Experts say while global supply chain disruptions have been "relatively minor" thus far from China's lockdowns to curb COVID-19 outbreaks, major disruptions are a growing possibility, The Guardian reported April 6.
"The longer the current wave lasts, the greater the chance," Alex Holmes of Capital Economics told The Guardian. "An added risk factor is that after many months of disruption along their entire length, global supply chains are already very stretched. There is now a much greater potential for a small bottleneck to have large repercussions."
Officials extended the most recent lockdown in Shanghai this week, as the city accounts for more than a third of the country's COVID-19 cases, The Wall Street Journal reported April 4. The potential disruptions have been exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine war.
"COVID-induced lockdowns in China and the Russia-Ukraine war has torn apart the expectations of recovery of the supply chain, which has been grappling to keep up to the pressures of implications resulting from these and many more disruptions," Christian Roeloffs, co-founder and chief executive of Hamburg-based logistics company Container xChange, told The Guardian.