowly opening up trade again excessive demand for energy, shipping and other goods has put pressure on struggling supply chains grappling with labour shortages. In Europe wholesale gas prices increased by 60 per cent in just one day before falling back. This was a result of Russia controlling supplies into the EU. In the United Kingdom the rocketing price of energy has resulted in industries that are big energy users such as steel, chemicals, aggregates, ceramics and glass asking for the government to help out. Government policies to decarbonize and to switch to renewables and greener sources have put energy supplies at risk because they have not developed sufficient green and clean energy capacity at the same level that they have removed fossil fuels sources and nuclear.
Shortages are everywhere in supply chains from supermarket food supplies through to fuel for transport and energy. This week in the UK David Lewis a former CEO of Tesco was appointed by the UK Government as an adviser on supply chains so let's hope he can bring some order to the chaos. Meanwhile the PM is on holiday not playing his fiddle but painting in Spain.
In California we still have ships lining up to be unloaded at ports and now in the UK too at Felixstowe ships are waiting six days to get unloaded. Some large container vessels have been rerouted to Rotterdam and Antwerp and cargo is being sent to the UK on smaller vessels to avoid the queus. It is also taking 10 days to move boxes whereas this dwell time usually averages just 4 days.
Government in the UK are under pressure to introduce policies to hel out some industries that are big energy users. All in all we have troubled waters in supply chains.

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About Tony Hines and the Chain Reaction Podcast – All About Supply Chain Advantage

I have been researching and writing about supply chains for over 25 years. I wrote my first book on supply chain strategies in the early 2000s. The latest edition is published in 2024 available from Routledge, Amazon and all good book stores. Each week we have special episodes on particular topics relating to supply chains. We have a weekly news round up every Saturday at 12 noon. All things impacting global supply chains in that week, so come and join us on the Chain Reaction podcast. I look forward to seeing you there.
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