BLOCKAGE OF THE SUEZ CANAL: RETHINKING OF THE GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN

For six days in March 2021, the megaship Ever Given's blockage of the Suez Canal dominated the news. Speculations about the ship's effects on the world economy and potential changes to the global supply chain industry followed the ship's release and the removal of the obstruction. 54 billion US dollars was expected to be the entire trade loss. But because it had an effect on commodities prices all over the world, the loss was anticipated to be in several billions. It was anticipated that the crisis' effects would linger long after the situation had concluded. There would be turbulent days ahead for the nations, businesses, and industries affected by this catastrophe worldwide. A German insurance company named Allianz estimates that the obstruction might have an annual impact on global trade of 0.2% to 0.4%. The lack of shipping containers in Asia was also made worse by the blockage. This momentarily caused a global semiconductor scarcity that impacted numerous manufacturing businesses, significantly delayed the export of consumer items, and spoiled countless commodities in route. According to some observers, the crisis brought on by the obstruction would hasten the transition of the global supply chain from JIT (Just-in-time) to JIC (Just-in-case).