The agriculture industry will be watching Shanghai closely to see if the city actually reopens next month.
Shanghai is known as the “world’s factory” and has been on a tight COVID lockdown for six weeks. The government says it plans to re-open on June 1st, with some movement starting later this week.
Market analysts predict major shipping backlogs when factories fire up again.
U.S. manufacturers say they are already experiencing supply chain issues because of the lockdowns.
Rebecca Walser, a frequent guest on Cow Guy Close, says it is time to stop relying on China for all our goods.
“What we have to understand is obviously it affects the supply chain and how everything moves. And I think maybe now we can take maybe a two-second think about this and say maybe we shouldn’t have depended so much on China. Maybe we shouldn’t have had every manufacturing impacted so much in China.”
Walser says the trade war did not result in the diversified supply chains that we need. She said a good example was realizing at the start of the pandemic that many American medications are made in China.
Related:
A port logjam at the “World’s Factory” will soon impact global trade
Floating a Solution: Fixing inland waterways may help alleviate cargo ship backlog
Port congestion on west coast and in China continues to cause supply chain disruptions
War in Ukraine is adding fuel to the global shipping crisis
