Utah Bands Together to Address Supply Chain Challenges By Miles Hansen, President and CEO, World Trade Center Utah
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s you drive by empty car lots or notice bare shelves at the grocery store, it’s clear to see that there are issues affecting our global supply chains. It’s been described as a “perfect storm” of forces, which have driven up shipping costs, created logistical logjams around the world, and threatened our collective economic recovery. Interrupted supply chains are leading to unavailability of goods, price inflation, and job losses as costs for raw materials and finished goods rise and consistency of supply is lost. Many Utah companies have been greatly impacted by these shipping and logistical issues as well as cost increases that amount to prices that are three or four times higher than they were before the pandemic.
30 Southern Utah Business Magazine :: Winter 2021
The challenges are significant, but Utah companies are taking action together. Because the shipping delays have a number of causes, broad solutions are not obvious. The business community understands that building out more infrastructure and equipment, such as containers and carrier vessels, and training the necessary work force will take time. However, this doesn’t mean improvements can’t be made in the near term. While infrastructure investment and policy adjustment, namely refining Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) authority, are important, these are longer-term solutions. In the short to medium-term, market forces appear poised to further drive pricing and service levels in ways that place companies and consumers in increasingly difficult positions. However, there
