The disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic have forced entire countries to reimagine how they deliver resources and services while simultaneously repairing business practice for economic sustainability.
Efforts to supply goods are being massively affected because of Covid-19 quarantine restrictions at ports of entry, for example.
Coronavirus outbreaks among airport ground and cargo-loading crews have necessitated that affected members are placed in quarantine for up to two weeks at a time, leaving fewer staff to handle cargo.
Furthermore, the tension brought on by Covid-19, destructive natural phenomena and political instability are spilling over into violent acts of civil unrest.
In South Africa, an estimated R50 billion worth of damage was caused by looters marauding through the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, obliterating what little gains had been made in the country’s economic recovery effort.
A cyber-attack on South African parastatal Transnet in July paralysed several of the country’s ports for several weeks as well, forcing the state-owned company to declare force majeure.
Taken together, these events have stretched logistic service providers (LSPs) to the limit.
The congestion, shortage of empty containers, delays, roll-overs of shipments and ships bypassing ports are an unintended consequence of these disruptive events which have created a supply-demand imbalance with demand outstripping supply.
In the view of Bidvest International Logistics (BIL), where lead times were previously seven days door-to-door, 21 days are now recommended to accommodate unexpected delays.
BIL says there is no question the past 18 months have been daunting and apart from 2008/9, businesses dependent on international supply chains have rarely seen such unpredictable consequences arising from disruptive global events.
But the key to success in these times is and will continue to be resilience and knowing how to achieve it.