The wonders — and absurdities — of globalisation were thrust into the spotlight last month when a ship built in Japan, insured in the UK, flying a Panamanian flag and manned by an Indian crew wedged itself across one of the world’s busiest waterways, adding further strain to supply chains that have been tested to the limit during the pandemic.
Yet global trade, though disrupted, did not grind to a halt. Instead, vessels that ordinarily would have passed through the Suez Canal were mostly rerouted around the Cape of Good Hope. Once the canal reopened, relieving the backlog took less than a week.
The episode may have led to delays, “but overall its effects were negligible”, says Jan Hoffmann, chief of trade and logistics at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.