Supply Chains are optimizing for these things every day. Inventory and long lead times mean a lot of bound capital and costs. Both things are to be reduced, everyday. Some do it better than others.
The last container shortage, which lasted quite a while, was in 2019. Because of paint used on containers. The old obe wasn't allowed anymore in the EU and, if memory serves well, the US. So whole fleets had to be repainted. In China, because it is cheaper. So once containers returned to Asia, they were removed from circulation for a while. We also had the Hanjin bankruptcy. This time is interesting, because COVID already screwed everything up in Q1 2020, these issues were still not really sorted out by now. European ports will be in for some funny times now, they will run try until the Suez is open again. And they will get swamped. It will be sorted out so, it might be worse than usual, but generally these things can also happen due to bad weather. This industry knows what to do. Still really interesting, I am kind of sad I missed the SCM operations on that.
The last container shortage, which lasted quite a while, was in 2019. Because of paint used on containers. The old obe wasn't allowed anymore in the EU and, if memory serves well, the US. So whole fleets had to be repainted. In China, because it is cheaper. So once containers returned to Asia, they were removed from circulation for a while. We also had the Hanjin bankruptcy. This time is interesting, because COVID already screwed everything up in Q1 2020, these issues were still not really sorted out by now. European ports will be in for some funny times now, they will run try until the Suez is open again. And they will get swamped. It will be sorted out so, it might be worse than usual, but generally these things can also happen due to bad weather. This industry knows what to do. Still really interesting, I am kind of sad I missed the SCM operations on that.