Now removed from the Suez Canal’s main channel, the Ever Given leaves in its wake several weeks or perhaps months of disruptions across a world economy that has seen both the sturdy backbone of global trade and an Achilles’ heel revealed by the pandemic.
"It’s not a cork-out-of-a-bottle moment,” said Peter Aylott, director of policy at the U.K. Chamber of Shipping. "We could still be days away from the canal being completely free.”
The reopening kicks off a new wave of stress on supply chains — the intertwined network of ships, ports, trucks, trains and warehouses that shuttle products from a factory on one side of the planet to a retail shelf or production line on the other. A surge in e-commerce means even greater consumer demand for speed, putting added strain on transportation and boosting freight rates to record highs.