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Backup from the Suez Canal Continues to Snarl Maritime Traffic

We’ve all been on the freeway when this happens.

We have all been on the freeway when traffic comes to a screeching halt. You look ahead and can’t see what the cause might be. Finally, traffic starts inching forward in fits and starts. A car length here, then two and then back to being stopped dead. Finally, you get to the point where things start to loosen up and all you can see are the remnants of an accident that is now cleared. The wrecked cars have been towed away and all that is left is some broken glass or car parts along the side of the road. 

This is the current Suez Canal blockage issue. The smooth flow of maritime traffic has been restored through the canal, but the hitches in the system remain both “before and after” the canal. That pause in “just-in-time shipping” is making for glitches up and down the supply chain. Ships are now showing up at ports and docks and they have to now wait there, or the port is requiring them to take containers away since there is a backlog at the port itself.

The current projection is that the issues caused by the six-day blockage at the Suez Canal may not smooth out until the fall of 2021. Welcome to the supply chain of the 21st century!

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.