Signs are growing that a global supply chain crisis which has confounded central bank inflation forecasts, stunted economic recoveries and compressed corporate margins could finally start to unwind toward the end of this year.
But trade channels have become so clogged up it could be well into next year before the worst-hit industries see business remotely as usual — even assuming that a new turn in the pandemic doesn't create fresh havoc.
"We're hoping in the back half of this year, we start to see a gradual recession of the shortages, of the bottlenecks, of just the overall dislocation that is in the supply chain right now," food group Kellogg CEO Steve Cahillane said.