BDP Trendwatch: More ports to join Supply Chain Information Highway; How shipping boom, war and COVID impact safety at sea; China’s lockdown chaos could instigate further supply chain headwinds

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More ports to join Supply Chain Information Highway 

The Port of Long Beach’s Supply Chain Information Highway will expand to the Northwest Seaport Alliance and the Utah Inland Port Authority after going live at the Port of Oakland in July, Noel Hacegaba, deputy executive director of administration and operations, told Supply Chain Dive on Tuesday. 

The system will also launch at the five other Long Beach terminals following its debut at the Long Beach Container Terminal. Shippers, shipping lines, railroads and trucking firms have joined the data sharing platform since February, Hacegaba said. 

Supply Chain Dive

Risky business: How shipping boom, war and COVID impact safety at sea 

A ship full of Porsches, Bentleys and Lamborghinis catches fire and sinks in the Atlantic. A container vessel ignites and goes down off Sri Lanka. In a sequel to the Even Given accident in the Suez Canal, another Evergreen ship runs aground, this time in Chesapeake Bay. More containers full of goods topple off ships and vanish into the Pacific. Ships stuck in the queue off Southern California drag anchor in a storm and allegedly damage an oil pipeline. It’s dangerous out there on the high seas. 

The safety alarm bells began ringing two years ago, after the onset of COVID. The pandemic trapped hundreds of thousands of beleaguered seafarers aboard ships for months beyond their contracts. Then came the supply chain crisis, causing container ship volumes to spike and keeping even the oldest vessels in service. Then war broke out, affecting even more seafarers. 

Freight Waves

Supply chain disruptions could cost European economies up to €920 billion in GDP by 2023 

Supply chain challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could result in a potential €920 billion cumulative loss to gross domestic product (GDP) across the Eurozone by 2023, according to a report released today by Accenture. The potential loss equates to 7.7% of the Eurozone GDP in 2023. 

Published at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, the report, “From Disruption to Reinvention – The future of supply chains in Europe,” explores three possible scenarios for how the war could play out over the coming year, modelling the impact of each scenario on the Eurozone region in terms of costs and timelines for recovery. 

Business Wire

Joe Biden launches IPEF initiative, with 12 Asia-Pacific economies signing on 

US President Joe Biden announced on Monday that 12 countries in the Asia-Pacific had joined the US’ Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), an agreement covering supply chains, digital trade, clean energy and anticorruption efforts – and that Beijing views with much suspicion. 

The countries – Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam as well as the US – account for 40 per cent of the world’s GDP, according to the White House. 

The countries said in a joint statement the pact would help them collectively “prepare our economies for the future” following disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

South China Morning Post

China’s lockdown chaos could instigate further supply chain headwinds 

With China’s biggest city and home to the world’s largest cargo port, Shanghai set to lift stringent lockdowns and COVID-19 restrictions over the upcoming weeks, fears over crippling consequences on the world’s economy have been on the rise. 

Market experts warned that reopening the city would instigate further disruptions across the already vulnerable global supply chains, with thousands of cargo vessels setting sail from China toward ports in Europe and the US, fuelling yet another wave of backlogs and shipping delays. 

Logistics Middle East

India's exports may rise to $1 trillion by 2030: Piyush Goyal 

India's exports rose to a record high of $421.8 billion during the financial year ended March 2022 despite the COVID-19 pandemic and global supply chain disruption and the shipment may surge to $1 trillion by 2030, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday. 

Addressing the "Breakfast session Discussion on Trade 4.0" at the World Economic Forum in Davos Goyal said, India could achieve a target of $1 trillion worth of merchandise and services export each by 2030. 

Economic Times